Gladstone Campus praised as melting pot for industry ideas
Published on 23 March, 2010
Representatives from industries and peak bodies were gushing with praise after this month's (March 19) Conference on Asset and Maintenance Management, hosted by CQUniversity Gladstone.
Power station GM Glenn Schumacher from NRG Gladstone Operating Services praised the potential "to improve the bottom line and survivability of our businesses".
Bela Das from India's DMNS College chats with Gladstone Power Station GM Glenn Schumacher
"One of the key things we need if we are going to meet the challenges of the future is facilities like this and opportunities like this for engineers to get together to network to hear ideas, to exchange solutions and to support each other. It's going to become very critical in the future of this country," he said.
"The networking and the interchange of ideas is the most powerful thing and to be able to do this in Gladstone with the audience we have here and participation we have here is a great testament to CQUniversity and the industries of Gladstone, and we think it should be the first of many to come."
Indian Institute of Technology's Professor Pradip K. Ray said industry should take every opportunity to reduce the risk of accident, death and property damage. He stressed the role of stakeholder participation in design and said that 'safety' was a key potential area of collaboration between Australia and India.
Engineering Consultant to Standards Australia Stan Ambrose, who is an authority on pressure vessel safety, agreed, saying "what you learn here can avoid a problem somewhere else". Mr Ambrose said, for example, that the huge improvements in monitoring and safety performance with pressure equipment "has gone from huge failure rates and deaths over the last 2 centuries and now is trivial".
Professor Gopinath Chattopadhyay with QR's Michael Turner
Queensland Alumina's David Hinds praised the quality of presenters, the opportunities for synergy and streamlining and the potential for big dollar savings, saying the event's location enabled him to involve more staff members than if it had have been in southern states.
QR's Michael Turner praised the chance to mix with research students who could benefit from access to equipment and samples for projects, "while we gain by being aware of them so we can offer them a position when they finish their studies". Mr Turner said it was handy to have the event in Gladstone near QR's heavy haul operations staff, "otherwise we have the expense of going to Sydney or Melbourne ... it's good to get messages reinforced to ensure we are following path that industries have set".
Around 120 participants took part in the event which included a networking session and a panel discussion on challenges and issues confronting industry.
Conference Chair Professor Gopi Chattopadhyay said he had received fantastic feedback from the event, which had been supported by an exciting range of industries, professional bodies and representatives from the wider community.
"We had international delegates from Indian Institute of Technology as well as participants from Swinburne Uni, Griffith Uni, QUT, GHD, QAL, NRG, Rio, Transfield Services, Thiess Services, Diversified Mining Services, Bechtel, Flour, Aurecongroup; WorleyParsons, Engineers Australia, Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia (AMC), RKF Engineering Services, QMI Solutions Ltd; Ausblast Protective Coatings; Gladstone Ports Corporation; BSL, Queensland Rail and many others," he said.
Professor Chattopadhyay said businesses, industries and public organisations are under constant pressure to extract the maximum performance and value from their assets.
"There are continual improvements being made in the area of asset management, in management decision making, and maintenance management," Professor Chattopadhyay said.
"This conference aimed to showcase some of the latest developments in this field to bring practitioners up to date with these areas and show how CQUniversity Australia can help provide solutions to asset management and maintenance problems."
Key participants in the conference 
Organising committee members 
Conference speakers 
Networking underway