As a high school student, Eve Visser was told by a career advisor that she shouldn’t consider university. However, Eve was determined not to let this dissuade her. She took it as added motivation, going on to receive a scholarship to study at the Australian National University (ANU).

Currently in her third year studying Engineering and Science with a major in Climate Science, Eve is passionate about sharing her experiences and knowledge with prospective students. This interest in outreach inspired her to start volunteering with EWB’s ACT Chapter, running workshops to encourage students to pursue a path in engineering.

Path toward engineering

During high school, Eve always liked science and had friends  who were considering studying engineering. However, it was only at university that she really got a clear sense of what engineering was like as a field and future career path. 

Eve is now in her third year of study and is living university life to the fullest, juggling a job as a receptionist in college along with volunteer work with EWB and as an ANU student ambassador.

A priority for Eve was to make the most of university by getting involved in extracurriculars, following the advice she received from her mother, who stressed that university was important not only for academic work but for getting involved in clubs and making friends. 

“I’ve been trying to do everything I can while I’m here.”

Highlights with EWB

EWB ACT Chapter members during a Regioneering trip on the south coast of NSW.

Eve began volunteering with EWB’s ACT Chapter in her first year at university after hearing about EWB’s outreach program, which sparked her interest.

Eve’s first outreach trip was to the south coast of NSW, which involved visiting two or three schools every day and running workshops. The focus of the trip was encouraging students to consider engineering as a career path, and specifically humanitarian engineering, which students may not have been aware of. 

A highlight of the trip was a workshop with homeschooled students, which Eve says was a valuable opportunity to see how the students learned and how this differs from traditional schooling. This workshop was a change from the usual style, run in a backyard with 10-15 students of varying ages. 

Eve also participated in the ACT Chapter’s Local Design Summit earlier this year, visiting a native grain farm in Yass. This was an exciting and informative opportunity for her to learn more about the native grain industry and the principles of sustainable community development. She found it valuable to see different ways of working with the land, acknowledging its local characteristics and drawing on Indigenous knowledge to improve farming practices.

For Eve, a highlight of volunteering with EWB is meeting the people in her Chapter, and being inspired and guided by what they’re doing.

“I love seeing what they’re doing with their degrees, the projects they’re doing and the things they’re involved in.”

Outreach and advice

Reflecting on her own experiences, Eve stresses the importance of role models and guidance when following a path in engineering. She says that knowing an engineer or engineering student would have been a great help for her, and that their advice would be invaluable.

This belief drives Eve’s volunteer work, which focuses on outreach and connecting with high school students who may be thinking about studying engineering.

As well as volunteering with EWB, Eve is an ANU student ambassador, contributing to outreach for schools around Canberra and working on open days and outreach programs aimed at high school students. 

Eve volunteering with the Engineering Student Association (ESA) at ANU’s Market Day.Eve encourages aspiring students to learn more about the field, keep up their maths and technical skills and persevere with a path in engineering. 

“If you’re thinking of it, don’t let anyone tell you no.”

About the ‘Futur-neers’ program: This series is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the ‘Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship’ grant program. The program focuses on deeper support and amplification of EWB’s Youth Outreach volunteer network, with a particular focus on empowering women in engineering.

To read about our other incredible ‘Futur-neer’ role models in the EWB Chapter network, click here.

The post Meet our Futur-neers: Eve Visser appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

Growing up on a boat in the Torres Strait until she was 14, water was an integral part of Erin Hughes’ childhood. Today, it’s the focus of her work as an engineer.

After completing a Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Queensland, Erin is now a Surface Water Engineer at Hydrology and Risk Consulting in Victoria. She works in flood engineering and hydrology, working with emergency services to manage flood risks and providing technical input to dam operators across Australia.

Alongside her engineering job, Erin leads EWB outreach initiatives in remote communities that educate students about the possibilities of a career in engineering. 

Path toward engineering

A young Erin on a fishing boat with her family in 1992.

Erin grew up in the Torres Strait on her family’s commercial fishing boat. Throughout much of her early childhood, her family lived in very remote areas, sometimes spending up to 5 months of the year in almost complete isolation. 

“It was an absolutely wonderful upbringing. I pretty much didn’t wear shoes until I was 14, when I went to boarding school.”

Erin and her siblings were homeschooled by their mother, whose approach prioritised hands-on learning and connecting their education to their Torres Strait community and the world around them. It wasn’t until she started attending boarding school in Brisbane that she first sat in a classroom. 

When Erin finished high school, she wasn’t immediately sure of her career path, initially considering a TAFE course in mechanics. She instead travelled overseas on a Rotary Exchange program for a year, where her experiences cemented her desire for a career that could enable community-led change. 

Erin then commenced a Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Queensland. She found it challenging – studying heavily theoretical engineering subjects, it was difficult for Erin to understand the purpose of her studies when it wasn’t grounded in a real-life context. To date, she says her degree is the hardest thing she’s ever done. 

However, when she started a graduate job working as an engineer for her local council, Erin loved seeing what engineers were capable of doing and knew it was the right career path for her. 

“I adored the work, and knew that this was the right job for me, and I just had to get through the degree.”

Improving Youth Outreach

While Erin had come into contact with EWB during her first year of university through the EWB Challenge, it was during her professional career that she started volunteering with EWB through the Youth Outreach program. Erin supported projects targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, running knowledge hubs and partnerships with communities in South East Queensland.

While delivering Youth Outreach workshops, Erin was seeking ways to improve the program. In particular, she realised the need to target students with outreach efforts at a younger age. While the Youth Outreach program was aimed at Year 11 and 12 students, Erin found that targeting this later stage of students’ education was often too little, too late to make lasting, systemic change. To spark an interest in STEM, she realised consistent engagement all the way from primary school was crucial.

Erin refocused her efforts towards outreach workshops for primary school students in the Torres Strait, aiming for consistent, long-term engagement from prep to year 6. These workshops continued over the course of the students’ primary school education, with the aim of embedding knowledge and interest in engineering through continuous engagement. 

“It needed to be recurring. We needed to build trust within these communities, we wanted to re-engage the same students every year.”

Erin’s aim was that students would come away with improved understandings of who engineers are, what they do and what they are capable of. 

Erin on a Regioneering trip with volunteers from the EWB University of Queensland Chapter.

Measuring outreach impact

In 2019, Erin’s passion to see change in the Youth Outreach program led her to secure a grant from MECCA M-Power, which focuses on supporting educational opportunities for women and girls. Erin used this funding to conduct research measuring the impact of EWB’s outreach programs on communities in the Torres Strait. Her goal was to determine whether the workshops were achieving their aims, and provide solid evidence of the program’s impact.

Her research method involved interviewing 30 primary and high school students, who had varying levels of engagement with EWB over a period of up to 5 years. Students were asked questions on what they thought an engineer did, and whether they could apply this knowledge to what engineers could do in their own community.

Her research showed that students had a deeper understanding of engineering following the workshops, and that they were able to connect it to their local community. As part of Erin’s research on representation and challenging stereotypes, children were asked to draw a picture of an engineer. 

“We were really interested to see whether they were identifying someone who looked like them, whether that was of a different ethnic background, whether it was female or male.”

Erin found the results were promising, with students who had been engaged previously generally drawing engineers from different backgrounds and genders instead of the “typical white male”. 

An engineer for everything

Erin’s unique upbringing gave her an ongoing connection to her community, which continues to shape her professional and volunteer work. Growing up in the Torres Strait, Erin gained a first-hand awareness of diverse forms of learning and knowledge, and the importance of place-based approaches. In her engineering work today, she emphasises that solutions to problems must be tailored to their specific environment and value local expertise.

“No matter how amazing a solution might be to a problem, if it’s not actually tailored to the community and working with that culture and that community… it’s not going to work.”

This approach also feeds into her outreach work, where she stresses to students the value of their own local knowledge and sense of place. It’s this diversity of experiences that Erin believes is what makes engineering a great career path.

“There’s an engineer for everything, and as an engineer you can create a job that’s just for you.”

In 2024, Erin will embark on a trip to Antarctica with Homeward Bound, a leadership initiative for women with a background in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine). Homeward Bound’s vision is to equip a 10,000-strong collaboration of women with the skills to demonstrate a new model of leadership and proactively contribute to a sustainable future. Erin was selected as one of only 103 applicants globally to participate in this program.  

Erin is seeking support to enable her to take part in this initiative. You can learn more about Erin’s journey to Antarctica with Homeward Bound by visiting her page here.

About the ‘Futur-neers’ program: This series is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the ‘Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship’ grant program. The program focuses on deeper support and amplification of EWB’s Youth Outreach volunteer network, with a particular focus on empowering women in engineering.

To read about our other incredible ‘Futur-neer’ role models in the EWB Chapter network, click here.

The post Meet our Futur-neers: Erin Hughes appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

It’s not all calculations and writing reports when you’re an engineer. Sometimes you’re abseiling from some of the tallest buildings in Melbourne’s CBD. Or at least that’s what a ‘day in the office’ can look like for façade engineer, Hannah Jury. 

Restoring, repairing and replacing facades

Four years ago, Hannah leapt out of a Bachelor of Civil and Architectural Engineering degree from the University of Adelaide and straight into the graduate program at Arup as a façade engineer. Despite not knowing exactly what a façade engineer does, Hannah was eager to find out. 

Weeks into the job, Hannah heard of fellow façade engineers conducting building inspections via abseiling – and thought that sounded pretty amazing. Years later, Hannah urged Arup to support her in completing the IRATA Industrial Rope Access Certification herself. After a week of gruelling and physically demanding training, she now holds an abseiling licence and uses it regularly to conduct monthly inspections across Australia. 

“I might be the only female abseiling engineer in Melbourne!” reckons Hannah.

But it’s not just the thrill of abseiling from some of Australia’s tallest buildings that gets Hannah up in the morning; it’s her passion for sustainability that truly drives her. Façade engineers aren’t typically associated with driving environmental and sustainable development, yet Hannah believes they play a critical role in minimising the carbon footprint of new and old construction. 

“It doesn’t matter what kind of engineer you are, there’s always going to be an opportunity to influence sustainability outcomes.”

Hannah abseiling from a building in Melbourne to conduct a facade inspection. 

Hannah’s day-to-day work sees her working closely with architects and design consultants to develop façade systems for new constructions that are built for longevity. She examines a range of factors including thermal performance, watertightness, airtightness, daylight, durability, constructability, fire performance, access and maintenance. For existing constructions, Hannah inspects the façades of buildings requiring repairs, diagnoses the issues and develops strategies to repair or replace façade elements. It’s here that Hannah has found her passion for restoring some of Australia’s oldest buildings. 

As Hannah explains, “Regular inspection helps us identify defects and deterioration early so we can recommend robust remediations, keeping the building looking good and performing well. The best low carbon building strategy is to avoid building at all, so I’m stoked to be helping extend the lives of our Australian building stock!”

From Ingenieure Ohne Grenzen to EWB Australia

When she’s not abseiling, Hannah volunteers her time with EWB Australia as the Arup-EWB Partnership Coordinator. However her journey with EWB didn’t start in Australia; she first came into contact with the Engineers Without Borders network over seven years ago when studying overseas in Germany. 

Whilst on an exchange trip in 2014, Hannah joined Ingenieure Ohne Grenzen’s (EWB Germany) Aachen University Chapter and started delivering Youth Outreach workshops to local schools. Hannah remembers delivering workshops to classes with Syrian refugees. To build the confidence of refugee students, the Chapter members would write the instructions for activities in Arabic and ask the Arabic-speaking students to explain the activity to the German-speaking students. It was Hannah’s first experience delivering workshops to school-aged children, and she was hooked from the start. 

Returning to Adelaide after her exchange trip, Hannah was eager to continue volunteering her time in the outreach space. After speaking to an EWBer friend from university, Hannah signed up as the University of Adelaide Chapter’s School Outreach Coordinator. 

“It seemed like a cool way to advertise engineering to students who wouldn’t have as many opportunities as I did.”

The University of Adelaide Chapter preparing to deliver a Youth Outreach workshop.

After completing her degree, Hannah moved to Melbourne in 2019 to commence Arup’s graduate program. Keen to meet new people through the EWB network, Hannah joined the local Victorian Chapter and soon after started volunteering her time in her current role as Arup-EWB Partnership Coordinator. In this role, Hannah supports the long-standing partnership between EWB and Arup and helps enable Arup’s pro-bono support for EWB’s engineering projects in Australia and overseas. 

One of the projects Hannah recently supported was the Rawa community school upgrade project in Kunawarritji, a remote community in the Pilbara. For this project, Arup supported the design of a basketball court and accompanying shade structure for the school, which was the first recreational sports facility in the town. Hannah spoke to Arup staff and identified colleagues skilled in structural design, civil design, geotechnics and wind engineering who could help support EWB’s work with the architects and community to develop an efficient design. Hannah also continues to support the delivery of EWB’s Youth Outreach program. 

Hannah’s advice for aspiring STEMinists

Hannah considers herself lucky to be an engineer, as her all-girls high school always encouraged its students to pursue male-dominanted careers. However she knows first-hand through her experience delivering Youth Outreach workshops that this isn’t always the case. Her advice for the next generation of STEM changemakers?

“Girls feel like they need to know everything back to front, inside out before they have the confidence to go for something… [But] you don’t need to be able to write a textbook on maths or science. You don’t need to be an expert, you just need to be able to use the concepts that you learn.” 

 

“STEM and maths can feel daunting because it’s just these random numbers with no meaning. For me, I found that once I applied the maths to the engineering it was no longer just XYZ but actual things that relate to the real world… That really helped me. There’s a real reason why I’m doing this and it’s less abstract. Maths has a real application with engineering and it’s not as scary…” 

Through her work with EWB, she hopes to encourage young girls to have the confidence to consider a career in STEM, because you never know where engineering might take you – as Hannah knows, some jobs can take you to surprising heights.

Video edited by Olivia Hough.

About the ‘Futur-neers’ program: This series is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the ‘Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship’ grant program. The program focuses on deeper support and amplification of EWB’s Youth Outreach volunteer network, with a particular focus on empowering women in engineering.

To read about our other incredible ‘Futur-neer’ role models in the EWB Chapter network, click here.

The post Meet our Futur-neers: Hannah Jury appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

“I’m quite motivated by doing things other people don’t. Being one of the only female students in my engineering classes didn’t bother me. I proved that I could be there.”

Long-term EWB Chapter volunteer Emily Chung has never been one to stick to the status quo. Back in 2011 when she applied to study a double degree in Civil Engineering and Architecture, it never worried her that choosing a career in two male-dominated industries may come with challenges. 

Not only did Emily graduate from The University of Sydney in 2016 with flying colours, but she was also later awarded 2021 Female Engineer of the Year by the Association of Consulting Structural Engineers NSW in recognition of her involvement in unique and technically challenging projects, and impressive volunteer career with organisations such as EWB Australia.

Emily on-site at Wynyard Place in her role as a structural engineer in 2017.

First Taste of Being a Socio-Technical Engineer 

Emily first came across EWB Australia in her second year of university when she took the EWB Challenge, a curriculum-integrated project-based learning opportunity for undergraduate engineering students. In a group, Emily’s team designed a modular, early learning centre for a village in Timor Leste. It was through the EWB Challenge that she first saw how human centred design can have a transformative influence on not only individual lives but society as a whole. 

“After doing the EWB Challenge, that’s when I really saw how engineers can have an impact and how technical skills can be used in a beneficial way.”

A year later after taking part in the EWB Challenge, Emily joined her local EWB Chapter. Inspired by EWB’s vision of a world where technology benefits all, Emily was excited by the opportunity to volunteer her time with an organisation that aligned with her values and aspirations. 

Emily later became Co-President of the University of Sydney Chapter in 2014, where she helped organise EWB’s second ever Regioneering trip. Alongside her fellow Chapter volunteers, Emily visited 14 high schools over 3 days in Central-West NSW. During these visits, it became clear to Emily that engineering wasn’t well known or understood as a potential career option for many of the students at these schools. Through the Youth Outreach workshops, Emily not only introduced the students to the possibility of being an engineer, but also showed them how engineering has the capacity to improve the lives of others. 

After graduating from the University of Sydney Chapter, Emily started volunteering as the Local Partnerships Coordinator with the NSW Chapter. In this role, Emily helped formalise partnerships and develop programs, such as the successful employment support program for migrant and refugee engineers in partnership with Metro Assist.

Emily ended up volunteering with EWB for a total of 7 years, where she was able to take her learnings from this period and use them in her professional life. Emily found this experience extremely rewarding. She was able to advocate for the social and environmental issues that matter to her while simultaneously inspiring the next generation to be part of the solution to these problems.

Emily volunteering with Habitat for Humanity alongside her colleagues at TTW in 2018.

Spreading the Volun-cheer!

Whilst continuing to volunteer her time with EWB, Emily began working as an intern with structural engineering consultancy firm, Taylor Thomson Whitting (TTW) in 2015. Soon after joining TTW, Emily noticed the firm didn’t have any community based programs for employees to take part in. Drawing upon her vast volunteer experience with EWB, Emily took it upon herself to create a community based initiative. And with that, The Community Engagement Group was formed! 

Through this initiative, Emily created ongoing impactful opportunities for TTW staff to participate in helping the community and creating inclusive and meaningful activities for all. Some of the rewarding volunteering initiatives Emily led staff to participate in included assisting with renovating women’s crisis accommodation with Habitat for Humanity, cooking meals for people in need with Our Big Kitchen, and helping remove rubbish from the Sydney Harbour through the Sydney Clean Up Kayak program. 

The Community Engagement Group initiative not only enabled Emily to continue her passion for volunteering, but also inspire her colleagues and drive cultural change within the organisation. 

From all this, it isn’t hard to see why Emily won the ACSE Female Engineer of the Year award in 2021. The award is given each year to a leading female engineer who is a role model for other women in engineering. Emily acknowledges that it was because of her previous volunteer experience that she was able to contribute to TTW in a meaningful way.

“Make sure that you take advantage of all opportunities because you never know where they might lead.”

Every opportunity has the potential to open new doors; Emily is proof of that.

Video produced by Olivia Hough.

About the ‘Futur-neers’ program: This series is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the ‘Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship’ grant program. The program focuses on deeper support and amplification of EWB’south Outreach volunteer network, with a particular focus on empowering women in engineering.

To read about our other incredible ‘Futur-neer’ role models in the EWB Chapter network, click here.

The post Meet our Futur-neers: Emily Chung appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

As Elise kicked off her first year studying a Bachelor of Civil Engineering at The University of New South Wales, it quickly became clear to her that girls still lack the opportunities they need in high school to set them up for success in a STEM career. 

It wasn’t until Elise took a subject in programming that she found her true calling, and later made the decision to switch to a Bachelor of Software Engineering. Now in her third year of study, Elise is using her skills in software and data solutions to improve public transport timetable scheduling for Transport for NSW in her role as a cadet. She also volunteers her time with the UNSW Chapter as the Chapter’s Co-President. 

Drawing upon her struggles and experience of ‘imposter syndrome’ during her first year of study, Elise is using her story to inspire young women to find the right career path for them.

Road to University

Elise working on a project for her grade 12 Design and Technology class; an aquaponics teaching resource to engage students with science and technology in primary schools.

Elise experienced gender stereotypes early on when it came to her education. At her all-girls high school, students had the opportunity to choose from a wide range of subjects such as food technology, textiles and child studies. However, Elise realised that it wasn’t sewing or cooking that caught her attention – it was what she learnt in her maths and science classes that truly fascinated her. 

Her love of maths and science was encouraged by her teachers and her older sister, Adele, who also studied engineering at The University of New South Wales. When the time came for Elise to apply to university, it made sense for her to explore the possibility of being an engineer.

Having been accepted into a Bachelor of Civil Engineering at UNSW, Elise was eager to begin her studies at the start of 2020. However, within the first couple of weeks she noticed that some of her male peers had a considerable advantage over her. Unlike most of her cohort, Elise did not have the opportunity to choose engineering studies during high school. She initially found this confronting, and it made her doubt her decision to study engineering.

“I went into engineering not really knowing what it was like and what engineering actually involved. I really started doubting myself about my ability to do STEM… It was demotivating feeling like people had an advantage over you.”

These feelings of uncertainty continued to trouble Elise until she began a programming course. She had so much fun learning about coding and found herself excelling at it. This was a lightbulb moment for Elise. She realised that she always had the skills to do what she wanted, she just hadn’t found the right pathway yet.

“It’s good to be reminded that it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the path for you if something is too hard for you or you’re not fully enjoying it. It just means that you haven’t found your niche yet.” 

The importance of role models in STEM

Elise with her older sister, Adele, at the UNSW Women in Engineering Camp in 2019.

Although Elise experienced many challenges during her first year of university, studying engineering also provided her with opportunities to meet like-minded people and positive role models. One of these opportunities was through EWB Australia’s Chapter network. 

Elise first came across EWB when she was in high school. One day, Elise’s older sister, who was the School Outreach Director at the UNSW Chapter, asked her if she could help carry resources to an EWB Youth Outreach training day. It was here that Elise listened to a presentation about Youth and Community Engagement. Captivated by what she learnt, Elise immediately knew that she wanted to volunteer with an EWB Chapter. Elise saw this as an incredible opportunity to influence and inspire the next generation of young changemakers.

“I’ve always wanted to find a career that helps people and improves the world, and I think we’ve perfectly captured that through humanitarian engineering.”

Two years after attending that first EWB workshop with her sister, Elise is now the Co-President of the UNSW Chapter. She works closely with her team of directors to plan, organise and execute Youth Outreach Workshops as well as professional and social events for university students. Her role as Co-President provides Elise with the platform to pass on her message to young people: 

“Take your time to find your niche. Don’t ever give up because you think it’s too hard or because you think you’re not good enough…You probably just haven’t found the right path for you yet.” 

The UNSW Chapter at a training day in 2022.

In Australia, women account for 15-20% of undergraduate engineering students and only 12.4% of engineers in the workforce. In a male-dominated industry such as engineering, Elise knows there’s incredible value in having inspirational role models for young people to look up to. By sharing her story and volunteering her time with EWB, Elise hopes that she too can be a role model for young girls, much like her sister was to her.

About the ‘Futur-neers’ program: This series is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the ‘Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship’ grant program. The program focuses on deeper support and amplification of EWB’s Youth Outreach volunteer network, with a particular focus on empowering women in engineering.

To read about our other incredible ‘Futur-neer’ role models in the EWB Chapter network, click here.

The post Meet our Futur-neers: Elise McCaul appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

Growing up in Cambodia, David Sea never imagined he would one day be teaching children in rural Australia how to build floating houses like those on the Tonle Sap.

Now, in his final year completing a Bachelor of Engineering degree at The University of Queensland (UQ), David draws on his love of learning and science to teach school students about the wonders of engineering in his role as the UQ Chapter’s Youth Outreach Regioneering Coordinator. When he’s not studying for exams or volunteering his time with EWB Australia, David works as an undergraduate Process Engineer at Metso Outotec, an international manufacturing company servicing the minerals processing and metals refining industry. 

However, his journey was not without challenges.  

Moving to Australia at 12 years old

David in Kampong Phluk Floating Village, Cambodia at 15 years old.

As a child, David saw first-hand the devastating and enduring impact of poverty. David’s parents were children during the horrific Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and were not afforded the same prosperous and educational opportunities as David and his two siblings. 

David’s father worked hard to complete a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and a Master of Public Administration, all whilst supporting his family. David’s mother lost her father during the Khmer Rouge regime due to limited access to sufficient healthcare. She lived with her mother in a small village under difficult economic circumstances without her father supporting the family, and as such, completing her education was not an option. 

Although David’s mother was unable to complete high school, she was a powerful influence on David and his siblings and inspired in them a dedication to their studies. David credits his parents for his love of learning; a passion that he brings to the classroom in his role delivering Youth Outreach workshops. 

“I truly believe in the value of education and I will continue to promote the power of education through any work that I do.”  

When David was 12 years old, he waved goodbye to his family and stepped onto a plane to Australia to pursue an education at a high school in Brisbane. Although he faced many challenges along the way – culture shock, language barriers and difficulties acclimatising to high school – David looks back on this time with pride. 

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without that experience.”

Why engineering?

David and fellow UQ Chapter member Anh Van accepting the UQ Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology International Student Award in 2019.

Now in his fourth year of study at The University of Queensland, David is close to finishing his degree in Chemical Engineering. When he was younger, David was convinced that he was going to become a businessman. He envisioned himself completing a business degree and then returning home to Cambodia to work in the bustling hospitality and tourism industry. 

Ultimately though, this didn’t feel like the right fit. Instead, David wanted to use his creative thinking and love of chemistry to help solve problems for those who didn’t have the same opportunities he had growing up. 

This is what initially drew him to EWB in 2019. 

When David was in his first year of university, he discovered EWB’s Humanitarian Design Summit program. The program offers students the opportunity to travel overseas to learn about human-centred design and sustainable development in a real-world setting. David dreamed about returning home to his family and helping improve the lives of communities in Cambodia, one of the locations for the program. 

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the Humanitarian Design Summit was put on hiatus and David was unable to take part in the program. Despite this, David was inspired by EWB’s mission and work in Cambodia, so he decided to join his local Chapter as the Regioneering Coordinator. 

“One of my goals was to give back to EWB for all that they have done for my home country and utilising my skills, I wanted to influence the next generation of engineers,” explained David. 

As Regioneering Coordinator, David is responsible for planning trips throughout the year to schools in remote and regional Australia. During these Regioneering trips, Chapter members deliver innovative, practical and inspiring engineering-based workshops to children in rural areas.  

Regioneering in far-north Queensland

Lewis, Amy, Jess, David and Thien from the UQ Chapter at Barron Gorge in Queensland on their regioneering trip in 2021.

David’s latest Regioneering trip saw the UQ Chapter visit five schools in regional far-north Queensland over a five day road trip. Each day, the Regioneering team visited a different community to present workshops on clean water, appropriate housing and access to better health. This experience opened David’s eyes to the many local challenges experienced by Australia’s remote communities. 

One of the communities visited by the UQ Chapter was Ravenshoe, a small town in far-north Queensland with a population of less than 2000. During the height of the pandemic, people living in Ravenshoe waited up to 3-4 weeks for a doctor’s appointment. As a result, many school children who were waiting on medical appointments had to stay home and miss out on class. 

A highlight for David on this trip was seeing how much fun the students of Ravenshoe had learning about engineering. One teacher mentioned to David how wonderful it was to see the students connecting and bonding as teams in the hands-on activity after months of limited student interactions due to the pandemic. 

David’s advice for the next generation

David running the ‘Appropriate Housing’ workshop with students from Kuranda District State College. This workshop explores the importance of developing appropriate housing solutions in the context of floating villages in the Tonle Sap region of Cambodia.

Reflecting on his journey, David’s advice for the next generation of changemakers is to not be afraid of failure. 

“Growing up, I remember I always pressured myself and I was scared to do anything slightly outside of my comfort zone… I thought failure was a bad thing.”

Now David’s advice is, “Go try as many new things as you can. Fail and try again. Because at a young age, that is how you learn.”

Whether it be in his job as a Process Engineer, or through his time spent volunteering with EWB, David hopes to promote the value of education, diversity and inclusivity in all that he does. He hopes to help young people realise their untapped potential and become changemakers in their own community, whether that be in STEM or otherwise! 

About the ‘Futur-neers’ program: This series is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the ‘Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship’ grant program. The program focuses on deeper support and amplification of EWB’s Youth Outreach volunteer network, with a particular focus on empowering women in engineering.

To read about our other incredible ‘Futur-neer’ role models in the EWB Chapter network, click here.

The post Meet our Futur-neers: David Sea appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

Nurse. Farmer. Social worker. Athlete. Biomedical scientist. These were just some of the many careers that Chelsea Hayward dreamt of when she was younger. It wasn’t until Chelsea realised her passion for problem-solving and helping others that she decided on pursuing a career in engineering. She saw the value in its capacity for helping not just one person but entire communities with a single solution.

Now working as a water engineer with Jacobs, Chelsea highlights how engineering is deeply embedded within the infrastructure of our society. It is engineering that facilitates much of the provisions that are taken for granted. As she works to tackle the water crisis in Sydney, it is part of her job to ensure that the people of Sydney can turn their taps on and have access to clean water. It becomes obvious that engineering isn’t only working with abstract concepts but instead is an integral part of day-to-day life. 

Where did she begin?

In 2011, Chelsea began studying Chemical and Environmental Engineering at The University of Queensland. Her studies not only taught her the technical skills and knowledge required of an engineer, but also opened the door to a number of rewarding opportunities that allowed her to see just how much of a positive impact she can make.

During her first year at university, she took part in the EWB Challenge where she worked on a project to develop a water purification system for a rural community in India. The project cemented Chelsea’s belief that engineering can be utilised to improve the lives of those who are disadvantaged. Vastly inspired by this experience, she was prompted to take up a volunteer role with EWB.

(Out)reaching For The Stars

While still at university, Chelsea ran numerous EWB Youth Outreach workshops for primary and high school students. This program inspires younger generations to consider a career in engineering and related STEM positions, with a particular focus on supporting female and First Nations people. Embracing diversity is high on the priority list for Chelsea. She recognises that in order for solutions to be suitable for all, the voices of people from a range of backgrounds are needed.

“Engineers are at the forefront of shaping our world, we create solutions for a better way of life for our communities. So it makes sense that engineers should be as diverse as the communities they are creating solutions for.”

Reflecting on her own high school experience, she noticed how females weren’t often encouraged to explore a career in STEM. She knew that being a female in a male dominated field could offer inspiration to young girls thinking of pursuing engineering. In her own work, she recognises how impactful it can be to see yourself represented in a field that you want to excel in. 

“I’m really lucky to have a reporting line of mostly women above me and I hope that this is something that becomes more common in the engineering industry. It makes it so much easier to be able to see myself in those leadership roles in the future, when there are other women to look up to.”

Chelsea acknowledges how her role in the Youth Outreach workshops is influential in the way that it allows young girls to see themselves being actively represented in engineering. Bringing it full circle, Chelsea returned to her high school recently to conduct a workshop, empowering girls to feel motivated and have the female inspiration that was lacking in her own schooling. 

Chelsea became increasingly engaged with the Youth Outreach program and broadened her scope to the Regioneering program in her final year of university. This initiative aims to introduce students in remote areas to careers in engineering. Chelsea was actively engaged in this and being a principle organiser, has spent weeks on the road visiting numerous schools across South-west Queensland, Northern Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands. 

In the town of Roma, there was one moment that struck Chelsea when mid-workshop a young girl called out, “Ugh engineering, I would never do that”. However, by the end of the workshop it was a different story: “My dad is going to faint when I get home, because I’m going to tell him that I want to study engineering!” she said. This is exactly why Chelsea does what she does. 

Learning Through Living

Chelsea with her homestay family, Humanitarian Design Summit participants and an EWB facilitator in Chong Koh Village, Koh Traeng Island, Cambodia in 2015.

During her final year of university, Chelsea travelled to Cambodia for a two week Humanitarian Design Summit study tour with EWB. This program focuses on human centred design, with a particular emphasis on learning from and designing for communities. This two week trip allowed Chelsea to gain exposure to the ways in which engineering can positively impact and uplift the lives of others. 

Throughout the first week, Chelsea was immersed within the culture and people of Cambodia. Learning through workshops, she began to form an understanding about what the day-to-day activities of the locals entail. In a group challenge she was tasked to find a Tuk-tuk driver and discuss with them possible improvements to their vehicle. The driver they spoke with had completely embellished his tuk-tuk, adding fake grass and cool floral designs. She recalled that her group got a little sidetracked throughout this challenge as they chatted and got to know the driver and his family. 

For a few nights, Chelsea lived with a family located along the Mekong River, experiencing first-hand the daily life of rural Cambodians. Chelsea and her group were also asked to problem-solve, through exploring a solution to prevent the erosion of the island. After collating research, they proposed that a cluster of native flora should be planted in a specific manner to add support and impede water erosion. 

The EWB Humanitarian Design Summit gave Chelsea direct, immediate and valuable skills within a diverse learning environment, where she was able to apply her knowledge in a real world setting. 

From Having Role Models, To Being a Role Model

Chelsea delivering a Youth Outreach workshop to the Northern Peninsula Area College – Injinoo Junior in Far North Queensland on a regioneering trip in 2016.

Chelsea started as a student volunteer with EWB when she was freshly out of high school. Her ability of making the most and never shying away from an opportunity, as well as having a deep passion to inspire those around her, enabled her to progress and become the EWB National Outreach Coordinator, which she has held for the last two years. In this role, she develops resources and empowers children, teenagers and young adults to explore how human-centred design can contribute to positive social impacts, and expands their perspectives on the world to more empathetically strive for a better future.

Chelsea stresses that although engineers are characteristically technical people, in order to see the change and diversity in the industry, they need to become better storytellers to allow people to better understand and appreciate the importance that engineering plays in daily life. Chelsea implements this way of thinking into her personal and professional approach, with the hopes to inspire the next generation of engineers. 

Video editing by Rafid Choudhury.

About the ‘Futur-neers’ program: This series is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the ‘Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship’ grant program. The program focuses on deeper support and amplification of EWB’south Outreach volunteer network, with a particular focus on empowering women in engineering.

The post Meet our Futur-neers: Chelsea Hayward appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

Unique opportunity to influence the future of engineering education and policy

EWB Australia is pleased to announce recruitment for the unique BeLongEng Project has begun! We invite you to sign-up to help support this important research. 

The BeLongEng Project is a world-first longitudinal study on engineers and engineering careers, run by a coalition of great universities EWB has been proud to partner with including The University of Canterbury, The University of Auckland, University Technology Sydney, Queensland University of Technology and The University of Western Australia.

The research will run from 2022-2042 with participants taking surveys in 2022, 2023, 2025, 2027, 2029, 2032, 2037 and 2042. The resulting data will paint an incredibly rich picture of diversity on the careers of engineers from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as information on how engineering roles and skills shift over time.

EWB Australia’s role

EWB Australia is excited to be a peak body partner of the BeLongEng Project. We believe this research will help shape the future of engineering. EWB has been running education programs and pushing for changes to the global Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies as we see the potential for engineers to help lead sustainable development in every context, including Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. 

The recent updates to the competencies and discourse at events such as the EA Climate Smart Engineering Conference tells us that the understanding of the role of engineers is evolving. We believe there is an increasing desire in the sector to be more present in policy development in relation to sustainable development, as well as a desire to make engineering processes and outcomes more inclusive and sustainable. We believe that new skills, many of which are already associated with humanitarian engineering, will help drive the transition for engineers to embrace their role as a socio-technical professional.

This research will help determine if the role of engineering changes over time; how the skills change, how they don’t and where the gaps are. This data will also help us understand how EWB can support the sector to transition in key areas, drawing on our extensive experience in building a diverse skill set in engineering students and professionals, which complements their core technical skills.

The research also captures humanitarian engineering as a discipline to track those who identify as humanitarian engineers. This will make it possible to see how the careers of those engineers progress, including their sense of belonging to the profession, the different fields they work in and their work locations. There are also some great questions at the global humanitarian engineering scale. Given this, participation in the BeLongEng research project from participants who have previously been involved in EWB’s programs and placements will be highly valuable.  

Making research inclusive and respectful

EWB and our partners are focussed on ensuring research is ethical and the benefits of research are shared equitably. Historically, this has not always been the case, with some groups benefiting far more than others. In particular, research with First Nations Peoples has been characterised by misrepresentation, bias, theft and inappropriate use of data.

The BeLongEng research project has been designed with all this in mind; Indigenous data rights was a critical consideration throughout the broader ethics process. The research was designed with the principle of Kaitiakitanga at its core. Kaitiakitanga is a Māori concept relating to guardianship and protection which has been embedded in the research design to ensure justice in both the guardianship of participants’ data, and how this is handled and reported. The project has been approved by the University of Canterbury’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC 2021/157).

How to get involved

You can sign up today to support this critical and impactful research. Applications for participation close Friday 10 June 2022.

To be eligible, you must be an engineer from Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand. This means you either need a 2-, 3-, 4- or postgraduate engineering qualification from Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand, and/or be recognised by Engineers Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand as an engineer. You also need to be expecting to work as an engineer for at least the next 10 years.

By participating in this research, you will help shape the future of engineering and help organisations like EWB Australia understand how to support the engineering sector in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, as we work towards global sustainable development.

Applications are now closed. 

The post Ground-breaking research on the future of engineering needs you! appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

On the 6th of October 2021, EWB NSW Chapter in partnership with the Women in Engineering, Engineers Australia Newcastle division, hosted an online webinar leveraging the findings from the 2018 EWB Australia report, ‘Engineering Redefined”.

The webinar, Engineering Redefined, ran in a panel discussion format and explored how to explicitly embed a social focus into engineering in order to attract and maintain diverse professionals into the industry.

We were delighted to be joined on the panel by industry professionals Dr. Gunilla Burrowes, Professor Anna Giacomini and Peter McArdle who shared their stories and insights on how to address the issue of diversity within the engineering workforce. 

Transforming the Engineering Industry into a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce

The hour-long panel discussion was a robust conversation hosted by EWB NSW Chapter President Wenqian Gan. A key topic discussed was the importance of workplace culture in reimagining the industry:

“In my day, we had to change to fit into the workplace culture. This is why we haven’t been able to embed equality into the workplace agenda. Humans have a tendency to change adversely. We need to change our behaviour and our mindsets,” said Dr. Gunilla Burrowes, co-founder of Gender Matters and Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia.

The panelists also discussed who is responsible for driving change in the sector: 

“This idea about practicing your values, not just professing them I think applies to us very strongly. What I had to learn is it is not an easy lesson necessarily, that’s really uncomfortable sometimes and I’m speaking as a man in this space and I’m speaking particularly to other men is that you have to be willing to be uncomfortable. 

 

If you’re actually going to practice social values, it’s going to be uncomfortable. And you have to be ready for that. If we’re going to respond to it, not just talk about it, we’ll have to make ourselves uncomfortable,” said Peter McArdle, EWB Board Member and Red Cross Operations Coordinator for COVID-19. 

Dr. Gunilla Burrowes added that “One of the first steps is getting a language and structure and vocabulary that you’re willing to trust each other… We’re in a very opinionated world, where very few people will say they don’t have an opinion on that. But we do need to get to that point. We need to create a supportive environment to start exploring beliefs and views.”

Professor Anna Giacomini from the School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle emphasised that cultural change needs to come from both directions; “Students and young professionals go through a variety of issues related to diversity that are not solely about gender. They need to be able to talk to someone who understands, and also someone who can report and facilitate organisational change at a higher level.

Having an ally is fundamental, but for change to happen we need to have champions that enact the change first and set an example for others.”

Exploring the links between Human-Centred Engineering and Gender Diversity

In 2018, EWB Australia released the report, Engineering Redefined, which examined diversity in engineering and called for the sector to be reimagined. Amongst a range of findings, the report suggests that involving women in humanitarian and social projects could be key to getting more females involved in engineering.

The report found that motivation statements referring to ‘social-connectedness’ resonated much more strongly with women than men. It also found that shared values and understanding were the most prevalent motivators to getting involved in EWB education initiatives. 

Articulating the relevance and potential impact of engineering to younger students was also found to be a motivator for university students when returning to their own classroom. Many initiatives which aim to attract and retain diversity in STEM fields already focus on the influence role models can have on others through, for example, providing a real example of what an engineering career path might look like. However, there are also clear benefits for the role models themselves, such as increased motivation stemming from building their own deeper understanding of their chosen career path.

“What we identified was that this conversation shouldn’t be limited to just women, we want to make clear how different people can become an ally and use their power to drive this conversation forward. To do that, there was a need to facilitate a forum to understand what individual concerns and existing institutional challenges there might be, and suggest ways to address them” said Wenqian, President of the EWB NSW Chapter. 

Moving Forward

Whilst EWB doesn’t specialise in gender, we recognise that a diverse workforce brings many benefits to our org and the sector. To that end, we will continue the roll-out of the Diversity and Belonging Policy supported by Gender Equality Implementation Guidelines, take affirmative action through board quotas, develop supportive policies that encourage a diverse workforce and encourage the industry to continue its work in making the profession an environment where all are welcome.  

Take Action

Everyone can do their part to improve gender diversity in the sector by:

1. 1. Supporting flexible-work policies: providing flexible work arrangements, such as parental leave. Support others who would take advantage of these opportunities.
   2. Model the right behaviors: be mindful of your words and actions. Make no assumptions about women’s challenges and roles.)
   3. Communicate fairly: ensure everyone is given equal opportunity to speak and participate. 

Women can join Engineers Australia’s Women in Engineering group to shape the discourse within our profession. You can also get involved with EWB by joining your local Chapter.

If you’d like to read more about our research exploring the links between human-centred engineering and gender diversity, you can view the Engineering Redefined report available here. 

If you missed the webinar, you can view the recording here. 

The post Who’s responsible for gender diversity in engineering? appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.

In the aftermath of COP26, it is clear that engineering needs to creatively respond and drive further the promises made by governments to mitigate and adapt, to create a safe and just future for all. This triggers a fundamental reflection of the role of engineering and what competencies are most important within this critical discipline.

Last year, Engineers Without Borders International and Engineers Without Borders organizations from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, the Netherlands, the Philippines, UK and USA pulled together to influence change at the highest level of engineering governance. To push for transformation of engineering competencies towards greater beneficial impact for people and the planet.

Together, we called for three core competencies to be universally incorporated into the international benchmark values for engineering graduate attributes and professional competencies hosted by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and the International Engineering Alliance (IEA). We advocated that critical reflection be included, with a deeper comprehension of ethics and a more inclusive view on those that were valued in decision making.

Our input was warmly welcomed as the voice of the future of engineering and the benchmark values have been updated. We’re now working with WFEO to scope out more opportunities where the Engineers Without Borders vision of engineering can become mainstream.

Read more about the competencies ihere via the International Engineering Alliance

 Join the EWB network today, to drive this change into how engineering is taught and practiced. After all, it is only words on paper, unless this version can successfully be a mandate to expand and change the culture of what it means to be an engineer, and the responsibility of engineering itself.

 We will be discussing the newly announced engineering competencies and how they are set to produce socio-technical engineers and a revamped profession, on Thursday 2^nd December at 5pm. You are warmly welcome to join us for this FREE event

The post Do engineers have the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to create positive change? appeared first on Engineers Without Borders Australia.