Industry and university assembled on Thursday to discuss asset management in the engineering sector.
Federation University hosted a seminar presented by AGL Energy Group operations chief engineer Glenn Schumacher, which was attended by about 50 delegates from industry, council and academia.
FedUni School of Engineering and Information Technology’s Dr Gopinath Chattopadhyay said the session provided attendees with a deeper understanding of the importance of asset management in making informed decisions about a company’s future.
The coordinator of post graduate programs for maintenance and reliability engineering said there was often disconnect between industry and university when the two should be working collaboratively to improve industry outcomes, particularly in the energy sector where electricity generation was facing a range of challenges.
“To make an informed decision people need to understand both sides – the industry and the academic,” Dr Chattopadhyay said.
“At the theory level people don’t always understand the language of how engineers explain the problem and the benefits, and engineers don’t understand the theory behind some of the things.”
Dr Chattopadhyay said feedback from the session had been overwhelming.
He said FedUni was now looking to host a similar forum every semester.
“It’s about providing an opportunity for professional bodies, industries and the university to unite and share knowledge on how to address problems in a collaboratively way,” Dr Chattopadhyay said.
“Industries need to take these kinds of opportunities to drive research and problem solving by taking universities as a partner,” he said.
