The key to strengthening mining industry and undertaking effective university research is a solid relationship between the research/education institute and industry. From consulting to research, all projects have been focused on the needs of industry. The primary strategy of Dr. Dessureault is a close association with industry so that the service, technology, and expertise needed by mines is developed and made available.

This, and other linked webpages act as a showcase and medium of communication for Dr. Dessureault's research. A key challenge in undertaking research in this area is the highly confidential nature of most issues dealing with Business Systems, data, and internal performance measurement. A further challenge is the correct identification by industry that IT and its effective use is a competitive advantage. As such, few publications are permitted by the industry.

 

 

Research interests can be summarized in the general field of technology and how it can be successfully implemented within the constraints of a modern mine's need for production and its internal work culture. This may seem broad especially as I define technology as both "soft" and "hard". Soft signifies the Knowledge Management and Systems Engineering tools and the software required for both to be applied effectively. Hard technology are the latest in automation or sensor networks. Although broad, these technologies are best used together producing a strong synergy, as has been experience in other industries. Manufacturing has taken advantage of management techniques such as 6sigma and automation of tasks through robotics. These industries have become increasingly more flexible and dynamic. The minerals production industry can also use these tools synergistically.

In general terms, research interests include:

• management systems: tactical management, operations research, industrial engineering, operations management, systems, integration of management systems in operations, mine costing, budgeting, valuation and cost control, etc..
• information technology: data modeling, systems development, data collection systems (personnel, equipment monitoring), etc...
• Data utilization: uses of integrated data and advanced querying such as Mine-to-Mill (M2M), Business systems including real options and activity based costing, etc...
• cultural issues: workplace culture, incentive systems, labor control,
• Automation / robotics / navigation: primarily implementation and utilization

Funded Current Research
Enriching Data --> Sustainable Action

Dr. Dessureault's research is focused on all the disciplines and activities necessary to enrich data to sustainable action. Each phase of enrichment has a discipline and science to ensure the correct design. Overcoming the barriers between each phase also has requisite techniques and experience. For example, for the 'Data' phase, one wants to ensure that all the desired data is available, accurate, reliable, and to the appropriate detail. Data modeling and Data design are the necessary disciplines. Experience at designing data quality assurance systems within a mine environment would also be required of which experience plays a key role. Acquiring and effectively applying the diverse skills in each of these phases is the key to the future of innovation in mining. Research in this area is focused on identifying, adapting, and refining these disciplines for effective use in a mine environment. It is also seen as a key competitive advantage.

PRIMARY RESEARCH PROJECT:
US Department of Energy: Infrastructure for Integrated Data Environments and Analysis (IIDEA) for Mining and Processing Systems

This is a $1.7+ million grant from the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technology's Industries of the future program. Dr. Dessureault (University of Arizona) is the Principal Investigator and Project Manager. The industrial partners are Phelps Dodge Corporation (large copper mining company), Mintec Incorporated (leading mine planning software vendor and developer), and Dimension Technology Solutions (a data warehousing and service company with a long history in mining). The academic partners include the Pennsylvania State University and Virginia Technical Institute and State University. The only official public communiqué permitted can be viewed here. Graduate students with industrial experience in mining or degrees in MIS or Systems Engineering are being sought to fill the 4+ research assistantships available for this grant. The prospective students should have at least two of the following:

• Communications skills (to allow the development of data models, data flow diagrams, and process maps, through interaction with on-site engineers)
• Experience maintaining data warehouses and writing ETL
• Experience with writing SQL code and maintaining an industrial-scale SQL Server (or equivalent) database
• Mine management or engineering experience
• Systems modeling and simulation of large scale industrial systems
• Professional experience in data mining and/or artificial neural networks.
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CRCMining: Smart Mining Systems

The University of Arizona is a member of one of the world's leading and largest mining research institutes, CRCMining, headquartered in Brisbane Australia. Projects have and are being designed in the area of Smart Mining Systems, which is generally systems engineering and intelligent control. The number of students that can be supported in this reasearch is virtually unlimited, see the list above for the most sought skill-set. The current funded project is for developing a data infrastructure and analysis tools for improved haul truck tire maintenance.

National Institutes of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH)

This project is to develop the infrastructure and analysis tools from a data source of several decades of mining safety data. Graduate or undergraduate students in MIS or Mining Engineering can be supported and are currently being saught.

Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunity

This source of funding is for underrepresented undergraduate student research. Research has focused on developing materials tracking algorithms. This includes using neural networks to predict material movement based on real-time materials handling rates for underground mines. The simulator has also been used to calculate the number of RFID tags necessary in bulk material to be tracked with varying degrees of accuracy.

Sustainable Development

Capacity exists for students interested in Sustainable Development issues. Dr. Dessureault was a co-founder of the University of Arizona chapter of Engineers Without Borders. He also supervised previous reseach in sustainable development issues, linking political risk factors with stustainable development indicators.

Industrial Research

Current and past research with industrial partners is the cornerstone of Dr. Dessureault's research (consulting). Students may be hired as independent employees to fulfill some industrial contracts through Dr. Dessureault's consulting company, MISOM Consulting Services. For a list of publications see the resume.

MISOM Laboratory

I manage an information technology and modeling laboratory that has virtually every type of mining software and data management systems including mine planning software, process monitoring and management (OSIsoft's Pi), database management systems (SQLServer and IBM DB), data mining, simulation, disptach, Swarm simulation for societal development, among many others. Also on campus are outsourced data warehousing and advanced statistical software. This allows for the simulation of data sources, development of data uses, and exploration of data and process models. Large databases of mine production data, costs are stored alongside global sustainable development data for establishing and testing sustainable development indexes. The lab can be controlled from anywhere, has video conferencing capability, and has a storage capacity of 1/2 terabyte.

Below: The Mining Information, Societal, and Operations Management (MISOM) Lab

Management systems such as activity based costing (ABC), rely on information technology and a formalized structured understanding of the work processes in that particular operation. A formal systems analysis methodology for mining has yet to be developed. Furthermore, in developing and implementing these new management systems for mining or similar industries, research and development is required to adapt the management systems to the nature and needs of mines. Several research projects in this area have already been undertaken, including:

• development of a methodology for evolving tactical management systems.
• Simulation of materials handling networks (for surface mines, block-cave operations)
• development and continuing application of budgeting and costing tools
• development and application of advanced justification techniques for advanced technology

The potential of further developing a synergistic link between information technology, management systems and equipment automation keeps mining one of the last frontiers of industrial research and development. As a central focus for research initiatives, IT in the mineral industry has great potential to improve process understanding and quality. However, these advances cannot be achieved without a data infrastructure constructed for the mining industry. Several projects have been envisioned and funding is being actively pursued.