Kristyn Comino
12 May 2014: Rescuing trapped construction workers in emergencies such as a fire or a building collapse is the focus of new smart phone technology being developed by a team led by University of Canberra students.
Alexandria Garlan, Mitchell Harmer and their team were recently awarded a $50,000 Innovation Connect grant by the ACT Government Economic Development Directorate and just last week won a $10,000 Kick Start grant from St George bank to both enhance an existing site safety app they created and develop a new one.
Tracking employees missing on site in an evacuation will be a new feature of their current app SignOnSite, which allows people to sign on or off a construction site (as required by legislation) using just their smart phone.
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Alexandria Garlan and Mitchell Harmer have been awarded $95,000 to develop their construction site safety apps. Photo: Cameron Murray |
"With this new feature of the app, construction workers will be able to specify exactly where they are on site and the app can potentially live-track their movements in these high-risk environments," Ms Garlan, studying construction management, said.
"In the case of an emergency, this means rescue crews will have a better chance of knowing where missing people are without having to search the whole site for them."
Studying entrepreneurship and innovation, Mr Harmer added that they hope the technology will only be needed in drills, but that if it has to be used in a real emergency it could save lives.
"For example, rather than a fire fighter searching an entire burning building to try and find a missing person, the app can show them that the person was last recorded being in a specific room, so they might be able to reach them quicker," Mr Harmer said.
"If there is an emergency, this technology will potentially increase the chance of survival for both an employee lost on site or the emergency services workers trying to find them."
Along with the SignOnSite app they are also developing a new stand-alone app called Lone Worker, where a construction site employee working solo will be able to let their employer know they are okay with just the click of a button.
"We've had a number of companies express concerns about knowing where individuals are when they are working on their own. An important issue for them is that mobile phones can lose reception in some areas, like in a basement or elevator shaft, so we are trying to develop something that gets around these mobile dead spots," Mr Harmer said.
The students are consulting with ACT Emergency Services and the construction industry for their apps. With Ms Garlan also working as a project manager for Banyan Construction they're currently focusing on construction sites, but she said their technology has the potential to be transferred to any industry, "as health and safety applies to all workplaces".
"What we've done so far has been in direct response to the requests and needs of the construction industry, but as workplace health and safety applies to all workplaces it should be made a priority. If there are other organisations or business that would like to work with us we're certainly open to that," Ms Garlan, who is also president of the ACT chapter of the Young Builders Alliance, said.
The students' funding adds to the $35,000 they were awarded last year at the Innovation ACT awards to develop the overall SignOnSite application and their business, which operates under the motto 'safety, first'.
"We're very thankful to have $95,000 in grants to work on our apps, and along with industry support we think these technologies could really make an impact in keeping construction sites safer – and there's promise in other workplaces as well," Ms Garlan said.
"The potential for safety solutions in technology is huge," Mr Harmer added.
The SignOnSite business also includes fellow University student Rob Parker who is studying public relations, recent media arts and production graduate Hew Sandison, as well as Australian National University software engineering students Peter Marshall and David Linsell.
The group is seeking industry consultation on their apps. To find out more visit: www.signonsite.com.au.
