b'Education matters that understand geophysics and geology,last person in the role showed upin Australia, we havent set ourselves know how to interpret, but can alsoliketo challenge ourselves to thinkup for success in order to capitalize manage projects, have really goodbeyond the paradigm that theres onlyon the potential of our nation to fully communication skills, write businessone way to undertake, or perform,participate in the energy transition. cases, etc. or to succeed in that role. And then IGeophysics in particular is one area think the second thing is, there is anwhere I think we will be really sorely I can see a trend where we look forabsolute assumption that students arelacking.people with broad skill sets that cantechnically competent and that the key integrate all those things and thendifferential is our behaviours. Even atMP: What role does digitalisation deliver outcomes on the basis of thatthat graduate stage, your emotionalplay in the clean energy transition? kind of integration. intelligence - thats effectively what weWhat kind of education is required to However, were never going to get awayhire on the basis of. guarantee efficient digitalisation of the from the fact that we actually needsector?all the skillsets weve always needed.MP: I just recently started thinking this What I mean, is that well still need deepway. And what does determine theEB: I think digitalisation plays a role specialists in geophysics and geology,success or the failure of the candidates? in society full stop, let alone in the but what I see emerging is a requirementenergy transition. We need people with for the layering of multi-skillsets. Forreally good digital skill sets, but the instance, well need more data scientistsWhen you talk about thedifferential for folk will be their ability and people to work with the data and tosmooth and efficient transitionto ask the right questions of the data, understand the geoscience to actuallyto clean energy, well, if we dontto get insights, and then turn those know what the data means in orderinsights into something tangible. We have today what were going toare currently drowning in information, to create insights and do somethingneed for tomorrow, were a bitand what will be fundamental will be meaningful with it. I think the question is, what ends up residing in companiesstuffed. our ability to ask the right questions like Origin? I think the graduates weof it, to understand when the data is recruit will have a broad, multi-layeredcrap, and to tell whats fake news. skill set and then companies will needEB: If you get to the interview stage, it isGoing back to bias, I think that is an the ability to contract in the deep100% your performance in the interviewinteresting issue for digitalisation, specialist skill sets and integrate that asthat will make or break. In that way, allincluding the way that systems are required. things equal in terms of experience, itbuilt by certain people and for certain can be a bit of a lottery because it kindpeople. We need to make sure that we MP: Just for my curiosity If you do notof depends on how much you mightvereally do have a diversity of folk that employ these deep specialists in yourprepared. You can never be too preparedis involved in this digitisation and in company, do you think that the poolfor an interview! the way that the data are collected, of such specialists is going to exist andorganised, and thought about, such suffice the industry needs? MP: Coming back to the clean energythat the outcomes meet all of our transition, should we expect evolution orneeds, not just the needs of the folk EB: That is part of the risk with therevolution in tertiary education to ensurethat are in there doing that work.outsourcing model, right? This modela smooth process?assumes that specialist skillsets will beI think everyone will need a really solid on tap, such that there will be a marketEB: That is what Kate Selway talkededucation in data science. I do think supply when you need it. And I thinkabout in her recent paper and you inmaths is a key aspect to that. Then its thats one of the scary things aboutyour Education piece in Preview 210.your ability to parse that information in what were seeing with geophysicalWhen education departments are shutdifferent ways and get insights and do education in the tertiary sector and thedown - thats it. It takes decades tosomething with it.real collapse of that around just a handfulbuild the competence, the structures, of universities. It absolutely concerns methe processes in order to teach aMP: Do you have a special dedicated particularly in the context of a Net Zerotertiary level skill in a specific discipline.group of data scientists in Origin or do future where critical minerals are goingWhen you talk about the smooth andyou bring data scientists into each and to be needed to underpin the technologyefficient transition to clean energy,every project?of the future. well, if we dont have today what were MP: Hiring new talent to your companygoing to need for tomorrow, were a bitEB: We have a digital team. So theres nowadays, what are you doing differentlystuffed. quite a lot of digitisation all across compared to what was done before? Origin - we use data in our retail I think thats going to be fascinating tobusiness, giving customers access EB: I think two things are different. One,see how it plays out in the supply andto their usage data and access to I think theres more structure in thedemand of the brains we need to thinkincreasingly sophisticated products interview process, which is intendedthrough the problems and deliver theand services such as demand response to drive out unconscious bias. Wework. I believe well be talking aboutand virtual power plants. Then weve create, and look to create, a processhuman intellect resources and howgot data and insights in generation and that doesnt bias against any kind ofthat may drive our economic growthhow we connected into the national a feature of a person, and encouragesor cause the economy to shrink. Ienergy market and how we operate our us to think about talent differently -think it will be really, really interestinggeneration assets to be more efficient not to anchor ourselves to what theand I think in some scientific areasand safe. Then in our Integrated Gas part OCTOBER 2021 PREVIEW 36'