CTMTDS is pleased to share news and highlights from the past few months.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT #
Congratulations to
- Tyler Bikaun, who obtained his PhD in May 2025. Tyler is now Head of Technology at Technology Enhanced Asset Management.
- Ryan Leadbetter, whose PhD thesis was accepted in April 2025. Ryan is currently working as a researcher for the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart.
- Tim Pesch, who obtained his PhD in December 2024. Tim is now a Research Officer at The Kids (formerly Telethon Kids Institute) in Geospatial Health and Development.
- Chau Nguyen, who successfully defended his thesis and obtained his PhD in May 2025. Since early-2025, Chau has been in a post-doctoral role working on an industry project in CTMTDS.
- Dr. Braden Thorne, who graduated with a PhD in October 2024, is now a Research Fellow at Curtin University in the Centre for Crop Disease Management.
- PhD candidate Yingying Yang, who has completed her Milestone 3 presentation and expects to submit her thesis shortly, has also commenced a full-time role as an Optimization Specialist with Fortescue.
Congratulations to everyone for all this great news!
'Value-Add' Projects in 2025 #
CTMTDS researchers and industry representatives co-designed an initial set of 'Value-Add' projects and rolled them out in early 2025. These projects include the development and implementation of LLM-based chatbots within BHP and Alcoa, a proof-of-concept plan for a Roy Hill fleet management System, and machine vision projects for maintenance at BHP and Alcoa. We look forward to sharing more updates and outcomes of these projects in the next newsletter
CTMTDS Training Course #
The Centre ran a two-day training course for Alcoa personnel entitled Introduction to Data Science for Engineers on 26 and 27 July at Curtin Law School. We welcomed 18 enthusiastic participants from a broad range of backgrounds to this course, which was facilitated over two days by Centre A/Director Aloke Phatak. The syllabus focused on understanding data types, extracting and importing data, principles and practice of data visualisation, as well as simple analysis and modelling, including linear regression, elementary time series analysis, and logistic regression. Building on the success of this training, the Centre aims to re-run the course later in 2025.
Researchers' Presentations in 2025 #
On 1 July 2025, PhD candidate Ponpot Jartnillaphand presented his Milestone 3 seminar on Bilinear Reformulation-Based Decomposition for Large-Scale Binary Optimization with Applications. This presentation outlined Ponpot's PhD research on developing advanced optimization algorithms to solve large-scale binary and mixed-integer problems that are intractable for classical methods and commercial solvers. Ponpot introduced two novel exact approaches: Logic-Based Bilinear Benders Decomposition (LBBBD) and Bilinear Branch and Check (BBCh), which enhance classical decomposition techniques through bilinear reformulations and cut-strengthening strategies. To further improve scalability, Ponpot proposed a hybrid metaheuristic framework that integrates Tabu Search with BBCh. These methods are applied to real-world scheduling and routing problems, including a new and realistic variant: the Unspecified Parallel Machine Flexible Resource Scheduling (UPMFRS) problem with shift considerations. The presentation focused on algorithm design, implementation, and computational results.
On 20 February 2025, PhD candidate Yingying Yang gave her Milestone 3 presentation, titled 'Benders Decomposition for optimal maintenance scheduling and facility location problems'
Yingying summarized the outcomes of her PhD research, which focuses on developing mathematical models to tackle real-world industrial optimization challenges and designing advanced algorithms based on Benders decomposition to enhance computational efficiency. She presented case studies on maintenance scheduling optimization and facility location optimization, arising from industrial applications, with solution strategies that improved operational efficiency and supported better decision-making. Her work combines theoretical insights with practical applications, contributing to the fields of industrial engineering, operations research, and decision science.
Following Yingying's Milestone 3 presentation, PhD candidate Srimali Gunasekara spoke at a Researchers' Catch-Up on the topic of 'Shutdown Maintenance Scheduling using Two-Stage Stochastic Programming with Endogenous Uncertainty'
Srimali presented a scheduling problem of preventive maintenance activities in two consecutive maintenance plans. Due to budget, resource, and time limitations of maintenance plans, maintenance of some components needs to be postponed from the first shutdown to the second, with the risk of costly failures in between. Srimali developed a two-stage stochastic programming model to minimise the total expected cost of maintenance and scheduling. The first stage determines which components should be postponed, whereas the second stage determines whether these components undergo maintenance in the second shutdown based on the occurrence of a failure event. Using a benchmark data set, Srimali solved the model using an algorithm that combined simulated annealing and sample average approximation methods.
Centre Celebration Showcase Event #
On 6th November 2024, CTMTDS held a Centre Celebration Showcase event at Curtin 137 St George's Terrace, Perth, to showcase highlights across the CTMTDS research program and celebrate the successful collaborations and outcomes from each Centre Research Theme.
Special guest speaker Prof Neville Plint (Mining3 and University of Queensland) was warmly welcomed, and he shared his insights and experience on the nexus of academic and industry collaborations and ways to forge pathways to innovation.
Highlights from the afternoon included the real-world solutions and applied research developed by CTMTDS researchers including tools to improve maintenance planning, predictive maintenance, shutdowns and long-term planning outcomes for the mining and maintenance industry.
The panel presentation on innovation in academia and industry was chaired by Andrew Bell with speakers Dr Geoffrey Batt, Prof Melinda Hodkiewicz, Zane Prickett, Peter Rose, Prof Neville Plint, Dr. Hoa Bui and Braden Thorne. The panellists explored the academic/industry nexus and areas of success and learnings from all perspectives.
While the formal CTMTDS research program winds up in 2025, the Centre's legacy aims to connect participants and networks across our research partners (Curtin, UWA and CSIRO) with industry, through hubs such as WADSIH, CIDS, UWA Data Institute, Curtin Optimisation Centre, Trailblazer and other relevant groups to continue the momentum and support shared benefits for future research collaboration of data science research activities.
The Atlassian cloud-based platform for Centre data has been launched! #
The Centre has now transferred to a cloud-based platform through Atlassian for JIRA/ Confluence. Please keep note of Atlassian newsfeeds for further updates.
The Centre's new public website is now live and will continue to be updated over the coming weeks – watch this space! Thanks to John Hille of CSIRO for this seamless transition and to Michael Stewart for designing this new website, which you can see by following this link.
Stay tuned for our next issue where we will cover: #
- Further training opportunities for Centre participants in 2025
- New 'Value-Add' projects in Q3 and Q4 2025
- New publications in 2025
Do you have news to share?
Please email [email protected].