Competence Centre for managing hazardous situations in industry
An ultra-modern Competence Centre in the field of safety, operational analytics and management of hazardous situations in industry will be established at the Silesian University of Technology. This is the result of an agreement between our university and the Institute of Mineral Resources and Energy Management of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
On December 11th , 2023, the Silesian University of Technology and the Institute of Mineral Resources and Energy Management of the Polish Academy of Sciences from Krakow signed an agreement on cooperation in the implementation of research programs, project initiatives and commissioned works aimed at improving innovation, technical and economic efficiency of the mineral resources management in Europe.
The agreement was signed by prof. Marek Pawełczyk, Vice-Rector for Science and Development, and Krzysztof Galos, director of the Institute of Mineral Resources and Energy Management of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The first joint project of the signatories of the signed agreement will be the construction of a Competence Centre in the field of safety, operational analytics and management of hazardous situations in industry at the Faculty of Mining, Safety Engineering and Industrial Automation and at the Institute of Mineral Raw Materials and Energy Management of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow.
The centre, consisting of six laboratories, will constitute a new quality on a European scale in the field of research and training, using simulation and virtualization in laboratory conditions of dangerous situations related to cyber threats, natural and industrial threats. This place, based on the latest achievements in automation and IT using artificial intelligence, will allow for the simulation of industrial and technological processes and crisis situations by connecting distributed monitoring, control and security systems responsible for the operation of the enterprise.
The centre will consist of six laboratories:
Laboratory No. 1: DIGITAL TWIN - the creation of a digital twin of the dispatch centre will allow for full simulation of the plant's operation in laboratory conditions, and thanks to this, a unique training station will be built to teach the appropriate response to emergency situations, including disasters. This laboratory will be the main element of the Real-Time Insights Platform (RelTIP), the construction of which will enable improvement of efficiency, minimizing the risk of failure, better understanding and management of complex systems, and the ability to predict and respond to changes in real time.
Laboratory No. 2: CRISIS MANAGEMENT - emergency situations include various threats, such as technical failures, accidents, cyber-attacks, natural disasters or other events that may negatively affect safety, operational continuity and production efficiency. The planned laboratory will enable simulation of the enterprise emergency management model and cooperation with the national crisis response system.
Laboratory No. 3: AI, OPERATIONAL ANALYTICS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING – will constitute the heart of the Centre being built. This place will provide power to all 6 research and teaching laboratories, while also serving as a research ground for students of the Faculty in ensuring the security and cybersecurity of industrial automation systems in the mining and energy sector. This will fill the gap in testing the cyber resistance of automation systems and devices used in industry.
Laboratory No. 4: SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF RAW MATERIALS AND ENERGY is intended to enable the education and training of engineers in an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to the management of mineral raw materials and energy, starting from their sources, through technologies of acquisition and use. The key element of the laboratory will be elements of simulation of the burdensome conditions of obtaining raw materials and their impact on emerging threats. All activities will aim to intensify the implementation of research and application work related to the energy transformation, clean environment and circular economy in the Polish economy.
Laboratory No. 5: PHOTOGRAMMETRY, REMOTE SENSING AND GEOMATICS - will create the basis for education in the latest technologies related to broadly understood geoinformatics used, including acquiring, processing, analysing and sharing spatial data. The laboratory will also deal with the automation of data processing processes and the harmonization and integration of object databases.
Laboratory No. 6: SITUATIONAL AWARENESS – it will be, as it were, the brain of the Centre being built. The situational awareness system for industry is an advanced platform for real-time monitoring, analysis and response in an industrial environment. The main assumptions of this system include, among others, the integration of data from various sources, such as sensors, monitoring systems, databases and measuring devices, which will allow to obtain a comprehensive picture of the situation. This knowledge provides the opportunity to counteract and respond appropriately to emergency situations.
The Competence Centre for safety, operational analytics and management of hazardous situations in industry will create one of the most modern teaching and research centres in this part of Europe, educating in the field of safety in large industrial enterprises. The centre will enable responsible education in professions in which information and decision-making processes related to managing the safety and efficiency of large industrial enterprises are of great importance.
