Our alumni are a vital part of the SHL community. Here is some brief information about them and how they spent their time with us. They are now off in the ‘real’ world doing great things. This list is in reverse chronological order.
2022
Clancy Blenkinsop completed his Masters of Professional Engineering at UWA in 2022 specialising in Mechanical Engineering. In 2021-2022 he completed his MPE project with the SHL in collaboration with Wearhawk. Supervised by Wearhawk founder, Quenten Thomas, and Prof Melinda Hodkiewicz he helped design and trial a system for the monitoring of particulate matter – both airborne and deposited on an underside. Outside of University studies Clancy completed internships at Coogee Chemicals and Santos. He has since taken a Graduate Mechanical Reliability Engineer role within Santos.
2021
Aiden Taba completed his Master’s in Electrical Engineering with Distinction and started a graduate position with Cochlear in 2022. He worked at the SHL since his first year of university creating hardware/software for networked sensors. Outside of the SHL, Aiden worked as a Research Engineer at BRITELab/OncoRes, to develop a medical device used by surgeons to more effectively identify tumours. He has also completed internships in the medical device, telecommunications, renewables, neurotechnology and management consulting fields. He is particularly passionate about biomedical engineering and was selected to take part in the 2017 SPARK Co-Lab (Stanford University SPARK Affiliate) Design Course as an Accelerating Australia Scholar. One of his final projects at the SHL was to lead the development and delivery of an IOT training course for Professor Barry Marshall and his team.
Eddie Atkinson began working with the lab as a second year Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons) student studying Computer Science and Data Science. For his BPhil research placement Eddie investigated Piezo MEMS microphones and their potential to be used as water-proof and dirt-proof microphones for research projects and smartphones. Eddie was instrumental in the development of the Makers Lab at UWA and helping with EE and IT projects in the SHL. On graduation with distinction Eddie joined GridCognition.
Charlie Schumacher is currently undertaking a Master of Professional Engineering with Mechanical specialisation. Charlie is completing his thesis in UV degradation of 3D printed materials under the supervision of Melinda Hodkiewicz and Tim Sercombe, as well as working for the System Health Lab on developing an extended monitoring system related to his thesis work. Charlie in the Manager of the Living Lab for accelerated life testing and has keen interest in everything from material science to space to computing.
James Dingley Fogarty Scholar and BPhil in Mechanical Engineering. James is passionate about space and helped co-found the UWA Aerospace Club building and launching high powered rockets. He is also the creator of the Science YouTube series www.atomicfrontieronline.com with recent videos having more than 500,000 views. James has been awared a Fulbright Scholarship and is due to start a Masters in Space Engineering at MIT in September 2021.
Ricky Leman completed his Master’s in Professional Engineering (Electrical and Electronic Engineering). He completed his MPE research project with the SHL investigating beamforming capabilities of Piezoelectric Pulse Density Modulated MEMS microphones. Outside of the SHL, he has completed internships in the Financial Advisory and Oil and Gas industries. Ricky has a graduate role with Woodside.
Drew Georgiades completed his Master of Professional Engineering at UWA, studying mechanical engineering. He was the co-Project Manager for the Living Lab at UWA SHL. His MPE thesis investigated underwater sound radiation through numerical methods was done with Prof Jie Pan’s laboratory. Drew pioneered and maintained the popular SHL’s equation of the day for an entire year. Drew has a graduate role with Engineering Dynamics Consultants.
Aseem Maroo completed his Master of Professional Engineering at UWA, studying mechanical engineering. Through his time with use he worked on improving the systems and processes of the lab, and co-managed the Living Labs project. His MPE project was done with the SHL and involved developing and testing a method for creating controlled lubrication failures in pumps and monitoring the resulting vibration with SHL’s IOT equipment. Aseem volunteered for the IMechE UWA Student Club and was a member of the 2017 SHL Unearthed Hackathon team. Aseem has a graduate role with the Wood Group.
Dmitry Kozlov Kozlov is in his final year of studies for a Master of Professional Engineering with Mechanical specialisation, and is completing his thesis on development of unidirectional carbon fibre composites. Dmitry is currently part of the Living Lab team while also working part time as an Asset Health engineer at FMG. With a background in applied mathematics and statistics, Dmitry is passionate about leveraging data science and new technology to develop predictive maintenance tools. Dmitry has previously worked with Rio Tinto, and looks to continue exploring the iron ore industry on graduation.
Emily Low graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mathematics and Philosophy with First Class Honours. Her thesis on representation in different electoral systems sits across these fields. Emily has worked for the Industrial Ontology Foundation researching a definition for the word ‘test’ and developing education materials. She is involved in most SHL projects which require predicate logic, such as our ‘ontologies explained” blog and continues to support our ontology work while she works as a graduate consultant with Deloitte.
Sufyan Shafiek completed his Masters of Professional Engineering, studying mechanical engineering. Previously a Fluid Dynamics Engineer at Dyson, he is now working with WearHawk and the SHL to develop dust mitigation solutions for imaging systems in the mining industry. Outside of the SHL, he is was part of the Heavy Mobile Equipment Asset Management and Reliability team at FMG during his study time and joined FMG on graduation.
James Royer is in his first year of study in the Master of Professional Engineering (Mechanical) at UWA. James works as part of the Living Lab team and will be conducting his thesis in 2021. Outside of the SHL and Living Lab, James has worked on alumina and gold projects for Monadelphous and volunteers for university clubs such as Co-Directing PROSH UWA in 2018 and as an ordinary member for IMechE UWA chapter. James works part time at FMG and will join them on graduation.
Sophie Giraudo worked with the SHL during her penultimate year Bachelor of Science student studying Data Science and Mathematics. She is collaborated on a reliability analysis tool using frequentist and Bayesian statistical frameworks. Sophie is very involved in the UWA Data Science club and plans to do Honours in Statistics in 2022.
Tom Smoker started a PhD in computer science in 2018 following completion of his Masters in Software Engineering. Tom was part of the SHL’s original Siri for Maintenance project. He is an active participant in hackathons and was a member of the 2016 Unearthed Hackathon team. Tom retains strong links to the start-up community working part time for the cryptocurrency group Bamboo.
Bumsoo Park completed his Master of Professional Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) with distinction. He completed his MPE project with the SHL developing a MEMS IoT lightweight vibration sensor by modifying the BlueBox. Outside of the SHL, he volunteered as a President at the UWA Institute of Engineering and Technology On Campus. Bumsoo joined Tutt Bryant Global Ltd as a Heavy Lift and Transport Engineer on graduation. In mid-2022 he joined the graduate program at Intecsea.
2020
Toby Griffiths completed his Master of Professional Engineering at UWA, studying mechanical engineering. Toby worked as part of the Living Lab team. Outside of the SHL, Toby worked on Asset Health projects at Roy Hill and volunteered as part of the executive teams for Teach Learn Grow, a not-for-profit tutoring company, and the IMechE UWA chapter. Toby joined the Wood Group on graduation.
Carlin Lapuz completed his Master of Professional Engineering with distinction at UWA, studying mechanical engineering. During his time in the SHL he developed his expertise in signal processing completing his MPE thesis on testing the SHL’s IOT equipment against high-end industry vibration data collection systems. He also volunteered for Engineers Without Borders – School Outreach Team and had developed their renewable energy module. Carlin joined Rio Tinto on graduation.
Amit Patel completed his Masters of Professional Engineering at UWA, studying mechanical engineering. Amit supported the Living Lab project. He completing this MPR research project on use of condition monitoring technique (vibration and MCSA analysis) to detect ragging in centrifugal pumps through a CEED project with the Water Corporation and joined the WC on graduation.
Jaymin Moffatt completed his Masters of Professional Engineering at UWA with distinction, studying Electrical Engineering. He is a facilitator for the unit Risk, Reliability and Safety and workined on the Living Lab Project. Jaymin completed his thesis doing research into detecting the cascading failures of assets using his knowledge of complex network analysis. Jaymin is in the graduate program with Horizon Power.
Marcus Handley spent 6 months with the SHL before leaving to take a degree in Computer Science at Cambridge University. He worked on a variety of projects, particularly our ‘ontologies explained’ blog.
Laura Peh completed her Honours in Computer Science and Software Engineering and was part of the Bachelor of Philosophy program at UWA. Her research project involved analysing maintenance work orders as technical short text, learning the grammar structures that underlie them.
Dr. Jo Sikorska developed the SHL’s Prognostic Data Library project and worked for 18 months as a Research Fellow bringing a wealth of experience in data management for asset health prognostics to the SHL. Jo is now the Lead Reporting and Analysis Specialist for Integrated Operations at Fortescue Metals Group.
2019
Fraser Bullock is the co-founder and technical director of ThinkHub.IO and previous Treasurer of the UWA Makers Group. He completed his Masters in Computer Science at UWA and helped SHL set up robust administrative systems and develop platforms that support this.
Luke Devenish completed the MPE Mechanical stream. His MPE project assessed the viability of commercial off the shelf accelerometer dataloggers to monitor the background vibrations and changes in seismic velocity of a tailings embankment in the lead up to a static liquefaction failure. This area of research is critical to the improved monitoring and management of tailings dam embankments. Luke joined the graduate program at BHP and is working in major projects on South Flank.
Aiden Ziegelaar developed a low power, high range, wireless micro-controller and MEMS sensor combination for remote vibration monitoring for his MPE project. He was one of the cofoudners of ThinkHUB.IO. He started working as a software engineer for the start up Warpforge and is now a Product Owner in the Education Horizons Group.
2018
Viktor Fidanovski completed his final year of Masters in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with SHL. His final year thesis investigated the applicability of the “Bluebox” portable accelerometer and data acquisition system in the oil and gas industry, through certification for use in hazardous areas. This project drew heavily on his previous experience working as part of the instrument and controls team at the ConocoPhillips run Darwin LNG plant. Viktor now works as an Instrumentation and Control Engineer for Santos Energy.
Heaton Rhodes completed his final year of Masters of Professional Engineering, specialising in Mechanical Engineering, with SHL. His thesis investigated the effect of different joining methods on the bluebox’s response, with the goal of identifying and characterising any weaknesses. He has experience with mechanical and embedded systems through his university studies and work in the water services industry with Leicon Notley. He is now a Mechanical Engineer at Worley.
Zach Heyes completed his Masters in the Mechanical Engineering stream. His background in chemistry and engineering proved effective when conducting material investigation on the UV degradation of Nylon 12. He has also had industry experience in intermodal and heavy haul rail obtained when working for Aurizon and BHP. Zach was part of the SHL team in the 2018 Perth Unearthed Hackathon. Zach is now a Reliability Engineer at BHP’s Nickel West Kwinana refinery.
Ryan Malone worked with the lab as a second year Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons) student studying Electrical Engineering and Mathematics & Statistics. Ryan investigated the potential of wireless load cell technology being used for failure detection. He was a member of the SHL team at the 2018 Perth Unearthed Hackathon. Ryan is now with Azure Consulting.
Yiyang Gao completed his MPE in electrical engineering with a thesis that focussed on cognitive computing. His thesis involved developing a pipeline for NLP of maintenance records and used clustering methods to identify concepts that might aid in ontology development. Yiyang is now a software engineer with FLSmith.
2017
Deion Bonser joined the BHP graduate program as a mechanical engineer and is now residential at the Olympic Dam site in South Australia. A paper based on his MPE thesis (and coauthored with Alastair, Melinda and Lyndon While, title is ‘Optimizing fixed-interval maintenance periods for mobile asset sub-systems operating in remote locations‘) was presented at the European PHM conference in June 2018. Deion is now a reliability engineer with BHP’s Olympic Dam operation.
Alastair Chin joined the Rio Tinto graduate program after completing a mechanical engineering degree with a second major in computer science. He was responsible for the development of SHL’s Data-Oracle site for identifying data quality issues in csv files. He worked on BHP rail data for his MPE thesis and co-authored the conference paper mentioned above. Alastair is now a reliability engineer with Rio Tinto.
Stephanie Lye joined the Shell graduate program as a mechanical engineer and is now working in Queensland. We celebrate Steph’s crossing the coding divide from Excel to real code during 2017 and the UWA IT group are grateful for her MPE thesis work to improve the reliability and life cycle costing of the large scale desktop computer installations they manage in the labs here at UWA. Stephanie is now a reliability engineer with Shell.
Shrena Shah joined the Woodside graduate program as a mechanical engineer after a busy year setting up the SHL’s ongoing UV testing for 3d printed vs conventional materials testing program for her MPE project. She will be very happy if she never does another Instrom test for the rest of her life.
Praveen Sundaram was an SHL Research Engineer for over 18 months. As one of the last to graduate with a UWA mechatronics degree, his background gave him the ability to do both the CAD and electronics design work that so many of our projects need. As a stalwart of the UWA FSAE car team he bought a passion for all things mobile and fast as well as the organisational skills to coordinate our squash court bookings. He was part of the SHL Hackathon team for the global Shield-X competition. Praveen is now a mechatronics engineer at Blue Ocean Seismic Services.
2016
Ajmal (Abdul) Aziz did his MPE project sponsored by BHP on cognitive computing and then joined the BHP graduate program. He worked on two EE design projects with the SHL. The first was to develop an Accelerated Life Test rig (along with Tom M. , Rohan and others) and the second was to develop a MEMS-IoT mine pit lake water quality monitoring system. He was part of the Young Innovators award winning team for the 2016 Hackathon and the 2016 BHP MineHack. Abdul spent 4 years at BHP before completing an MPhil in Data Science at Cambridge University.
Ashwin D’Cruz worked as an SHL Research Engineer for over 18 months before being accepted to Cambridge University where he completed a Masters degree in Machine Learning, Speech and Language Technology. A poster on his thesis was presented at NIPS. He is now working in London developing deep learning applications for Calipsa. He was part of the Young Innovators award winning teams for the 2015 and 2016 Hackathons and the 2016 BHP MineHack. Ashwin completed an MPhil in Machine Learning at Cambridge University and is now Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Calipsa in London.
Neil (Zhihua) Jia joined the Deloitte graduate program after taking a joint engineering and business degree. Zhihua (Neal) did a virtual reality project for his MPE and managed to combine his studies with running a successful tutoring business south of the river. Neil is now an Engineering Information Management Specialist at BHP.
Rohan Mehra did his MPE project sponsored by BHP on scheduling and then joined the Woodside graduate program. He was instrumental in the development of the Accelerated Life Test rig (along with Tom M., Abdul and others), and helped lots with various electronic build projects. He was also part of the Young Innovators award winning team for the 2016 Hackathon and the 2016 BHP MineHack. He remains unbeaten on the squash court. Rohan joined Woodside on graduation and is not the LNG45 Systems Engineer based in Karratha.
Kaiden McCarthy rebuilt the drone motor test rig and did an enormous number of start-stop tests as part of his MPE project. Kaiden is now the WA Regional Installations/ Maintenance Support Engineer at Air Liquide.
Tom McKeon did his MPE project sponsored by BHP and then joined BHP as a data scientist. He worked on two EE design projects with the SHL. The first was to develop an Accelerated Life Test rig (along with Abdul, Rohan and others) and the second was to develop a MEMS-IoT mine pit lake water quality monitoring system. He was part of the Young Innovators award winning team for the 2016 BHP MineHack. Tom joined BHP on graduation and is now a Specialist Developer.
Alex Stephens joined BHP after completing his MPE project on building a reflective distance sensor for a translating and rotating context. He managed to combine practical mechanical and electronic skills. Between graduation and joining BHP he travelled around Australia and brought us back some amazing photographs. Alex joined BHP on graduation and is now a Specialist in Modeling and Analysis.
2015
Alex Clegg continued his love of travel on graduation and is now based in Marseilles working with Chris Breidahl and the venture capital company xponova. He build SHL’s first drone motor accelerated life test rig for his MPE project. Alex works in venture capital and is now the digital project manager for CMA CGM based in Marseille (France).
Michael Bartle was the mechanical engineering part of the accelerated life UV-humidity-temperature test rig working with 6 electrical engineers for his MPE project. Michael is now a Maintenance Superintendant at Roy Hill.
Sahil Khubchandani worked as a Research Engineer with the SHL and also an uber-tutor for GENG5507. He also did his MPE project with the Lab and produced an IEEE journal publication (Characterizing the performance of LED reflective distance sensors). He then took part in the graduate engineering program at Western Power and now has the role of Secondary Systems Technician.
Tom Henderson built the first SHL web site as part of his MPE project on communicating engineering research and is the one responsible for us getting the uwa.engineering domain name. He joined Ernst & Young but remains in touch with the innovation community developing tethered drones. Tom joined EY on graduation and is now a Senior Manager in their consulting group.
Linden Blair and Chris were the SHL’s first research engineers. They built the motor test rig subsequently used by Sahil and Alex for their MPE projects. Linden joined Woodside but is still active in the innovation space as one of the founders of WearHawk. WearHawk won the 2017 MineHack competition and the company is now based in the SHL. Linden joined Woodside on graduation and is now the Heardware Lead and Installation Engineer on the Pyxis Project.
Chris McFarlane was one of the SHL’s first research engineers and left us to join the dark side (consulting). He worked for Bain for 6 years and transitioned from there to VP, Strategy and Operations at PYC Therapeutics.
Callum Webb has donated a lot of time to the SHL for the Prognostics Data Library. He was also part of the winning MineHack 2016 team and a founder or WearHawk. He did his MPE project with BHP and then joined the graduate program. He was lured over to the east coast to work as a data scientist for APRA the Australian Prudential Regulator right as the Banking Royal Commission started. He is now part of the SHL diaspora in the UK and is the Principal Data Scientist at BibliU.
PhD Graduates 2018
Michael Stewart completed his PhD in computer science. He runs his own web site development business and has been key to managing various SHL related websites including the PDL since 2015. Michael is now a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Centre for Transforming Maintenance through Data Science.
Lachlan Astfalck graduated with BEng Hons (1st class) in 2014 and completed his PhD studies with the ARC ITRH for Offshore Structures in 2019. He provided accessible advice on statistics, and helped lift the lid on Bayesian statistical concepts for those in the SHL who are interested. As an undergraduate he won a number of prizes and competitions and was the valedictorian of his graduating class. Lachlan completed his PhD in statistics with the ARC for Offshore Structures before moving to the University of Leeds. He is now back in WA and associated with the new ARC TIDE centre at UWA.