Description of the project:
Parmalat has 170 Victorian farms supplying a volume of 316m litres. Parmalat has a strong focus on sustainability with our clients and the profitability of our farmers and their long term viability in the industry is vital. Electricity rates are increasing on an annual basis and dairy operations are large regional consumers of electricity. As such industry bodies, farmers and milk processors have highlighted the need to explore alternative power options. The options of solar power, storage batteries or wind turbines are just a few of the options Parmalat wants to investigate to assist our farmers in reducing electricity costs and decrease the carbon footprint in the dairy industry.

The major deliverables are:
1. To develop a program that will assist farmers to identify which alternative power options best suit their dairy operation.
2. An optimised and sustainable farm energy model that would benefit dairy farmers across Victoria and their supply chain partners.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
To decrease electricity consumption and costs on Victorian dairy farms and create a more environmentally friendly and sustainable future for the dairy industry.

Faculty or Department:
Business and Economics
Engineering-Electrical & Computer Systems
Engineering-Environmental
Science

Disciplines:
Earth Atmosphere and Environment
Econometrics & Business Statistics
Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Mathematical Science

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship

Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

PRIOR TO APPLYING FOR THIS PROJECT PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
This project may be located in regional Victoria. There may be a requirement for you to live away from home for the duration of the project and your own transport maybe required.

Description of the project:
The Fonterra Dennington processing facility in Western Victoria, will explore energy use per tonne across the factory and an assessment of energy use on-farm across a selection of Fonterra’s major suppliers.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
The project would identify opportunities for improving energy use within the factory – especially during periods of low production, and find alternative energy sources such as renewables, biodigestion and co-generation opportunities.

Available to:
All Students
Faculty or Department:
Business and Economics
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Environmental
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Science

Sector:
Dairy

Employment Type:
Scholarship

Eligibility:
All students
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
3

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Description of the project:
Burra foods is a medium sized dairy company in South Gippsland. We are currently going through a large growth stage where we need to expand the capability of our reporting and accounting system. This project will seek to explore, understand and improve live reporting for one of our production lines. The production line “bulk liquids” has a unique set of constraints that requires a unique solution.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
To prepare a report to be presented to the Live output team. This report will include a number of solutions, including business case for each option. It will be presented to the live output team (including senior managers) where recommendations will be considered. The final recommendation will be selected, working across the business the team will implement the final solution.

Faculty or Department:
Business and Economics
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Electrical & Computer Systems
Information Technology

Disciplines:
Accounting
Business Computing
Business Information Systems
Chemical Engineering
Commerce
Data Science
Econometrics & Business Statistics
Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering
Network Computing
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
2

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Korumburra is situated in South Gippsland (Regional Victoria) located approximately 120kms from Melbourne CBD. You will be required to live away from home for the duration of the project therefore your own transport will be required.

Suitable local accommodation + an appropriate travel allowance will be provided.

Description of the project:
Background:
* The WCB site processes 900 million litres of milk per year through a cheese plant, milk powder plant, butter plant, and whey protein concentrate plant.
* Wastewater from all of these plants is treated in a 40 megalitre anaerobic digester.
* WCB has recently installed an inline COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) analyser. This instrument is testing aliquots of wastewater at 4 minute intervals and the data is being recorded in a database.
* The COD analyser was installed with the objective of reducing milk solids losses from upstream processes.
Considering the above, this project will require the following:
* Familiarisation with inline COD analyser and the associated data acquisition
* Familiarisation with upstream wastewater analysis and data acquisition
* Mapping of WCB wastewater process flows
* Mapping of base level wastewater COD loads and matching with upstream processes
* Review of existing plant process data recording and identification of relevance to wastewater composition
* Identification of wastewater COD spikes over and above base loads, investigation into causes and recommendations for remediation
* Design and implementation of a wastewater reporting dashboard from SQL database for use by plant supervisors, including daily, weekly and monthly reporting
* Gap analysis of wastewater infrastructure and instrumentation to allow for effective monitoring and process optimisation over the next 20 years

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
This project aims to identify and develop an improved system to minimise product waste as outlined above.

Available to:
Undergraduate students in penultimate and subsequent year (including honours)

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Environmental
Information Technology
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Science

Disciplines:
Biological Science
Business Computing
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Computer Science
Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship

Eligibility:
All students

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Please note:
Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Allansford is situated in the Western Districts (Regional Victoria) approximately 256 kms from Melbourne CBD. You will be living away from home for the duration of the project therefore own transport is required.

Description of the project:
Despite current milk prices, the scale of interest in dairy developments in Australia is unprecedented with dairy witnessing systems exceeding 5,000 animals being planned and implemented. Over 2015, Agriculture Victoria undertook various discussions with potential investors, which revealed planning for 70 freestall barns with 220,000 cows fully housed on only seventeen properties. This ongoing intensification of Victorian dairy production has resulted in a continuing trend towards systems where cows spend more ‘time-off’ paddocks (nationally 33% of dairy farms have feed pads) coupled with a growing need for improved capture, storage and sustainable land applications of animal excreta.

Traditional dairy effluent (manure and water) capture systems have relied on two pond systems to capture such waste. With an increase in herd size and increased time off paddock the volume of effluent collected is increasing and these traditional systems are no longer viable. While there are alternate options being used overseas which seek to separate liquid and solid phases of effluent, their suitability under Australian conditions has not been tested. Furthermore, a key aspect of any system should be the ability to re-use the collected effluent for agronomic purposes, thus reducing external nutrient inputs (e.g. fertiliser use).

This project would seek to review effluent management options and there applicability in an Australian dairy context from a storage perspective, minimisation of losses and subsequent land application. Options will include the ability to separate liquid and solid phases and use both within and external to the farm boundary. Implicit in designs will be considerations of nutrient loadings for soil types.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
Students will be required to:
Identify novel manure technologies for intensive pasture based dairy systems
Identify capture and re-use options for dairy manure
identify tools to assist in managing nutrient loads at a farm level

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Civil
Engineering-Environmental
Engineering-Mechanical
Information Technology
Science

Disciplines:
Biological Science
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Civil Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Agriculture
Government

Employment Type:
Scholarship

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team
Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Ellinbank is situated in West Gippsland, (Regional Victoria) approximately 113kms from Melbourne CBD. You will be required to live away from home for the duration of the project therefore own transport will be required.
Suitable local accommodation + an appropriate travel allowance will be provided.

Description of the project:
Burra Foods is currently exploring ways to optimise their HR processes and systems to achieve operational excellence. This process will involve a full re-alignment of policies and processes and the implementation of a HR system that will enable managers to make smarter, more efficient and quantified decisions with the provision of real time data.
This project will provide suitably qualified students with an exciting opportunity to participate in a full HR systems review and implementation process. This review may also include the provision for an associated cultural change program.

Students will undertake a gap analysis of current versus future state and formulate/drive initiatives aimed at increasing employee engagement.
PLEASE NOTE: Although the Burra Foods manufacturing site is located in Korumburra, South Gippsland the location for this project will be at the organisation’s corporate headquarters in South Melbourne.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
The aim of this project is for students to conduct a gap analysis of the current HR system, understand the business’ current and future needs and review five HR systems that have already been short-listed by Burra Foods.
Students will be required to produce a report outlining a business case for each HR system, including an implementation timetable and cost analysis. They will also take an active role in the implementation of the chosen system.

Faculty or Department:
Arts
Business and Economics
Education
Engineering-Electrical & Computer Systems
Information Technology

Disciplines:
Arts
Behavioural Studies
Business Computing
Business Information Systems
Commerce
Education
Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering
Human Resource Management
Management
Psychology
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
2

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Description of the project:
At Burra Foods we continue to look for innovative ways to optimise our business processes and maximise output. We are currently experiencing a large growth stage where the frozen packing line is critical to the business. This project will seek to explore and understand the waste streams generated from our frozen packing lines, prepare recommendations for optimisation and implement strategies once approved.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
Students will be required to prepare a report of recommendations for optimisation of the frozen packing line and present the findings to the engineering/production team and carry out any approved recommendations.

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Electrical & Computer Systems
Engineering-Environmental
Engineering-Materials
Information Technology
Science

Disciplines:
Biological Science
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Data Science
Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Materials Engineering
Mathematical Science
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
2

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team
Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Korumburra is situated in South Gippsland (Regional Victoria) located approximately 120 kms from Melbourne CBD. You will be required to live away from home for the duration of the project therefore your own transport will be required.
Suitable local accommodation + an appropriate travel allowance will be provided.

Description of the project:
Parmalat Australia collects more than 650m litres of raw milk across the eastern seaboard annually. Approximately 320mio litres is collected in Victoria and 80mio litres is moved from the state it’s produced to the processing facility it’s consumed in. This movement is predominately from the north Victorian region. Parmalat operates 10 production facilities in Eastern Australia which process 750mio litres. The majority of production occurs at the seven Victorian plants.

Milk supply from farms can fluctuate significantly and it is often difficult to quickly determine which source region should be used to supply into each production site and if any 3rd party milk purchase is required to meet the production demand. It is also time consuming to adjust the production forecast daily after sudden changes in demand.

Deliverables
Parmalat are looking to build a prototype intuitive online model to optimise milk collection and delivery into each processing site on the Eastern Seaboard. This would be completed using input data from various sources, for example;
* Farm milk production data in each region, both historical and current production trends
* Production site raw milk demand profile
* Production site raw milk holding capacity and live milk usage data

The model would have the ability to adjust the interstate / 3rd party milk demand on a daily basis with little manual intervention. The model would also solve for the lowest cost of milk into each production site.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
This projects aims to develop a prototype milk movement model that would:
1. Optimise milk supply from farm to processing sites
2. Produce a daily delivery schedule for each production site, specifying the source location (Region or 3rd party) for each load of raw milk
3. Produce a daily 3rd party milk purchase requirement schedule
Once a prototype is established it is planned that a proven web based model be commissioned.

Faculty or Department:
Business and Economics
Engineering-Chemical
Information Technology
Science

Disciplines:
Business Computing
Chemical Engineering
Data Science
Econometrics & Business Statistics
Management
Mathematical Science
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Description of the project:
Whey is the main by-product obtained from cheese production. Released during the precipitation of casein from milk by acid or enzymatic coagulation represents 85 to 95% of milk used in cheese production and contains 55% of solids components present in milk. It is estimated that about 10L of milk is used to make 1kg of cheese, resulting in 8-9L of whey. Whey is rich in valuable components, such as protein and lactose and fat molecules. Whey contains a high concentration of valuable organic matter, but demineralization is needed before it can be used. At Coburg Plant, Bega Cheese uses nanofiltration to demineralise the salty whey to get concentrated whey (retentate) and permeate.
The aim of this project is to complete a nanofiltration process analysis, provide a total and compositional mass balance and identify areas of process improvement and potential increased efficiency.

This project has been closed

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Software
Information Technology
Science

Disciplines:
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Computer Science
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Description of the project:
Strathmerton is one of the six Bega Cheese sites located in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria. The Strathmerton site is a state of the art facility for cutting, slicing and shredding of the natural cheese and manufacturing of processed cheese in many formats. This site currently requires a process analysis and optimisation of their individually wrapped slices line and cheese shredding line to minimise the amount of overweights products. This project requires a review and analysis of product formulation as well as a process for root cause identification and to provide a solution strategy.

This project has been closed

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Mechanical
Science

Disciplines:
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Mechanical Engineering

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team
Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Strathmerton is situated in the Goulburn Valley, (Regional Victoria) approximately 247kms from Melbourne CBD. You will be required to live away from home for the duration of the project therefore your own transport will be required.

Description of the project:
Australian dairy farming systems are predominantly pasture based and effective pasture management is a key driver of farm profitability. There are a number of techniques/technologies that enable better pasture management and decision making ranging from rising plate meters, rapid pasture meters, infrared technology and recently satellite imagery.

The current techniques such as rising plate meters and rapid pasture meters involve pre and post grazing measurements or even weekly whole farm measurements. Although these techniques are useful tools in pasture monitoring and management they are quite labour intensive and in some cases can lack accuracy. Using satellite imagery technology to measure pasture mass is relatively new and needs to be explored in more depth at the farm level. Increasing the awareness of satellite imagery and its benefits may increase the adoption and uptake on farm due to higher levels of automation and accuracy, more effective pasture management and decreased costs. As technology and automation advances quickly more and more benefits can be obtained, but to date the industry has been slow to utilise this technology.

This project will aim to quantify the benefits of using satellite imagery for pasture management in irrigated dairy farms systems. The project will be carried out as a pilot on 2 partner farms in Northern Victoria (Lion milk suppliers) in conjunction with CSIRO’s satellite imagery and ‘Normalised Difference Vegetation Index’.

Major deliverables will be:
1. A Precision Pasture Management Tool based on satellite imagery.
2. Cost-Benefit analysis on the use of satellite imagery (setup and continual functioning of the tool).
3. Cost-Benefit analysis on the integration of automation such as auto gates and auto fetch systems.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
The key outcomes of this project include:
– An easy to use tool for pasture rotation decision making
– Optimising stocking rates, fertiliser and water applications to increase sustainability of farms and environment
– Reduction of labour and input costs driven by automation
– Better utilisation of pasture and improved milk production for Australian dairy farmers

Faculty or Department:
Business and Economics
Engineering-Electrical & Computer Systems
Engineering-Environmental
Engineering-Mechatronics
Engineering-Software
Information Technology
Science

Disciplines:
Biological Science
Earth Atmosphere and Environment
Econometrics & Business Statistics
Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Mathematical Science
Mechatronics Engineering
Software Development & Software Engineering

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Description of the project:
Owners of large dairy herds (>700 cows) in pasture-based dairying systems face unique challenges in providing optimal nutrition for their herds. These challenges relate to cows walking long distances to the dairy, and spending extended time waiting to be milked. Based on available data from Dairy Australia, it is estimated that around 6% of Australian dairy farmers have herds of over 700 cows, with this sector producing approximately 29% of the nation’s milk. It is likely that as average herd size increases, the number of herds above 700 will increase further.

Managing these large herds in pasture-based dairying systems presents unique challenges with implications for herd feed supply and milk production. Many of these challenges relate to compromised nutrient intakes and behavioural patterns of cattle that are required to walk long distances to the farm dairy each day, and in turn spend significant periods of time off pasture. At any milking there is large variation in the time cows are away from feed, with cows milked early potentially returning to feed much sooner than cows milked later. Anecdotal evidence suggests that depending upon the proportion of grazed feed in the diet, size of milking platform, other feeding areas and farm layout, that farmers often have to manage these large herds in smaller groups. This in turn often requires additional labour units and questions on the most practical management options arise.

This project would seek to develop novel farm layout, animal movement and flow, paddock design and feeding system solutions for such large herds. Outputs would relate to challenges such as herd size, proportion of grazed feed in the diet, other feeding facilities on farm, proportion of conserved forage fed, milk platform designs, walking distances of animals, time off feed. For a given herd size (and allowing for the aforementioned parameters) what is the most practical (and economical) farm design. Novel engineering options to the above challenges are sought.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
This project aims to design options for large herd farm systems that optimise animal management and maximise profitability.

Faculty or Department:
Business and Economics
Engineering-Civil
Engineering-Environmental
Engineering-Mechanical
Information Technology
Science

Disciplines:
Biological Science
Civil Engineering
Economics
Environmental Engineering
Games Development
Mechanical Engineering

Sector:
Agriculture
Government

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team
Please note: if selected to participate in this project you may be required to undertake a national background check and security clearance in line with APS guidelines.

Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Ellinbank is situated in West Gippsland, (Regional Victoria) approximately 95 kms from Melbourne CBD. You may be required to live away from home for the duration of the project therefore own transport maybe required.

Description of the project:
Fonterra is a global, co-operatively-owned company, originating from New Zealand, who produce nearly 22 billion litres of milk each year and export to the world. Fonterra have teamed up with Gardiner to explore how powder is transported within their manufacturing process and investigate new ways to optimise the performance of the system to mitigate the breakdown of the powder structure. The goal is to implement the ‘right first time’ manufacturing process to maintain integrity and ensure quality.

The Fonterra Darnum processing facility in West Gippsland is engaging with the Gardiner Dairy Foundation and MITI to implement a process improvement project to optimise resource efficiency at their factory. The project will look at ways to minimise their sustainability footprint and improve water use.

As part of the project, students will be engaged to map the water balance across the factory from raw material in, through to understanding the wastewater treatment and irrigation capability at the back end. The project is designed to identify opportunities for additional water recycling within the plant and to reduce waste water sent to holding dams and irrigation.

Concurrently the students would also assess energy use within the factory and identify potential opportunities or projects for implementation. The project will also explore waste streams generated from the facility’s frozen packing lines and prepare recommendations for optimisation and process improvement.

This project has been closed

Available to:
All Students

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Chemical
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Science

Sector:
Dairy

Employment Type:
Scholarship

Eligibility:
All students
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
4

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Description of the project:
This project will explore how powder is transported within the manufacturing process and investigate ways to optimise the performance of the system to mitigate the breakdown of the powder structure. The project scope may also include assessing ‘right first time’ product quality.

Students will be required to:
Review the site’s powder manufacturing process to identify contributors to successful/unsuccessful product quality
Understand contributors to powder strength including density breakdown and agglomeration.
Establish criteria/parameters for determining product stability and optimising the process.

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
The aim of this project is for students to recommend engineering/environmental/financial requirements that may be introduced to maximise product integrity.

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Environmental
Engineering-Materials
Engineering-Mechanical
Science

Disciplines:
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Environmental Engineering
Materials Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Physics and Astronomy

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
3

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Please note:
Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Cobden is situated in the South West Districts (Regional Victoria) approximately 200kms from Melbourne CBD. You will be living away from home for the duration of the project therefore own transport is required.
Suitable local accommodation + an appropriate travel allowance will be provided.

Description of the project:
This project will investigate the various constraints and opportunities associated with handling factory product streams such as lactose, mother liquor and product residues. This will include evaluating whether they are best processed on-site or diverted to third parties for beneficial reuse or disposal.

The scope is likely to include:
• A review of the site’s existing dairy manufacturing processes to identify contributors to the generation of secondary products and potential for further processing (ie. powders)
• Research alternative uses for dairy product streams
• Establish criteria/parameters for determining product suitability for various reuse opportunities
• Research safety/quality/nutritional requirements for using dairy product streams in stock food supplements or as ingredients

This project has been closed

Project Aims:
The aim of this project is to establish engineering, environmental and/or financial requirements that may be required to maximise processing capability of these product streams on site, implement an alternative treatment technology or enable off-site reuse.

Faculty or Department:
Engineering-Chemical
Engineering-Environmental
Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Science

Disciplines:
Biological Science
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Earth Atmosphere and Environment
Environmental Engineering
Nutrition Science

Sector:
Dairy
Manufacturing

Employment Type:
Scholarship
Applications for this project are welcome from penultimate and subsequent year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students (coursework and research) who are enrolled full-time at Monash.

Selection Criteria:
Your application will be reviewed by senior faculty members and assessed against the following criteria:
• Quality of covering letter, resume and on-line application form including spelling & grammar
• Relevance of your degree to the project(s) you select
• Skills, ability, knowledge and experience relevant to the project (s) you apply for
• Extra – curricular activities (i.e. sports/clubs & societies/memberships)
• Career goals & ambitions
• Academic performance
• Successful completion of group activity
• Successful interview with industry partner

Please note:
Scope for MITI projects are determined by the industry partners, this includes student disciplines and whether they require students at undergraduate, Masters or PhD level.
The final selection of the MITI project team will be made by the industry partner.
Each industry project will run for 12 weeks over the summer vacation period that is December 2016 through to February 2017.
If selected you must be available and agree to commit for the entire 12 week period.

Duration:
12 weeks

Max number of recipients:
3

Application process:
Applications are submitted online via the MITI website and must include a cover letter (no more than one page) and current CV.
Your cover letter should include the following information:
• why the project is of particular interest to you
• an outline of relevant experience either through vacation work, study or other extra curricula activities
• what you can contribute as a member of the team

Please note:
Prior to applying for this opportunity please consider the location of the project. Spreyton is situated in the north west region of the state of Tasmania – please click here for location map. It is approximately 5kms away from Devonport, a busy port-side city.
You will be living away from home for the duration of the project.
Suitable local accommodation + appropriate transport will be provided.