May 27, 2014

Safety Compass app points in the direction of healthier and safer workers

A cash prize and training in entrepreneurial skills is helping Adam Poole improve safety in workplaces.

Health and safety on construction sites and other workplaces could be improved with the touch of a button following student Adam Poole’s idea to make available thousands of pages of information simply by holding up a smartphone.

Through his current role as a health and safety advisor and in his postgraduate studies, Adam Poole saw a need to simplify the masses of information contained in risk registers and site hazard logs while providing workers with the vital safety information they need.

“Every manufacturing site or industrial or construction workplace has a massive pile of paperwork that documents all the safety hazards and precautions needed for that workplace,” Mr Poole said.

“But that takes hours to go through and no everyone understands what they are reading. A smartphone app will give them instant access to relevant health and safety information in their immediate work area.”

Mr Poole took his concept for a health and safety app to the UOW Pitch 2013 competition, where he won the Postgraduate Student category.

Much like Mr Poole, UOW’s innovative minds have an opportunity to turn their ideas into reality and share in $40,000 worth of prizes.

Entries are closing on 13 June for the UOW Pitch 2014 competition, which is helping staff and students turn their innovative into reality while at the same time fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within the University.

The Safety Compass app is based on augmented reality technology, which takes a live or real-world environment and enhances it with computer-generated elements such as sound, graphics or, in this case, linking thousands of pages of health and safety documentation to GPS map data.

He hopes to have an app framework ready in coming weeks and begin trialling an early version later this year.

He said participating in and winning UOW Pitch 2013 helped him shape his idea and provided invaluable advice, such as what to look for in an app developer, to get it off the ground.

“I’ve been thinking about this idea for years and if not for the Pitch competition it probably wouldn’t have got off the ground,” Mr Poole said.

Through the support of SAF funding and industry sponsorship from NuMega, the UOW Pitch 2014 competition, is designed to build on the success of iAccelerate and further promote student and staff involvement in entrepreneurialism and the commercialisation of ideas, inventions and research outcomes at UOW.

For details and to apply, visit the UOW Pitch Competition website.

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