Amy Stevenson
30 September 2019: Finding solutions for everyday problems. That’s the main focus for Professor Charles Lemckert, the University of Canberra (UC), and the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN).
UC was officially welcomed as the ninth member of the network on 26 September, with Professor Lemckert, Head of School - Design & Built Environment, as the University’s ambassador and joins the NSSN project team with his experience in hydrogeology, hydrodynamics and water engineering.
The NSSN’s collaborative research project with the water industry uses smart sensing for leak detection to prevent breaks in critical infrastructure. The collaboration draws upon the expertise of several leading research universities and water utilities under the co-ordination of the NSSN.
“There are all these different people at different universities getting together to try and solve a problem, before it happens,” said Professor Lemckert.
“It’s a big project, but what we’re looking at is a big problem. Recently there was a burst water pipe in Sydney and 100 homes were flooded. It causes real problems, but there are so many thousands of kilometres of pipes, it’s impossible to inspect them all, or predict when they’re going to break.
“If you had to replace every metre of pipe in Sydney, you may as well rewrite your economy. This is a way of finding solutions. What I want to get out of joining in the project is doing good research, and solving real problems, I think that’s the best thing, being able to solve real problems and find a real practical outcome.”
Despite the NSSN project involving quantum technology, the ultimate goal Professor Lemckert added was much simpler, and despite a number of different variables, his job as part of the project team is to “be the engineer, and to come in there and do the engineering stuff”.
“The device ANU researchers have developed uses quantum technology because it’s designed by physicists.
“They build wonderful things, but how do you test to see if it actually works? They don’t have the skill set for that, so part of the NSSN activity was to bring different groups together.
“I was asked to help validate the results because we know what we have to do – basically measure the land first, pump water in, measure it again – it’s a simple way of saying it, but we’re looking at how the gravity varies before and after. I wish it was as simple as that though!
“Our project is to look at how the water moves through the soil, where the water goes to when it comes out of a leaky pipe, and therefore can the gravity measurements actually detect that, because when you measure gravity, everything affects it. Someone standing next to the machine affects gravity, a cow, a car going past, the rocks under the group. Everything affects gravity. So, the question is, can we detect whether there is water under the ground at the scale they want?
The next step is to physically do it. Take a device out there, and do gravity measurements, pour water in, re-take the measurements, and go from there.”
As for UC’s membership into the NSSN, Professor Lemckert said being able to contribute and collaborate within the NSSN, and with different researchers and other universities around Australia, can only be of benefit for UC and allows for the involvement of other possible research projects in the future.
“It was lucky we were at the right meeting at the right time and being proactive when it came to getting involved. There was a bit of foresight, but UC is a practical university, so a project like this is really good for us. We’re practical, we’re happy to go out into the field and get our hands wet and our feet dirty. That’s where UC has a huge advantage in this sort of project.”
