August 12, 2016
The RiverLab is a collaboration between Woodside Energy and The University of Western Australia. It is a unique initiative aimed at developing innovations in offshore engineering via research, education and outreach. To achieve this aim it is bringing together a community of researchers and a collection of equipment to enable unique field measurements and experiments in the Swan River. The RiverLab was established at the same time as Woodside’s partnership in the ARC Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities and their sponsorship of a collaboration space – Woodside OceanWorks – in the new Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre on UWA’s Campus. These three overlapping initiatives together establish a strong platform for productive industry-academia interactions.
The Swan River in Perth is a prime location for the RiverLab, possessing a steady and reliable supply of wind waves, which may be used to explore the performance/response of offshore structures moored temporarily in the river. The Swan River also provides an under-utilised resource for trialling prototype devices and sensors to measure offshore waves and currents and geotechnical conditions at the bed, and to monitor aquatic life.
The key objectives of the RiverLab are: to accelerate and support the development of offshore engineering; support education and teaching in oceans innovations; be a catalyst for research and innovation to address the challenges of deploying new technology in offshore engineering; foster the growth of offshore engineering technology; and secure Western Australia’s position as a leader in offshore engineering.
There are various ways in which you can become part of the RiverLab community including using the low-cost real-world research and development environment offered by this facility to work on ocean-focussed industrial research, blue-sky research or innovative teaching and education.
Further information is available here.
