In its short existence, the SHL has achieved remarkable success. In 2018 it won the Unearthed Community Legend Award for consistently demonstrating Unearthed community values. Unearthed is an Australian open innovation company that connects challenges facing the resources sector to technology entrepreneurs, reflecting the power of entrepreneurship to transform individuals and communities, to create economic opportunities, and to address global challenges.
Students from the SHL have participated in four highly competitive Unearthed Hackathons to develop prototype solutions to key mining and oil and gas challenges, the inaugural BHP MineHack working with data from BHP’s Western Australia iron ore operations, and the first global online Shield-X competition to develop an industry-wide personal safety device for personnel working near potentially dangerous autonomous equipment at a mine site. SHL had the winning team in three of the four Hackathons and was recipient of the MineHack Young Innovator Award. The SHL has also supported a variety of activities for the Perth Startup community organised by CORE Innovation Hub and SHL students are welcome visitors at the hub’s co-working facilities and industry networking events in the Perth CBD. The SHL is home to two startups that spun out of the Unearthed Hackathons: Newton Labs and WearHawk.
In May 2018 the SHL was one of four finalists in the UWA IQ (Innovation Quarter) Innovation Champion awards for its work to develop and test new approaches and platforms, internal to UWA, to improve operational efficiency and the student experience.