Column piece: People's News Mackay

Professor Pierre Viljoen
CQUniversity Associate Vice-President (North Queensland and Hinterland)
CQUniversity Chair in Automation and Future Skills

It always gives me great joy to hear about our student's successes.

Recently I heard a story about one of our Resource Systems Engineering students – William Sloan - and I want to share his story with you.

At CQUniversity we pride ourselves in ensuring that our courses are designed to meet the needs of industry' and William's story is a great example of that.

Currently in his third year of the Bachelor of Engineering Honours' William is one of our first students to be completing a major in Resource Systems.

The new Resource Systems major builds upon the traditional mining engineering degree by incorporating electrical engineering' data science and IT units' and conventional mining units such as geology and mine planning to create a foundational knowledge of the new technologies and skills needed for the ever-evolving mining industry.

William said that choosing the new degree has given him 'new and more exciting career pathways than what was possible with traditional mining engineering pathways'.

During the 2021/22 university break William completed a vacation program at Kestrel Coal Resources as a Mining and Automation Engineer' working in the Longwall and Technical Services Departments.

"It was a fantastic opportunity to find a program where I was able to utilise all the skills I am learning in the new Resource Systems Engineering course' with my role as a Mining and Automation Engineer'" William explained.

"I was able to use the skills I learnt in my mining' electrical and data science units to quickly pick up concepts to complete two projects while at Kestrel. The first project' visualising live longwall data with Power BI and SQL; the second' designing a life of mine pump out stub for the mine's dewatering strategy. Altogether' it was a great experience' and it showed me how powerful subjects such as data science' electrical engineering and mine design can be utilised in integrating new technologies in mining operations."

As a result of both his studies at CQU and his vacation workplace stint' William has been offered an opportunity with Kestrel Coal Resources and will begin at the end of this year - before he even completes his degree.

William will do his final year of uni while working for Kestrel and the company has offered him support for his final year project.

What a great example of fulfilling industry needs while providing our students with the best graduate outcomes.

- Pierre