The Resources Innovation Center Leoben at Montanuniversität Leoben is home to the university’s international partnerships in the areas of sustainable science, education and industrialization. Our vision is to make a climate friendly, sustainable future in the raw materials sector.
After much fine-tuning, the first edition of MiReBooks in printed form has been printed and is now available. These books will take mining education to a higher level by incorporating VR and AR elements into teaching!
The new research center for hydrogen and carbon in Leoben ceremoniously opened its doors on October 17, 2024.
Rector Peter Moser and Vice-Rector Helmut Antrekowitsch emphasized the key role of the new research center for the future development of energy technologies and the importance of cooperation between science and industry. Advanced process technologies are being developed here that will make it possible to provide large quantities of hydrogen for industry. At the same time, the entire value-added cycle of hydrogen and carbon – from production, transportation and storage through to application – is being researched.
Another focus is on researching the sustainable use of carbon in the areas of agriculture, construction and high-tech applications, such as hydrogen storage.
Robert leads our activities in the area of research, development and innovation management with a focus on direct research cooperation with industry.
The coordination of individual chairs within the university is essential when dealing with questions from industrial partners to combine the expert knowledge of all relevant disciplines of the MUL in the highest quality.
Currently, the focus is on supporting the quickest and most environmentally compatible implementation towards a commercial scale of the sustainable production of hydrogen and carbon, the efficient use of waste and residual materials with a low ecological footprint, the evaluation and development of technologies in the field of CO2 capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), the further development of sustainable building materials, and the increased integration of life cycle analyses already in the phase of developing new technical processes on a laboratory scale.
Robert studied rock metallurgy in Leoben, with stays abroad at the Colorado School of Mines (USA) as well as the Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal and McGill University (Canada) and was already active in industry-related research projects during his studies.
Mixed Reality Handbooks for Mining Education
Duration: 01/2019 – 12/2021
MiReBooks produces a series of Virtual & Augmented Reality based interactive mining handbooks as a new digital standard for higher mining education across Europe.
In the project “MiReBooks” a series of virtual and augmented reality-based (Mixed Reality, MR) interactive mining handbooks will be produced as a new digital standard for higher mining education throughout Europe. Many current challenges in mining education will be confronted in an innovative way, by combining classical paper-based teaching materials with MR materials and their transformation into pedagogically and didactically coherent MR handbooks for integrative classroom use. The approach will be used in the future also in other disciplines. With MiReBooks the way of teaching will change as instructors will be able to engage their students in a more effective way and offer them an enriched content repertoire as well as an increased comprehension opportunity.
The array of possible industrial mine environment examples that students can be immersed into becomes endless and thus the industry will receive graduates that are familiarized in-depth with a holistic view on the industrial context. Students will enter the job market skilled as digital natives and highly influence the way the industry will work and develop in this way in the future. Mixed Reality is certainly a most promising way to enable users to make the most of their learning experience and thus leverage the improvement of operational efficiencies and innovation.
Technically, the MiReBooks-assisted lectures will include Smartphones with a special App that allows the students to trigger additional information (3D images, videos) from augmented illustrations within the MiReBooks textbooks. In addition, with virtual reality goggles they will be able to immerse themselves into a virtual mining environment/3D-filmed sequence of a real mine process.
Montanuniversität Leoben (RIC Leoben, Lead), Epiroc Rock Drills, KGHM, LTU Business, Luleå University of Technology, LKAB, RWTH Aachen, Tallinn University of Technology, Technische Universität Graz, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, VTT – Technical Research Centre of Finland, Università degli Studi di Trento
We are very glad that Robert Obenaus-Emler was officially appointed Head of the Resources Innovation Center by the Rectorate of the Montanuniversität Leoben on 14 March 2024.
At the same time, the RIC Leoben was confirmed as one of the seven “Clusters of Excellence” at the research centre of the University.
