A new partnership with software company Palisade gives the University of the Witwatersrand’s (Wits’) School of Mining Engineering licensed access to the company’s @RISK software for 100 computers in the school’s mine design laboratory.
Academics in different subject areas will be able to use the software in their own research and introduce their students to new analytical approaches.
“An understanding of stochastic analysis – or probabilistic analysis – is a vital part of every mining engineer’s skills set. Mines succeed on the basis of good decisions, and engineers must evaluate the uncertainties in every decision they face, before choosing the best professor Dick Minnitt.
He adds that stochastic modelling is a significant advance in thinking about the answers found in any calculations, especially those involving “variables that can take on a range of different values”.
Moreover, a probabilistic approach allows the student to understand a problem by observing what could happen as a universe of possibilities, which allows for more informed and robust decision-making.
“@RISK is a software program that supports this probabilistic approach, helping users to make good decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The software allows students at Wits to explore the sensitivities associated with optimal mine designs in a much simpler, robust and intuitive way,” Palisade MD Craig Ferri says.
Adding to this view, Wits School of Mining Engineering senior lecturer Clinton Birch mentions that the approach can be applied in various aspects of mine planning – from operations to finance modelling – so that the engineer can contribute systematically to any assessment of risk and opportunity.
Last year, Palisade trained 18 of the school’s staff and postgraduate students in risk and probabilistic modelling, covering areas including the treatment of decision variables, identifying key risk factors, and the communication of results to clients and stakeholders. The training also reinforced ways to incorporate the issue of uncertainty into both the curriculum and research projects.
“We’re always excited when a pre-eminent institution like the Wits School of Mining Engineering adopts @RISK. We feel that academic partnerships are a real win-win situation, equipping a new generation of mining engineers for the workplace. ”