The winners of the Mine.D: Zero Harm hackathon came up with a solution to perform remote monitoring of health vitals of miners.
The hackathon was hosted by the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in partnership with the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS). The hackathon was to find solutions for the health and safety space of the mining sector. The solutions need to be designed with a focus on mixed reality and the Internet of things (IOT).
"It is difficult to track and recover miners after a disaster. Mines collapsing and rock falling have happened before - where rescue teams struggled to find miners before rescuing them. Some miners remain missing," says Davis Cook RIIS CEO.
The winning solution is a mobile device that is connected to an Internet of things network to simplify data and leverages off existing safety management systems, says Cook. By using various sensors the mobile platform is able to perform remote monitoring of healthcare and environmental management, he adds.
"It also simplifies data to be shared between levels of communication with shorter time lags. This solution is also cost effective because it is designed to integrate into existing solutions."
Team SystemDex (Sikhanyiso Ngetu, Mosima Matlhwana, and Menzi Mohlobo), scored first place.
In second place was team SixUp (Aaron Tseke, Andile Mutono, and Gift Mogeni), which tackled rock seismic activity with a preventative warning system.
The system is able to warn miners of rock movements and give them immediate insight into the potential danger of rock fall, depending on the speed and distance of the seismic activity, says Tshimologong Precinct.
In third place was team Looksee.do (Dean Hodgskiss, Dylan Holshausen, Chris Behrens, Shaun Lottering, and Jaco Wilters), which solved health and safety training challenges through an affordable mixed reality method, costing a fraction of a traditional system, it says.
It allows miners to be trained in a safe virtual environment through a gamified system with in-built health and safety challenges to overcome, says Tshimologong Precinct.
The winners came out on top because of the relevance their solution had to the most important challenges, says Cook, adding this showed high levels of potential impact.
"They also excelled in conveying their passion and desire to make their solution succeed. As it would be a difficult journey ahead this was an impressing feature for the judges."
"I was impressed by the depth of knowledge and skill of the entrants. As we hoped, the results address very real issues and concerns within the mining environment and all utilise technology in innovative ways," says Lesley Williamson, Tshimologong Precinct CEO.
"Our aim was to use technology to address current issues and this was achieved. The teams developed some exceptional work and we are very happy with the outcome and potential of this type of hackathon," says Cook.
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