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Education & research

Education & research

The future of education and research

Re-engineering education and research for the future is critical for the growth and prosperity of our society.

Yet, our universities, schools and research organisations are facing major challenges and disruptions, threatening their viability and relevance into the future. Technology is changing at a rapid pace, infrastructure is ageing, operating costs are increasing, stakeholders are more demanding and funding sources are becoming scarce, challenging us to think differently and creatively about the future.

We need to acknowledge the ‘elephant in the room’ and challenge ourselves to identify solutions for how to balance growth and sustainability to ensure a society that continues to be enriched through engineering knowledge and advisory insights.

An engineering consultancy for the education and research sector

It is only fair that our children, the future shapers of our world, should ask, what’s stopping us ‘eating the elephant’? That is, why aren’t we moving fast enough and with conviction, towards an education and research sector that can both survive and thrive?

It’s time to re-engineer education and research to ensure we are embracing the inevitable changes and exploiting the opportunities ahead, to remain relevant for future generations.

Future ready by design

Aurecon is uniquely positioned to assist our education and research clients to re-engineer their organisations for the future. With a future ready mindset, we are constantly scanning the horizon for the next generation of technological, environmental and societal changes.

This enables us to have a bigger role to play beyond the traditional engineering service offerings, helping our clients to redesign their businesses to minimise risk and maximise opportunities. We co-create with our clients a more sustainable future through:

Embracing digital disruption

As engineers and advisors, with high-level skills in digital technology, we bring smart thinking and the latest tools and trends in areas such as data capture, sensors, artificial intelligence and robotics to our clients, to help them understand options and work together towards solutions that improve business performance.

Reducing costs

Operational costs can be one of the greatest challenges facing education and research organisations. We work together to explore options to improve efficiencies, using tools such as machine learning to collect and analyse data, which enables more informed decision-making.

Optimising assets

Large assets are often under-utilised and costly. Bringing our advisory, asset optimisation and digital skills to clients ensures we can work together to add value across the full continuum of the asset lifecycle, from design, through construction, to operation and maintenance.

Balancing growth and sustainability

While growth is the goal, we understand the need to balance sustainability with a growth strategy. We help our clients to explore business case options for capital expansion and operational optimisation to ensure that being future ready isn’t at the expense of long-term sustainability.

Exploiting alternative energy

Future energy involves a mix of options, including renewables, and a new way of purchasing through micro-grids that not only results in lower energy costs, but has the potential to generate revenue. We work with clients to explore these options to find solutions that meet their specific needs.

Providing education and research through projects

The delivery of education and research is changing, providing ‘real world’ opportunities to learn, gather and analyse information in new ways. Aligning with companies that can provide these opportunities is vital for a future ready organisation. We partner with our clients to create meaningful alignments for mutual benefit.

How we deliver

We deliver through collaboration and co-creation – understanding our clients’ challenges, prototyping, testing and refining to arrive at the best solutions, always ensuring it is enjoyable and rewarding for everyone – we refer to this as Bringing Ideas to Life through The Aurecon Experience.

Digital – As early adopters of digital technologies, we bring the latest and most appropriate tools to the design and delivery of projects, to ensure our leading-edge knowledge and experience is transferred to our clients and their projects. From creating a ‘digital twin’ of existing assets to better manage and understand maintenance and lifecycle needs, to using machine learning to analyse data to decrease energy usage and operational costs and enable better investment decision-making, we are at the forefront of engineering technology that can amplify business success.
Human-centred design – We place people at the centre of our design approach. By focusing on the success of our clients, we work through specific challenges and find solutions that meet their needs, and ultimately, those of the end-users.
Innovation – We use design-led thinking as a core methodology, backed by a mindset and Aurecon-proprietary toolkit for innovation. With our clients, we co-create and deliver solutions focused on end-users, so that their ultimate experience is enhanced.
Eminence and expertise – We draw on a strong cohort of education and technical leaders from around our business to provide the right team for each challenge. Our design leaders are nurtured through our own Aurecon Design Academy, with a strong focus on encouraging and supporting diversity to enable innovation.

Our services

Aurecon is an engineering, design and advisory company, but not as you know it. We’ve re-imagined engineering. We provide services beyond the usual, understanding that like us, our clients need to think holistically and creatively about the future.