mXrap Team

Meet the mXrap team

Meet the team

The Australian Centre for Geomechanics (ACG) has had a long involvement in the development of mXrap under its Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management research project.

Dr Dan Cumming-Potvin

Project Lead – mXrap Development

Dan completed his Bachelor of Mining Engineering and PhD at The University of Western Australia in 2012 and 2018, respectively. He has worked at a number of underground metal mines in Australia, specialising in the areas of ground support, monitoring, and mine seismicity. Dan is project lead for mXrap.

Audrey Goulet

Research Fellow

Audrey joined the ACG in 2023 as a research fellow while finishing her PhD degree in mining engineering at Université Laval (Quebec, Canada). The objective of her thesis was to improve understanding of the behaviour of rock mass, such as the seismic responses to development blasts, through an

innovative approach to characterise the geotechnical properties of the rock mass. She also completed her master’s degree at Université Laval in mining engineering. This was in partnership with the ACG and involved the development of a borehole application. Audrey’s bachelor’s degree in geological engineering was also through Université Laval. Audrey is a part of the mXrap team and works on the application of probabilistic ground support design tools which is a subproject of phase 3 of Ground Support Systems Optimisation (GSSO3). She focuses on improving automation in the data input (in the Rock Mass Data Analyser application) and DFN calibration processes.

Paul Harris

Senior Software Engineer

Paul was originally contracted in 2001 to develop the software component of the Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management project. Before joining the ACG, he developed custom software for clients in the mining industry. Paul continues to develop the mXrap software, and is the project manager

and developer for the Regional Seismic Network project. His focus is on software development and its application to mining and seismicity.

Dr Matthew Heinsen Egan

Software Engineer

Matthew joined the ACG in 2018 as a software engineer. His focus is on further developing the libraries and tools available for mXrap app developers, and contributing to the development of specific mXrap apps.

Liam Niedzielski

Software Engineer

Liam completed his Bachelor of Science in Physics and Computer Science at The University of Western Australia in 2021. He joined the ACG in 2021 as a software engineer on the mXrap development team. Liam works alongside the geotechnical engineers to develop and maintain mXrap apps, as well as contribute to the libraries available for mXrap developers.

Dr Kyle Woodward

Research Fellow

Kyle was initially associated with the ACG in 2010 through his final year research project for his undergraduate Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) degree at The University of Western Australia. Upon completion of this degree, Kyle undertook postgraduate research with the ACG which focused on time-dependent seismic responses to mining.

In 2015, he was awarded a PhD (Civil and Resource Engineering) for his thesis entitled, ‘Identification and Delineation of Mining Induced Seismic Responses’. Kyle has been involved in various ACG projects including the Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management project and the mXrap Consortium. Kyle was project leader for the ACG Stope Reconciliation and Optimisation Research project from 2016 to 2019. He is currently working on Phase 2 of this research project, along with work associated with the mXrap Consortium.

Part-time team members

Joseph Justin Muaka Mbenza

Research Fellow

Joseph joined the ACG in 2019 as a research fellow. His areas of interest include: advanced numerical modelling and statistical, probability and data analysis. Previously, Joseph was a senior mining geotechnical engineer for SRK Consulting, South Africa. He has more than 15 years of experience in mining and rock mechanics.

Joseph has a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a master’s degree in Rock Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He was the recipient of the Rauji Foundation award in 2004 for best student, Faculty of Engineering, University of Lubumbashi, DRC, and the chairman award for employee of the year at SRK Consulting, South Africa in 2016.

Denisha Sewnun

Master’s Student and Research Fellow

Denisha has more than 13 years of experience in the geomechanics aspects of open pit and underground mining projects. She has a BSc (honours) degree in Engineering Geology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and a Master of Engineering degree in Geomechanics from the University

of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. In 2020, Denisha joined the ACG as a research fellow after having spent eight years providing consulting services for mining projects across Africa. Denisha is currently a Master of Philosophy student involved in the in situ testing of ground support using blasting, which forms part of the Ground Support System Optimisation research project (GSSO3). She also assists with the Discrete Fracture Network/Block Model Limit Equilibrium Ground Support Design Tools research project and is a part of the mXrap team, where she works on the development of the Rock Mass Data Analyser application.

Stuart Tierney

PhD Student and Research Assistant

Stuart graduated from the University of Tasmania in 2011 with a Bachelor of Geotechnical Engineering. He has worked as a geotechnical engineer in Kalgoorlie for nearly five years, mostly focusing on managing seismic risk at Raleigh and Kanowna Belle. He completed a Master of Engineering Science (Mining Geomechanics)

at Curtin University in 2016 where his thesis in the final semester was assisted by the ACG. Stuart joined the ACG as a research assistant for the mXrap Consortium in 2017 and started his PhD in 2018 looking to quantify the risk associated with short-term seismic exclusion zones.

Associate Professor Johan Wesseloo

Australian Centre for Geomechanics Director

Since obtaining a BEng (Civil) and MEng (Geotechnical) from The University of Pretoria, Johan has been involved in geotechnical engineering in open pit and underground environments throughout 14 countries. He commenced his career in 1998 as a geotechnical engineer at SRK Consulting, Johannesburg

where he was involved in open pit and underground projects in varying geotechnical conditions. In 2005 he was awarded a PhD (Geotechnical) from The University of Pretoria. Johan joined the Australian Centre for Geomechanics (ACG) in 2007 as a research fellow. During his time at the ACG, Johan has been involved in research, the supervision of postgraduate students and geotechnical training. He also performs geotechnical and mining-induced seismicity reviews providing him with the valuable opportunity to visit numerous operations worldwide. Johan was instrumental in the development of the mXrap software and many of the software routines and apps available in that platform. Johan is a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM). He was awarded the SAIMM Gold Medal in 2006 and 2016, and the SAIMM Silver Medal in 2014. In 2019, Johan was appointed director of the ACG.

The University of Western Australia Students

Over the years, several postgraduate students have been part of our team. Students form a valuable part of the team as they contribute to research and development and assist with the mXrap development. As part of their studies, they also develop software routines and mXrap apps, some of which have matured to standard ACG apps.