The establishment of a Mine Design Laboratory for improved teaching of and learning by Mining Engineering students: A case study

Transcription

1 The estblishment of Mine Design Lbotoy fo impoved teching of nd lening by Mining Engineeing students: A cse study by B. Genc*, nd F. Cwood* J o u n l Synopsis Impoving student success tes without compomising the qulity of gdutes is one of the biggest chllenges expnding univesity pogmmes e fcing in South Afic. By estblishing new Mine Design Lbotoy (MDL) fo highe lening in Mining Engineeing, the School of Mining Engineeing t the Univesity of the Witwtesnd (Wits Mining) hs chieved one of the impotnt gols in its five-ye sttegic pln, i.e. to impove thoughput in ll yes of study. Although the estblishment of the lbotoy hs been costly execise, esults so f hve shown n impoved success te in most subjects tught in the fcility. This ppe outlines the design nd equipment of the lbotoy, the fcilities incopoted, compison with the old lbotoy, nd the pefomnce of students ll of which indicte how impotnt it is to hve pope fcilities to impove the teching of, nd lening by, lge clsses. Though this inititive, Wits Mining hs tken n impotnt step tht will contibute to ddessing the skills shotges in the mining industy. Keywods estblishment of Mine Design Lbotoy fo Mining Engineeing students, Wits mining fcilities, impoving student success te, ddessing the skills shotges in the mining industy. Intoduction South Afic is one of the welthiest counties in the wold in tems of minel esouces. It is the lgest poduce of pltinum, nd one of the leding poduces of gold, dimonds, bse metls, nd col. The South Aficn mining industy s contibution towds the county s goss domestic poduct (GDP) vies between 5 to 10 pe cent nd it cuently employs bout people (Deptment of Minel Resouces, 2010). To cpitlize on these vluble minel esouces, it is vitl fo the county to hve vilble the necessy technicl skills. This equies the vilbility of dequte numbes of mining enginees nd coesponding skilled pesonnel. Such skilled stff, in tun, equie the dequte eduction nd tining of pesonnel to meet the needs of the county. Howeve, skilled pesonnel e cuently in shot supply. The woldwide shotge of mining enginees is well publicized. Phillips (2005) epoted gowing dispity between supply nd demnd fo mining enginees. Stcey et l. (2008) emphsized the sttegic impotnce of ddessing these skill shotges, since mining is long-tem business. The shotge of skills should be delt with s mining compny sttegy to ensue the supply of the necessy skills fo futue mining, since the lck of skills will hve significnt consequences fo design, opetions, poductivity nd sfety of mines (Stcey et l., 2008). The Univesity of the Witwtesnd (genelly known s Wits Univesity) is one of the leding univesities in South Afic. Wits enolled students in 2010 nd its cuent undegdute success te is 78 pe cent (Univesity of the Witwtesnd, 2011). Wits Mining is one of the Schools within the Fculty of Engineeing nd the Built Envionment t Wits Univesity. Wits Mining is the lgest Mining Engineeing school in the English-speking wold, nd in Febuy 2011 hd 20 full-time cdemic stff membes with 695 egisteed students (Univesity of the Witwtesnd, 2011b). Tble I shows stffstudent numbes ove the lst thee yes nd Tble II shows the bekdown of student numbes fom 1999 to 2011 fo the diffeent pogmmes. Theefoe, Wits Mining is in stong position to mke significnt contibution to the povision of qulified mining Tble I Wits Mining stff nd students numbes Ye Full-time cdemic Totl stff in School students** * *Febuy **Unde- nd postgdute pogmmes, excluding cetificte pogmmes Souce: Univesity of the Witwtesnd, 2011b * School of Mining Engineeing, Univesity of the Witwtesnd, Johnnesbug, South Afic. The Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy, ISSN Ppe eceived Feb. 2012; evised ppe eceived Ap P p e The Jounl of The Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy VOLUME 112 JULY

2 The estblishment of Mine Design Lbotoy fo impoved teching Tble II Totl student numbes ( ) Totl student count t Wits Mining Ye 1st Ye 2nd Ye 3d Ye 4th Ye Gdutes Unde gdutes GDE MEng MSc Phd Post gdutes Totl UG & Pg MRM Cetificte Souce: Univesity of the Witwtesnd, 2011b Tble III Wits Mining compute-elted couses fo undegdute pogmme Couse code Couse nme Desciption MINN1001 Compute skills 1st ye couse - 1 block MINN2000 Compute pplictions in mining 2nd ye couse - Full ye couse MINN3003 Technicl vlution 3dye couse - 1 semeste MINN3004 Computeised mine design 3d ye couse - 1 semeste MINN4005 Finncil vlution 4th ye couse - 1 semeste MINN4006 Mine design 4th ye couse - 1 semeste MINN4009 Sufce mining 4th ye couse - 1 semeste enginees to the mining industy, nd consequently, must ensue tht its students e tught the ppopite subject mtte t consistently high level. Mine design is key spect of mining engineeing nd includes ll es (technicl, finncil, envionmentl, helth nd sfety, etc.) involved in the ssessment of the pofit potentil of mining ventue fom bsic explotion dt. The compute skills tht e essentil in mine design ply vitl ole in conveting bsic explotion dt into vluble mining sset. The teching of moden mining engineeing equies fcilities to enble students to len the necessy compute skills. Fo this eson, Wits Mining sw the need to estblish specilized Mine Design Lbotoy (MDL) fo the eduction nd tining of its mining engineeing students. The MDL is specilized compute lbotoy tht is specificlly equipped with the elevnt compute hdwe nd softwe fo mine design nd othe mining-elted wok. The School hd two min ims in estblishing the MDL: i. To povide fcility tht would mke mining-specific compute softwe vilble to mining engineeing students ii. To mke vilble computes t the minimum tio of one compute pe two students, so tht cdemic thoughput nd success tes of students could be impoved. Although student thoughput hs lwys been poblem fo engineeing disciplines, the chnge to the Ntionl Senio Cetificte, which gives students ccess to univesity studies, hs hd pofound impct t fist-ye level. The impct of the convesion fom the old mticultion cetificte to n Outcomes-Bsed Eduction (OBE) cetificte on Wits Mining is clely visible in Tble II. The fist OBE clss ived t the univesity in 2009, nd the sttistics in Tble II show: A significntly highe numbe of fist-ye students s moe students qulified fo univesity dmission A vey high ttition te in fist ye, s only 85 of the 223 fist-ye students pogessed to second ye in The numbe of fist-ye students eched 233 in 2011, the highest numbe in the School s histoy. As stted in its nnul epot (Univesity of the Witwtesnd, 2010b), in line with mjo gol in the sttegic pln, the tio of stff to students ws educed fom one cdemic fo evey 43 students in 2010 to tio of one to 34 in This chnge ws chieved by limiting the numbe of postgdute students. The School s ultimte objective is to educe the pesent tio of 34 students pe lectue to the point whee it eflects the ovell Wits Univesity vege of one stff membe to bout 25 students. The esult ws significnt eduction, in 2011, of the totl numbe of enolled students to 695 fom 808 in The School s fou-ye B.Sc. degee offes computeelted subjects fom the stt of the degee pogmme. Fist-ye students e offeed simple intoduction to compute skills. When they ech thei fouth nd finl ye, they e equipped to complete thei Mine Design Poject. Tble III shows the numbe of compute-elted couses tht hve been offeed to the undegdute students using the MDL. The MDL is lso used fo teching sevel of the postgdute couses tht equie computes. In ddition to the teching of mining engineeing students, Wits Mining povides sevice teching to the School of Geosciences t Wits Univesity. Some geology students ttend second- nd thid-ye compute subjects (mining) s well s some of the non-compute elted mining subjects. Thei numbes diffe fom ye to ye, vying between 10 nd JULY 2012 VOLUME 112 The Jounl of The Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy

3 The estblishment of Mine Design Lbotoy fo impoved teching The old Mine Design Lbotoy The fist MDL ws estblished in the ely 1990s with 10 PCs. In 1997, the MDL s cpcity incesed to 25 PCs, nd 25 lptops wee dded in ely 2008 to incese the tio of vilble PCs pe student. Theefoe, in the old MDL in 2010, the School hd totl of 50 woksttions fo 228 fist-ye students nd 108 second-ye students. The old MDL could ccommodte up to 75 students (thee students pe desk). With fist-ye clss size in excess of 200 students, this lck of woksttions ws clely n uncceptble sitution nd contibuted to the student thoughput poblem. All of the 25 desks wee identicl; thei dimensions being 180 x 90 x 70 cm s shown in Figue 1. The old MDL hd floo e of bout 200 m2. It hd two lge sceens in the oom to llow pojection of the lectue s PC sceen. Wits Mining mde use of the old MDL until the end of Tble IV summizes the compute-elted subjects tught in the old MDL duing 2009 nd Ove the pst five yes, Wits Mining s fist-ye intke incesed well bove the cpcity of the School s compute fcilities (efe to Tble II). Duing 2010, the incesed numbe of students foced Wits Mining to divide the fistnd second-ye compute couses into thee nd two clsses espectively. The thid-ye compute couse ws lso divided into two clsses. The limited cpcity with egd to compute fcilities impcted on the pefomnce of students. Tble V shows the key sttistics egding the School s thoughput of students in 2009 nd The success tes fo fistnd second-ye students wee uncceptble nd contibuted significntly to the poo thoughput tes. As n exmple, the idel tget thoughput fo the fouye undegdute pogmme is 25 pe cent. The 25 pe cent tget fo the fou-ye undegdute pogmme epesents the sitution whee ll entnts would gdute in fou yes. The thoughput is clculted s the numbe of gdutes in ye divided by the totl hedcount fo tht pogmme tht ye. Similly, the idel tget fo the twoye cetificte pogmme is 50 pe cent. The School s im hs lwys been to ssign n individul compute to ech student to mximize the teching nd lening outcomes in ode to chieve highe pss/thoughput tes. With industy suppot, Wits Mining hs estblished new MDL fo impoved eduction nd tining of its mining engineeing students. The new Mine Design Lbotoy The fouth qudnt of the Chmbe of Mines Building, whee the Wits Mining is locted on the West Cmpus of the Univesity, ws completed ely in On the fouth floo of the new qudnt, just ove 550 m2 e ws llocted fo new MDL. This spce epesents moe thn 100 pe cent incese in e comped with the 200 m2 of the old MDL. With this spce lloction, Wits Mining imed to estblish new MDL with the mximum numbe of PCs, being in mind the continully incesing numbe of students. Keeping the objective of ssigning n individul compute to ech student in mind, new MDL with 99 PCs/desks ws designed. One of the min esons behind the estblishment of new MDL is the teching of compute-elted subjects to the mining engineeing students. Wits Mining offes compute-elted subjects duing ech ye of study. Some couses e one block (bout thee months) long (e.g. MINN1001), some e full-ye couse (MINN2000) nd some e hlf-ye couses s cn be seen in Tble II. Fom the thid ye onwds, the students e tught coe mining softwe in peption fo thei finl-ye subject nd cpstone couse Mine Design. The estblishment of the new lbotoy ws lengthy nd complex tsk, since diffeent supplies wee involved in completing the desied fcility. Sevel months wee spent eseching the wy fowd to estblish the lbotoy. This entiled extensive investigtions into the coect supplies of funitue, udio-visul fcilities, light fittings, nd netwok switches. Tble IV Subjects tught in the old MDL duing 2009 nd 2010 Subjects Numbe of Success Avege students te mk Compute skills (2010) 195 (1st ye) 50.8% 55.5% Compute pplictions 110 (2nd ye) 70.9% 50.7% in mining (2009) Technicl vlution (2010) 72 (3d ye) 94.4% 55.4% Computeised mine 77 (3d ye) 84.4% 70.8% design (2009) Finncil vlution (2010) 61 (4th ye) 95.1% 67.4% Mine design (2010) 70 (4th ye) 100% 59.7% Sufce mining* (2010) 63 (4th ye) 95.2% 66.4% J o u n l P p e *Whittle Softwe module Tble V Student thoughput* (Univesity of the Witwtesnd, 2011b) Ye Undegdute Cetificte Postgdute (tget is 25%) (tget is 50%) (tget is 33 50%) % 29% 21% % 52% 29% Figue 1 Old MDL *Degees nd cetifictes wded, divided by totl numbe of students in ll yes of study The Jounl of The Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy VOLUME 112 JULY

4 The estblishment of Mine Design Lbotoy fo impoved teching The cuent fetues of the new MDL e: 100 netwoked PCs 99 PC desks to ccommodte mximum of 198 students ( mximum of two students pe desk t fist ye level) Specilly designed compute desks Fully integted pesenttion cpbilities Full intection between lectue nd students though n dvnced sound system Thity-two invisible ceiling spekes Fou dt pojectos with motoized sceens A document cme, which elimintes the need fo white-bod Dimmble lights Full contol ove students, monitos by the lectue. Although some lectues wee pesented in the new MDL fom Septembe 2010, it ws officilly opened only on 29 Octobe The new MDL becme fully opetionl only fom the beginning of PCs Evey fcet of the mining industy tody mkes use of some fom of mining nd commecil softwe. Kpgeidis (2005) stted tht the use of softwe is becoming moe nd moe widesped, fom explotion though mine design to ehbilittion. As Wits Mining s min objective is to pepe its gdutes fo the mining industy, teching the use of mining softwe is vey impotnt pt of the cuiculum. Wits Mining hs stong ties with Gemcom Softwe (2010) nd hs histoiclly mde use of Gems, Whittle, nd Supc mine design nd utiliztion softwe. Mining softwe pckges usully equie significnt pocessing powe, nd the pckges mentioned elie e no exceptions. Even though Wits Mining offes diffeent levels of compute-elted couses, it ws necessy to invest in hdwe configution tht would be sufficient fo the semless opetion of the mining-elted softwe, nd lso to complement the School s five-ye sttegic pln fo the PCs to seve Wits Mining fo t lest five yes. Tble VI shows most of the vilble softwe in the MDL. The MDL is now equipped with 100 Dell Pecision woksttions with Xeon pocessos, ech unning 64-bit Windows 7 opeting system, nd ech with 12 Gb of RAM nd 22-inch LCD monitos. The picing infomtion is summized in the Appendix. PC desks The finl-ye Mining Engineeing students hve to complete Mine Design Poject s thei cpstone couse befoe gduting. Duing these pojects, the students mke use of lge mine plns, which equie lge woking sufce with minimum obstuction. In ddition, Wits Mining wished to use this lge new venue s n exmintion hll. These two equiements nd the desie fo the estblishment of multipupose venue dictted tht the compute monitos be plced unde glss coves so tht the PC desks could seve ll puposes. Figue 3 shows the specilly designed PC desk. The new MDL hs floo e of bout 550 m2. It hs evese L-shpe, s shown in Figue 5. Specil PC desks wee designed so tht the vilble floo e could be fully utilized. Accodingly, ll 99 desks e identicl, with dimensions of 180 x 90 x 70 cm. Figue 4 shows the font section of the lbotoy, nd Figue 5 shows the distibution of the PCs in the fcility. Picing infomtion is included in the Appendix. Netwoking equipment The netwok speed plys n impotnt ole in tems of dt tnsfe. Cetin mine design softwe equies high-speed Tble VI MDL softwe list Softwe Gems Desciption Gemcom GEMS is lede in collbotive geology nd mine plnning solutions (Gemcom Softwe, 2011). MS Office Poductivity softwe (Micosoft, 2011). Micosttion Mket-leding softwe fo engineeing design (Bentley, 2011). RocScience Stte of the t specilized ock engineeing softwe (RocScience, 2011) Sufe Poweful contouing, Gidding, nd 3D Sufce Mpping Softwe (GoldenSoftwe, 2011). Supc Supc is geology nd mine plnning softwe. Efficient, esy nd ccute, poweful 3D gphics, wokflow utomtion (Gemcom Softwe, 2011). Whittle Gemcom Whittle is the sttegic mine plnning softwe used to detemine nd optimize the economics of open pit mining pojects (Gemcom Softwe, 2011). Vum A wold leding Windows-bsed softwe pckges fo mine ventiltion, cooling nd envionment contol (Vum, 2011) APMOT Anglo Pltinum mine optimiztion tool (Cyest Anlytics) Figue 2 The new MDL with goup of students pesenting mine design execise Figue 3 Specilly designed PC desk 680 JULY 2012 VOLUME 112 The Jounl of The Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy

5 The estblishment of Mine Design Lbotoy fo impoved teching Figue 4 PC desks, with lectue podium in the bckgound Contol of fou dt pojectos Mngement of motoized sceens Contol of student s sceen by mens of n on/off switch. This contol system mkes both teching nd lening effective. Though the individully desk-mounted micophones nd invisible ceiling spekes, not only cn the lectue be hed clely by students, egdless of whee they e sitting in the venue, but ll students cn lso he clely when one student tlks into his/he micophone. By efeing to the fou dt pojectos in the MDL, the students cn esily see whteve the lectue pojects though his PC o the document cme. The document cme is cpble of displying whteve is put unde the cme, which totlly elimintes the need fo whitebod. Though these innovtions, students e not disdvntged becuse of the loction of the PC they e using, which ws significnt poblem in the old MDL. J o u n l P p e Figue 5 Lyout of PC desks in the MDL (not to scle) New MDL nd old MDL compison The new MDL becme ptilly opetionl in Septembe The Computeised Mine Design (cpstone) couse ws the fist couse tught in the new fcility in Since then, ll the School s compute-elted couses hve been scheduled to un in the new lbotoy stting fom Tble VII compes the vilble fetues between the old nd the new MDL. TbleVIII shows the compute-elted subjects tught in the new MDL duing 2010 nd 2011, client-seve connectivity. Wits Mining s netwok speed ws upgded to Gigbit (1000BseT) speed in To chieve confomity with ou new stndd, Wits Mining decided to puchse thee dditionl 96-pot 1000BseT pieces of netwoking equipment fo the fouth qudnt of the building to seve not only the new MDL, but lso the emining PCs in the School. Picing infomtion fo the netwoking equipment is lso shown in the Appendix. Audio nd visul equipment Becuse of the size of the new MDL venue, with 100 PCs nd up to 198 students, it ws necessy to instll specilized sound system to ensue pope intection between students nd lectue. This sitution ws unique, s the new MDL ws not confeence venue whee multiple spekes cn intect. Wits Mining wnted to design the sound system so tht only the lectue s micophone is ctive t ll times, nd only one student micophone would be ctivted when the lectue gnted pemission. Woking closely with sound pofessionls, specil micophone system ws designed. Micophones wee ttched to ech PC desk. To pevent the unuthoized use of the system, mngement contol pnel ws designed, llowing contol not only of the micophones, but lso of 32 invisible ceiling spekes. Figue 6 shows typicl student micophone nd the lectue s contol pnel. Using the contol pnel, ll the equipment in the venue cn be mnged. The following functions e vilble: Contol of the volumes of the lectue s nd the students micophones Mngement of the lights - on/off switch s well s dimming of the fluoescent lights Figue 6 A MDL micophone nd the contol pnel Tble VII Fetue compison between old MDL nd new MDL Fetues Old MDL New MDL Floo e size 200 m2 550 m2 Numbe of PC desks Numbe of PCs Mx. numbe of students Numbe of pojectos 2 4 Contol of students monitos Yes Yes Light contol nd dimmble lights Yes Yes Integted sound system No Yes Document cme No Yes Full-contol pnel No Yes Ceiling spekes No Yes Motoized sceens No Yes Micophone on ech PC desk No Yes The Jounl of The Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy VOLUME 112 JULY

6 The estblishment of Mine Design Lbotoy fo impoved teching Tble VIII Subjects tught in new MDL duing 2010 nd 2011 Subjects Numbe of Success Avege students te mk Compute skills (2011) % 44.8% Compute pplictions % 67.5% in mining (2011) Technicl vlution (2011) % 61.7% Computeised mine % 93.8% design (2010) Finncil vlution (2011) % 63.7% Mine design (2011) % 64.8% Sufce dining (2011) 67 97% 83.8% Tble IX Success te compison between old nd new MDL Subjects Old MDL New MDL Compute skills 50.8% 56.6% Compute pplictions in mining 70.9% 100% Technicl vlution 94.4% 90.9% Computeised mine design 84.4% 98.7% Finncil vlution 95.1% 96.9% Mine design 100% 98.4% Sufce mining 95.2% 97% Ovell vege success te 84.4% 91.2% indicting the numbes of students, couse success tes, nd the vege mk fo ech couse. Tble IX compes the success tes between the old MDL nd the new MDL, nd Tble X compes the vege mks. The dt in Tble IX demonsttes quite clely the benefits tht the new MDL hs povided to the students nd Wits Mining, s lmost ll the subjects tught hve shown n impovement in the success te. Although Tble X indictes tht in two subjects, couse vege mks fell, the ovell vege mk incesed fom 60.8 pe cent to 68.6 pe cent, in effect 13 pe cent incese. Howeve, the vey hetening esult is tht success tes hve impoved substntilly, even ove the shot peiod tht the new MDL hs been in opetion. This success is cle demonsttion tht the thoughput poblems ssocited with teching nd lening in lge clsses cn be ptilly ddessed if students nd lectues hve ccess to ppopite fcilities. Conclusion The new MDL hs ledy demonstted its bility to impove teching nd lening with the much impoved success tes in the new fcility. Although the estblishment ws costly poject, the ely esults justify the investment in the fcility. Though this inititive, Wits Mining hs lso tken n impotnt step towds ddessing the skills shotges in the mining industy. The ims of the School in estblishing the new MDL hs been chieved n excellent nd compehensive mine design fcility is now in opetion; nd impoved thoughput of students in compute-elted subjects hs ledy been demonstted. Acknowledgments The School of Mining Engineeing would like to cknowledge the following fo thei vluble contibution to the completion of the new MDL: The Vice-Chncello s infstuctue development pogmme Anglo Ameicn fo dontion to build the spce fo the MDL Gold Fields fo dontion to equip the MDL Gemcom fo softwe dontion Vum fo softwe dontion Buotb fo funitue discount Wild nd M fo n udiovisul discount Dell Computes fo PC discount Wits Cmpus Development nd Plnning fo donting dimmble lights. Tble X Avege mk compison between old nd new MDL Subjects Old MDL New MDL Compute skills 55.5% 44.8% Compute pplictions in mining 50.7% 67.5% Technicl vlution 55.4% 61.7% Computeised mine design 70.8% 93.8% Finncil vlution 67.4% 63.7% Mine design 59.7% 64.8% Sufce mining 66.4% 83.8% Ovell vege mk 60.8% 68.6% Refeences BENTLEY SOFTWARE poduct+line/ [Accessed 22 August 2011]. DEPARTMENT OF MINERAL RESOURCES. South Aficn Minels Industy (SAMI) Petoi, GEMCOM SOFTWARE [Accessed 22 August 2011]. GOLDEN SOFTWARE sufe.shtml [Accessed 22 August 2011]. KAPAGERIDIS, I.K The futue of mine plnning softwe new tools nd innovtions. 19th Intentionl Mining Congess nd Fi, June 9 12, Izmi, Tukey. MICROSOFT OFFICE SOFTWARE [Accessed 22 August 2011]. PHILLIPS, H.R A long-tem ppoch to the eduction of mining enginees. Fist Intentionl Semin on Sttegic vs. Tcticl Appoches in Mining, Johnnesbug, South Afic. ROCSCIENCE SOFTWARE [Accessed 22 August 2011]. STACEY, T.R., HADJIGEORGIOU, J., nd POTVIN, Y Technicl skills mjo sttegic issue. Jounl of the Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy, vol. 108, no. 8. pp UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND Wits Fcts. boutwits/witstody/fcts-nd-figues/3083/fcts_nd_figues.html [Accessed 21 August 2011]. UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND. 2011b. The School of Mining Engineeing, Annul Repot miningeng.html [Accessed 21 August 2011]. VUMA SOFTWARE [Accessed 22 August 2011]. Appendix Costs Cost PCs R Desks R Netwoking R Audio Visul R Totl R JULY 2012 VOLUME 112 The Jounl of The Southen Aficn Institute of Mining nd Metllugy