28 July 2021
North Metropolitan TAFE software development students have received a Merit Award at the 30th INCITE Awards, WA’s longest running information and communication technologies award program.
Brett Mitchell, Kale Griffiths, Tiernan Stevens, Joseph Dowden and Shannon Smith were awarded for their Underground Mining VR Induction app developed for mining company Barminco. The app uses virtual reality to give new recruits the experience of an underground mine site without the associated dangers.
The students were the only TAFE group among the six finalists in the Peter Fillery Undergraduate Student Project of the Year category.
Having now graduated from software development and progressed to an Advanced Diploma of Cyber Security, Brett Mitchell said the project was a great hands-on learning experience.
“When we were completing the project as part of our course, we never thought about entering it in any awards, we knew it had potential for what it was doing but didn’t think any further on it,” he said.
“It wasn’t until we started looking into the awards that we started thinking there may be something to this.”
After completing a 30-minute presentation to the INCITE Awards judges, Brett said it was exciting to receive a Merit Award at the Gala event.
NMTAFE Lecturer ICT, Digital Media and IT, Travis Badge said it was a fantastic achievement for the talented students.
“The Merit Award is great recognition of the hard work the students have put into the project,” he said.
“The achievement shows how our software development program is equipping our students with the skills and capabilities to meet the needs of industry.”
As well as the student category, the INCITE awards also recognised WA tech organisations, entrepreneurs and industry leaders for their medical, AI, robotics and mining technology innovations.
The INCITE Awards will now continue to work with the students to further showcase their innovation through the National iAwards (AIIA).
If you are interested in studying at NMTAFE and working on real-world projects, check out our software development courses.
To view a full list of the INCITE awards winners go to their official website...