Australia & NZ

Australian University Seeks Industrial Partners to Drive NatRef Student Research

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia is inviting industrial HVAC&R companies to work with its undergraduate engineering students to research issues affecting the industry, including the feasibility of CO2, heat pumps and chillers.

RMIT University is seeking to promote the HVAC&R disciplines in its engineering department, according to the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH)’s online news platform HVAC&R News. As such, it is calling all industrial partners to propose potential student research projects, called “capstone projects,” for 2020.

Examples of potential projects include:

  • A feasibility assessment of implementing a CO2 heat pumps/chillers in a process.
  • An investigation of IoT sensors for remote performance monitoring.
  • Thermal modelling of refrigerated transportation vehicles for the cold food chain.
  • Exploring policy incentives for increasing performance from small- to mid-sized refrigeration systems.
  • Demand management analysis for large refrigeration loads.

Undergraduate students at RMIT’s School of Engineering are all required to complete a two-semester group research project in their final year of studies. These capstone projects provide an opportunity to tackle real-world engineering problems in a supervised environment. Depending on the project and the partnering business, this can also involve onsite work to acquire data, work with technicians and engineers, progress reports and mentoring, according to HVAC&R News.

“There are a great number of challenges facing the refrigeration industry at the moment,” said Dr. Cameron Stanley, RMIT Lecturer and Researcher. Research projects can be specific to a challenge that currently faces a business, or a broad industry project. “Often these projects may constitute something that your business would love to explore, but do not have the resources to allocate to it,” explained Stanley.

The main requirement for the projects is that they are sufficiently suited for undergraduate students and that they offer enough of a technical challenge to occupy four or five students for eight months. 

Projects will commence in early March 2020 and are should be completed by late October 2020.

Submit a project 

For more information or to propose a project, contact Dr. Cameron Stanley of RMIT at cameron.stanley@rmit.edu.au or on +61 (03) 9925 4146.