COMPLETED

GSP-SV-06: Visualisation of Waste Data from Transfer Stations to Landfill Facilities

Nina COMPLETED
GSP-SV-06: Visualisation of Waste Data from Transfer Stations to Landfill Facilities

Project title: Visualisation of Waste Data from Transfer Stations to Landfill Facilities

Industry partner: Sustainability Victoria (SV)

Sustainability Victoria supports Victorians to be more sustainable in their everyday life; in homes and in jobs, schools and communities and in the systems and infrastructure that support a thriving Victorian economy and lifestyle. SV aims to improve the way Victoria manages its resources and help communities to take action on climate change. SV provide expert advice and guidance in energy, materials and waste. SV conducts research and demonstrate what is possible and inspires people to make sustainable change above and beyond legal requirements.

SV has some flow data from transfer stations to landfill facilities and reprocessing facilities such as paper recycling facility, steel recycling facility, etc. The aim of this project is to show how much material flows (in tonnes) from a particular transfer station to a final destination (re-processor or landfill) on a monthly/annual basis.

The visualisation would need to show:

  • journey to final destination from originating destination for the different material types;
  • flows of material in a specific local government area (LGA);
  • flow of material in a specific waste region (i.e. collection of LGAs);
  • flow of material in Victoria;
  • time as a variable to show flow of waste material and quantities (in tonnes);
  • estimated stockpile quantities for a facility;
  • estimated capacity of landfill sites as they are being progressively filled with waste material.

The student(s) would need to undertake some review to see what is currently available for this type of visualisation or alternatively build something that would be able to visualise this type of data.

The data would be in excel spreadsheet and it would be test data at this stage.

Eligibility:

Analytics or Data Science students

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/2428941689/

GSP-MCD-04: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in Coastal World Biosphere Reserve of Nam Dinh, Vietnam (Phase 2)

Nina COMPLETED ,
GSP-MCD-04: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in Coastal World Biosphere Reserve of Nam Dinh, Vietnam (Phase 2)

BACKGROUND

Centre for Marinelife Conservation & Community Development (MCD) is a leading Vietnamese NGO in the field of coastal and marine ecosystem conservation and community livelihood development. MCD’s focus of works includes environment & natural resources management, community sustainable livelihood development, communications and policy advocacy, in which climate change response, disaster risk reduction, gender equality are the cross-cutting issues.

MCD would like to engage RMIT students in one of its on-going projects which aims to contribute to more effective solid waste management and a significant reduction of plastics waste pollution of the marine environment in Nam Dinh Province. The project provides technical assistance to the governmental authorities and raises community awareness, directly targeting 109,000 people whose livelihoods and health depend on the rivers and the sea.

AIM:

In this project, students will conduct a research and test technology solutions for low-cost locally available systems of riverine trash collection (i.e. trash trappers/trash nets) in Nam Dinh province. The research can be conducted at RMIT Melbourne but will require one short trip to Vietnam to undertake field work.

DELIVERABLES:

No. Main Deliverable Description Estimated Timing
1 Project Plan Students discuss with MCD and RMIT academic supervisors about a detailed project plan. May 2019
2 Literature Review Students work under their academic supervisors to review relevant literature. June 2019
3 Field work Students travel to Vietnam and work with MCD project team:

–  Activity 1: Piloting of practical models for collecting and treating solid waste from waterways and estuaries (which were designed in Phase 1).

–  Activity 2: Data entry and analysis (into the database which was designed in Phase 1).

 1-21/7/2019
4 Field work report Field work report to be submitted to MCD. Early August 2019
5 Project report Project report to be submitted to RMIT for assessment. June 2019[1]

DESIRED STUDENT ATTRIBUTES:

  • Activity 1: Final year/Honours Environment Engineering and/or Sustainable Systems Engineering students
  • Activity 2: Final year Data Analytic/Data Science students

FUNDING AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

  • Students need to enroll in one of the relevant courses at RMIT.
  • Travel grants (AUD3,000) are available for eligible students[2] to support the field work. Students may be required to contribute up to AUD500 to cover all the costs.

[1] RMIT academic supervisor may add more activities for an Engineering Capstone Project and the deadline for the final report will be end of semester 2 (end October 2019).

[2] Australian citizen or Permanent resident undergraduate students who haven’t got any New Colombo Plan short-term grants before.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

* Submit your expression of interest at our website together with your CV and recent academic transcripts.

* If your application is shortlisted, we will invite you to come for an interview where we can discuss options for the enrolling course and potential start date as well as the potential project that you are interested in (note: the projects will relate to marine waste management)

* Selected students are required to pay $150 deposit. This amount will be returned to students after they start the internship. If the students withdraw from the program at late notice (2 weeks before the start date), this amount will be considered as a financial penalty.

GSP-MCD-03: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in Coastal World Biosphere Reserve of Nam Dinh, Vietnam (Phase 1)

Nina COMPLETED ,
GSP-MCD-03: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in Coastal World Biosphere Reserve of Nam Dinh, Vietnam (Phase 1)

BACKGROUND

Centre for Marinelife Conservation & Community Development (MCD) is a leading Vietnamese NGO in the field of coastal and marine ecosystem conservation and community livelihood development. MCD’s focus of works includes environment & natural resources management, community sustainable livelihood development, communications and policy advocacy, in which climate change response, disaster risk reduction, gender equality are the cross-cutting issues.

MCD would like to engage RMIT students in one of its on-going projects which aims to contribute to more effective solid waste management and a significant reduction of plastics waste pollution of the marine environment in Nam Dinh Province. The project provides technical assistance to the governmental authorities and raises community awareness, directly targeting 109,000 people whose livelihoods and health depend on the rivers and the sea.

AIM:

In this project, students will conduct a research and test technology solutions for low-cost locally available systems of riverine trash collection (i.e. trash trappers/trash nets) in Nam Dinh province. The research can be conducted at RMIT Melbourne but will require one short trip to Vietnam to undertake field work.

DELIVERABLES:

No. Main Deliverable Description Estimated Timing
1 Project Plan Students discuss with MCD and RMIT academic supervisors about a detailed project plan. February 2019
2 Literature Review Students work under their academic supervisors to review relevant literature. March 2019
3 Field work Students travel to Vietnam and work with MCD project team:

–  Activity 1: Designing and testing the operation of the trash trappers and trash nets at the project site (pilot model).

–  Activity 2: Developing a database structure for accommodating the waste data from the pilot model.

–  Activity 3: Monitoring of waste routes and their impact factors (e.g. weather, water flow…)

 13-28/4/2019
4 Field work report Field work report to be submitted to MCD. Early May 2019[1]
5 Project report Project report to be submitted to RMIT for assessment. June 2019

DESIRED STUDENT ATTRIBUTES:

  • Activity 1: Final year/Honours Environment Engineering and/or Sustainable Systems Engineering students
  • Activity 2: Final year Data Analytic/Data Science students
  • Activity 3: Final year geo-spatial science students

FUNDING AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

  • Students need to enroll in one of the relevant courses at RMIT.
  • Travel grants (AUD3,000) are available for eligible students[2] to support the field work. Students may be required to contribute up to AUD500 to cover all the costs.

[1] RMIT academic supervisor may add more activities for an Engineering Capstone Project and the deadline for the final report will be end of semester 2 (end October 2019).

[2] Australian citizen or Permanent resident undergraduate students who haven’t got any New Colombo Plan short-term grants before.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

* Submit your expression of interest at our website together with your CV and recent academic transcripts.

* If your application is shortlisted, we will invite you to come for an interview where we can discuss options for the enrolling course and potential start date as well as the potential project that you are interested in (note: the projects will relate to marine waste management)

* Selected students are required to pay $150 deposit. This amount will be returned to students after they start the internship. If the students withdraw from the program at late notice (2 weeks before the start date), this amount will be considered as a financial penalty.

GSP-MCD-02: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in World Heritage Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (Phase 2)

Nina COMPLETED ,
GSP-MCD-02: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in World Heritage Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (Phase 2)

BACKGROUND

Centre for Marinelife Conservation & Community Development (MCD) is a leading Vietnamese NGO in the field of coastal and marine ecosystem conservation and community livelihood development. MCD’s focus of works includes environment & natural resources management, community sustainable livelihood development, communications and policy advocacy, in which climate change response, disaster risk reduction, gender equality are the cross-cutting issues.

MCD would like to engage RMIT students in one of its on-going projects which aims to address the gaps in the existing municipal solid waste management system in Ha Long City, Vietnam. The primary goal of the project is to improve the effectiveness of the current plastic waste collection, sorting and treatment processes, hereby contributing to a significant reduction of plastics pollution of the UNESCO World Heritage Ha Long Bay marine environment.

AIM:

In this project, students will conduct a research and test technology solutions for low-cost locally available systems of marine trash collection (i.e. trash trappers/trash nets) in Ha Long. The research can be conducted at RMIT Melbourne but will require one short trip to Vietnam to undertake field work.

DELIVERABLES:

No. Main Deliverable Description Estimated Timing
1 Project Plan Students discuss with MCD and RMIT academic supervisors about a detailed project plan. May 2019
2 Literature Review Students work under their academic supervisors to review relevant literature (topic: promotion of reducing plastic waste with service sector, e.g. small hotels, cafes, restaurants) June 2019
3 Field work Students travel to Vietnam and work with MCD project team:

–  Developing a communication plan for promoting waste reduction in service sector.

 1-21/7/2019
4 Field work report Field work report Early May 2019[1]
5 Project report Project report June 2019

[1] RMIT academic supervisor may add more activities for an Engineering Capstone Project and the deadline for the final report will be end of semester 2 (end October 2019).

DESIRED STUDENT ATTRIBUTES:

  • Final year communication and media students

FUNDING AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

  • Students need to enroll in one of the relevant courses at RMIT.
  • Travel grants (AUD3,000) are available for eligible students[2] to support the field work. Students may be required to contribute up to AUD500 to cover all the costs.

[1] RMIT academic supervisor may add more activities for an Engineering Capstone Project and the deadline for the final report will be end of semester 2 (end October 2019).

[2] Australian citizen or Permanent resident undergraduate students who haven’t got any New Colombo Plan short-term grants before.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

* Submit your expression of interest at our website together with your CV and recent academic transcripts.

* If your application is shortlisted, we will invite you to come for an interview where we can discuss options for the enrolling course and potential start date as well as the potential project that you are interested in (note: the projects will relate to marine waste management)

* Selected students are required to pay $150 deposit. This amount will be returned to students after they start the internship. If the students withdraw from the program at late notice (2 weeks before the start date), this amount will be considered as a financial penalty.

IMAGE: Zach Mahone . Travel Vietnam. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ynakanishi/15334040051/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Licence.

GSP-NSBS-02-Safety for Roof Installers in Myanmar

Nina COMPLETED
GSP-NSBS-02-Safety for Roof Installers in Myanmar

Paid internship in Myanmar

Project title: Safety for Roof Installers in Myanmar

Industry partner: NS BlueScope 

Project details:

* Places: Yangon, Myanmar

* Number of internships: 2 paid internships

As a leading provider of steel solutions with advanced technologies like Smartruss and Smartframe, Purlins, Bondek II, and Trimdek roof profiles, NS BlueScope is currently exploring a sustainable and affordable solution for the housing estate shortage in Myanmar. NS BlueScope would like to engage RMIT students in a research project around this topic. In particular, this mobility project, students are required to assist NS BlueScope with a plan for the safety of roof installers in Myanmar.

Main deliverables include:

No. Main Deliverable Description Estimated Timing
1 Project Plan Students discuss with NS BlueScope and RMIT academic supervisors about a detailed project plan. January, 2019
2 Literature Review Current situation and best practices First trip to Myanmar: Jan – end Feb 2019
3 Data Collection and Analysis Students collect data under the facilitation of NS BlueScope team.
4 Draft reports Student 1: Develop a suitable training program for NS BlueScope roof installers in Myanmar

Student 2: Develop a feasibility report for the establishment of a training center at Lysaght factory (a business case)

 Second trip to Myanmar: 1 – 21st July 2019
5 Presentation Presentation on research findings.
6 Final reports Final Report Aug 2019

Work Method:

  • Students enroll in a relevant course and will be supervised and assessed by an academic at RMIT.
  • NS BlueScope safety professional staff will be field supervisor during the time students stay in Myanmar.

Benefits to Students:

  • Students gain course credits while implementing this project.
  • Students have an opportunity to travel to Myanmar twice and eligible students (see eligibility criteria below) will be covered with international air tickets, accommodation and stipends.
  • This mobility project will give students an opportunity to gain knowledge about Myanmar, one of the most magical and undiscovered destinations in the world.
  • Students will work alongside with NS BlueScope staff, therefore they will also gain practical experience and knowledge around the construction and building sector in Southeast Asia.

Eligibility:

* A minimum GPA of 2.5 and higher; and

* Paid internships (fully covered) are only available for undergraduate and Australian citizen students.

Academic credit:

Students can gain 12 or 24 credit points depending on the course they enrol in and the project they with implement during their internship.

Program Costs (fully covered):

* Airfares

* Accommodation

* Stipends

* Other expenses (e.g. logistic arrangements)

Other Costs to consider:

* RMIT Tuition Fees

* Personal expenses

* Immunisations

Application Process:

* Submit your expression of interest at our website (https://sites.rmit.edu.au.au/gps) together with your CV and recent academic transcripts.

* If your application is shortlisted, we will invite you to come for an interview where we can discuss options for the enrolling course and potential start date.

* Selected students are required to pay $150 deposit. This amount will be returned to students after they start the internship. If the students withdraw from the program at late notice (2 weeks before the start date), this amount will be considered as a financial penalty.

GSP-SV-04: Landfill Audits

Nina COMPLETED
GSP-SV-04: Landfill Audits

Project title: Landfill Audits

Industry partner: Sustainability Victoria (SV)

Sustainability Victoria supports Victorians to be more sustainable in their everyday life; in homes and in jobs, schools and communities and in the systems and infrastructure that support a thriving Victorian economy and lifestyle. SV aims to improve the way Victoria manages its resources and help communities to take action on climate change. SV provide expert advice and guidance in energy, materials and waste. SV conducts research and demonstrate what is possible and inspires people to make sustainable change above and beyond legal requirements.

Background: SV undertakes ad-hoc landfill audits every 5 to 10 years in Victoria. The audits are visual audits and consist of auditors undertaking visual inspections of the waste composition deposited at landfills for a period of 1 week at a select number of landfills (approx. 6).

Landfill audits are very expensive and time consuming.

SV now has datasets from the last 2 landfill audits conducted in 2005 and 2009.

SV uses this information to provide the evidence base to enable government to make decisions on infrastructure planning and investment opportunities in resource recovery.

SV is currently undertaking new audits for the 2018 period at 3 landfill sites.

SV does not know how accurate or representative the data from these audits are.

Project aim/expected outcomes:

A statistical analysis of the datasets to calculate the margin of errors and confidence interval for all levels of the disaggregate data.

  • Margin of error and CI at the 95% CI for each landfill audited for each year;
  • Margin of error and CI at the 95% CI for the total of each year of the landfill audited;
  • Margin of error and CI at the 95% CI for each material type audited for each landfill audited;
  • Margin of error and CI at the 95% CI for each material type audited for the year;
  • Develop a matrix showing which parts of the aggregate data are reliable and which are not;
  • Recommendation on how audits might be improved;
  • Recommendation of sample size for next audits.

Eligibility:

Analytics or Data Science students

 

IMAGE: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources . Landfill. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/12140895823/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.

GSP-MCD-01: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in World Heritage Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (Phase 1)

Nina COMPLETED ,
GSP-MCD-01: Municipal Plastic Waste Management in World Heritage Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (Phase 1)

BACKGROUND

Centre for Marinelife Conservation & Community Development (MCD) is a leading Vietnamese NGO in the field of coastal and marine ecosystem conservation and community livelihood development. MCD’s focus of works includes environment & natural resources management, community sustainable livelihood development, communications and policy advocacy, in which climate change response, disaster risk reduction, gender equality are the cross-cutting issues.

MCD would like to engage RMIT students in one of its on-going projects which aims to address the gaps in the existing municipal solid waste management system in Ha Long City, Vietnam. The primary goal of the project is to improve the effectiveness of the current plastic waste collection, sorting and treatment processes, hereby contributing to a significant reduction of plastics pollution of the UNESCO World Heritage Ha Long Bay marine environment.

AIM:

In this project, students will conduct a research and test technology solutions for low-cost locally available systems of marine trash collection (i.e. trash trappers/trash nets) in Ha Long. The research can be conducted at RMIT Melbourne but will require one short trip to Vietnam to undertake field work.

DELIVERABLES:

No. Main Deliverable Description Estimated Timing
1 Project Plan Students discuss with MCD and RMIT academic supervisors about a detailed project plan. February 2019
2 Literature Review Students work under their academic supervisors to review relevant literature. March 2019
3 Field work Students travel to Vietnam and work with MCD project team:

–  Activity 1: Designing and testing the operation of the trash trappers and trash nets at the project site (pilot model).

–  Activity 2: Developing a database structure for accommodating the waste data from the pilot model.

–  Activity 3: Capturing the project story through creative writing/media and communication

 13-28/4/2019
4 Field work report Field work report Early May 2019[1]
5 Project report Project report June 2019

DESIRED STUDENT ATTRIBUTES:

  • Activity 1: Final year/Honours Environment Engineering and/or Sustainable Systems Engineering students
  • Activity 2: Final year Data Analytic/Data Science students
  • Activity 3: Creative writing and/or professional communications students

FUNDING AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

  • Students need to enroll in one of the relevant courses at RMIT.
  • Travel grants (AUD3,000) are available for eligible students[2] to support the field work. Students may be required to contribute up to AUD500 to cover all the costs.

[1] RMIT academic supervisor may add more activities for an Engineering Capstone Project and the deadline for the final report will be end of semester 2 (end October 2019).

[2] Australian citizen or Permanent resident undergraduate students who haven’t got any New Colombo Plan short-term grants before.

 

APPLICATION PROCESS:

* Submit your expression of interest at our website together with your CV and recent academic transcripts.

* If your application is shortlisted, we will invite you to come for an interview where we can discuss options for the enrolling course and potential start date as well as the potential project that you are interested in (note: the projects will relate to marine waste management)

* Selected students are required to pay $150 deposit. This amount will be returned to students after they start the internship. If the students withdraw from the program at late notice (2 weeks before the start date), this amount will be considered as a financial penalty.

IMAGE: Zach Mahone . Travel Vietnam. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ynakanishi/15334040051/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Licence.

GSP-NSBS-01: Sustainable and Affordable Housing in Myanmar

Nina COMPLETED ,
GSP-NSBS-01: Sustainable and Affordable Housing in Myanmar

Paid internship in Myanmar

Project title: Sustainable and Affordable Housing in Myanmar

Industry partner: NS BlueScope 

Project details:

* Dates: 12 weeks, starting any time from 01/01/2019 to 30/06/2020. Students can start during summer semesters (Jan-March/2019 or Nov/2019 to Feb/2020); or during the semesters if they can manage to undertake other courses online.

* Places: Yangon, Myanmar

* Number of internships: 2 paid internships

As a leading provider of steel solutions with advanced technologies like Smartruss and Smartframe, Purlins, Bondek II, and Trimdek roof profiles, NS BlueScope is currently exploring a sustainable and affordable solution for the housing estate shortage in Myanmar. NS BlueScope would like to engage RMIT students in a research project around this topic. In particular, this mobility project will consists of two main components:

  1. Design: students will be engaged in research activities such as: (i) market study on current situation and demand for housing in Myanmar; and (ii) solutions for sustainable and affordable housing, including both technical designs and financial analysis.
  2. Construction (focusing only on the safety of roof installation): students will study best practices and assist NC BlueScope safety professionals to develop a suitable training program for local roof installers.

RMIT will mobilise students from business and engineering disciplines to implement this mobility project.

Eligibility:

* A minimum GPA of 2.5 and higher; and

* Paid internships (fully covered) are only available for undergraduate and Australian citizen students.

Academic credit:

Students can gain 12 or 24 credit points depending on the course they enrol in and the project they with implement during their internship.

Program Costs (fully covered):

* Airfares and accommodation (12 weeks) will cost about $3,000

* Other expenses (e.g. food, local transport, logistic arrangements…) will costs about $2,000

Other Costs to consider:

* RMIT Tuition Fees

* Personal expenses

* Immunisations

Application Process:

* Submit your expression of interest at our website (https://sites.rmit.edu.au.au/gps) together with your CV and recent academic transcripts.

* If your application is shortlisted, we will invite you to come for an interview where we can discuss options for the enrolling course and potential start date.

* Selected students are required to pay $150 deposit. This amount will be returned to students after they start the internship. If the students withdraw from the program at late notice (2 weeks before the start date), this amount will be considered as a financial penalty.

IMAGE: brentolson. Myanmar Tibet House. Flickr.com.https://www.flickr.com/photos/brentolson/8515650301/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.

GSP-Midway-01: Wood chipping residue products

Geoff Marchiori COMPLETED
GSP-Midway-01: Wood chipping residue products

Project title: Wood chipping residue products

Industry partner: Midway is a private company that is publicly listed. Midway is Australia’s largest high quality wood fibre processor and exporter. Midway has operations in Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory covering all stages of the wood chipping process- from plantation to export. The company prides itself on managing the business activities in order to achieve social, economic and environmental outcomes. Some 1.5M tonnes of woodchips are exported to China annually for paper and clothing fibre. Recent changes to local Councils green waste collection strategies has reduced the market for waste wood products produced by Midway. Midway has some 18,000 cubic metres of waste wood product stockpiled.

Project aim: Through the process of producing woodchips an amount of residue or side product is produced.

  • Current accumulation of residue – 18,748 m3
  • Expected annual production of residue 17,200 m3

This project aims to find the best use for the residue considering end-product value, necessary investment and market potential.

 

woodchips

IMAGE: William Warby. Woodchip. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/12140895823/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.

GSP-Victoria Police-01: Reimaging Victorian Police Office

Geoff Marchiori COMPLETED
GSP-Victoria Police-01: Reimaging Victorian Police Office

Project title: Reimaging Victorian Police Office

Industry partner: Victoria Police

Project aim: The aim of this project is to develop design proposals speculating on the future of policing and re-imagining what a ‘police station’ of the future might look like.

Task: As a design studio, the students will look carefully at the above issues while thinking beyond the practical, and explore ideas around the future of the physical presence of the police. In order to assist students to think in an adventurous manner we will spend time thinking about:

  • What is a police station and its purpose? How has this differed over time?
  • What are the architectural origins of the modern police station and how are they different in different parts of the world?
  • What are the cultural, technological, social, policy, economic and other trajectories of change that might influence the future of the police station?
  • How does the police station of the future integrate technology?
  • What does it mean to have a mobile presence architecturally?
  • Precedent study around police stations with emphasis to those precedents that work cleverly with space and the urban realm.

Students will be allocated existing stations that are embedded in a suburban, urban context for them to rethink how they integrate the police presence in a unique and impactful way.  This may involve a new police service delivery model and/or re-purposing the existing police station asset.  Each group of students will work on developing a brief and narrative for this station and then individually work on their own proposition.

Students will begin to design and test their brief through a mixture of precedent based explorations, design process and digital techniques, model making and other explorative processes.  Work will be presented in class weekly, and updates and adjustments to the brief made in conjunction with ongoing design and exploration

 

Police station at Sunbury, Victoria

IMAGE: Mattinbgn. Police station at Sunbury, Victoria. Flickr.com. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunbury_Police_Station.JPG This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
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