Engineers Australia eNews contains the latest news from Engineers Australia and
a calendar of events.

2008 – Year of the Engineering Team

Engineers Australia
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Daily engineering news

New award for Electrical Engineer of the Year

Engineers Australia’s Electrical College has established the National Professional Electrical Engineer of the Year Award to promote excellence, promote the profession within the community at large and, at the same time, encourage young people to take up electrical engineering (especially power engineering) as a career.
The award is designed to recognise excellence in current performance by a highly respected senior member of the College, someone the members of the profession can relate to in terms of the work performed.
This person would also be someone who can be seen as a role model by young members and who can be promoted to the community as a respected senior member of the electrical engineering profession.
Nominations close at the end of October 2008.
For more information on the award, the timetable, judging criteria and to download a nomination form click here.

Comment invited on draft policy statements

In Australia, 13% of the population is presently aged 65 or over. This will rise to 14.6% by 2011.There is an urgent need in Australia to make the benefits of technology available to the ageing, according to one of Engineers Australia’s current draft policy statements. Engineers Australia recommends that the federal government gives priority to the delivery of appropriate technology and universal design solutions for the ageing, and to research into service and delivery of technology for the aged.
This draft statement is one of two currently open for comment by Engineers Australia members. The second one is on “Assistive technologies”.
Both statements were prepared by the College of Biomedical Engineers. They are open for comment until 30 September.
The draft statements can be viewed at www.engineersaustralia.org.au. Log in as a member and go to Government Liaison and then to Discussion Papers.

Engineers driving Australia’s future

Engineers in leadership roles will be the focus of Engineers Australia’s biennial leadership conference this week in Perth. The conference will be opened on Thursday morning by the governor of Western Australian, civil engineer Dr Ken Michael who is an honorary fellow of Engineers Australia. Keynote speakers will include civil engineer John Grill, chief executive of WorleyParsons, electrical engineer Else Shepherd, chair of Powerlink Queensland, and mechanical engineer Tom Quinn, managing director of Aker Solutions. The conference will conclude with a hypothetical session, which will explore some broader issues of business ethics, community relations, commercial reality and political intrigue.

More indigenous students choose engineering

The number of indigenous students in engineering and related degrees has increased by 15.8%, latest figures from the federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations show. According to the statistics, 183 indigenous people were studying “engineering and related technologies” in 2007, compared to 158 in 2006.
However, these numbers are small compared with other disciplines. In 2007, 3159 indigenous people were studying society and culture, 1994 chose degrees in education and 1548 opted for health. In total, there were 9370 indigenous people in higher education last year.
Marilyn Strother, director of Indigenous Student Services at the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of WA, said the mining boom in the state has led to some increase in the number of indigenous engineering students.
However, she said there were many reasons why indigenous students may not be enrolling in engineering. For example, they may not have done the prerequisite subjects in high school. Typically, indigenous students decide on courses in law, education or health in order to benefit their communities, she said.
Overall, 69,642 students were enrolled in engineering and related technologies in 2007. Of those, 20,418 were international students and 10,815 were female.

Latest Technical Journal of Structural Engineering

Models of the post-cracking stiffness of lightly reinforced concrete slabs are being evaluated in one of the six technical papers contained in the latest Australian Journal of Structural Engineering. The journal is published under the auspices of Engineers Australia’s Structural College. Members who don’t subscribe to the journal can purchase a copy by contacting Pam Chenery at Engineers Australia’s publishing company Engineers Media, phone 02 9438 1533.

Notices

Notice of annual general meeting 2008

The 88th annual general meeting of Engineers Australia will be held in the Members Dining Room 2 of the Old Parliament House in Parkes on 20 November.

Nominations sought for national deputy president

Engineers Australia is calling for nominations for the position of its national deputy president for 2009.
Current national deputy president Peter Godfrey will assume the position of national president at Engineers Australia’s National Congress meeting on 20 November 2008.
Bye-law 32.4.3 requires that the national deputy president shall be an Honorary Fellow or Fellow of Engineers Australia who has served at least one term as a delegate to the National Congress.
Voting for National Deputy President will take place at the National Congress meeting.
Eligible candidates are invited to obtain nomination and submission guideline forms by contacting the executive officer to Council on 02 6270 6509 or emailing executivesupport@engineersaustralia.org.au. Nominations close
on 17 October .

Fee changes from October

Engineers Australia has announced changes to the services and fees for chartered status assessment and membership admission which come into effect 1 October. All prices listed exclude GST.
The fee for a chartered status assessment will increase from $400 to $500. This is the first fee increase since 2001 and reflects increased administration and support costs.
The membership admission fee will increase from $40 to $50. First year graduates are exempt from this fee.
Members seeking readmission after a lapse in membership must pay a readmission fee of $50.
A member seeking chartered status reinstatement after a period of more than six months but less than five years, will require a desktop assessment of competency, equivalent to a CPD audit which will cost $200.
For a full list of conditions, visit the Engineers Australia website.

Have your say on the federal tax review

Members are invited to provide comment on tax issues that affect them as part of Engineers Australia’s submission to the federal government’s tax review.
Members are invited to comment on problems with the current system, reforms needed to address these problems, and whether new features need to be included in the tax system to overcome future issues.
Please provide comment to policy@engineersaustralia.org.au by 26 September.
To read the review’s terms of reference and the background paper click here.

Nominate inspiring and influential women

Nominations are invited for the next edition of the publication Who’s Who of Australian Women to be released March 2009.
The theme of the edition is “Lessons we learn”. Entrants are encouraged to share their experiences on education and who may have inspired them. The idea behind the publication is to recognise modest, quiet achievers in society alongside more high profile women.
For more information click here.

Regional members needed for survey

Do you live or work in a regional area? Then the Regional Taskforce of Engineers Australia needs your help to complete a short survey.
The group aims to improve access to membership benefits, such as access to CPD and peer support, for members living in a regional area.
Information collected from this survey will assist Engineers Australia in understanding its regional members and improve the planning of CPD activities and other services.
The survey can be taken by clicking here.

Publications

Calendar

Engineering Education Australia will run the following short courses:

• Writing winning technical documents (2 days) Brisbane 10 Sep
• Stormwater management (2 days) Melbourne 11 Sep
• Fundamentals of project management (1 day) Adelaide 11 Sep
• Earthworks (2 days) Perth 11 Sep, Melbourne 16 Oct
• Contract management (2 days) Melbourne 15 Sep, Brisbane 13 Oct, Perth 20 Oct, Darwin 27 Oct
• Negotiation skills (2 days) Perth 16 Sep, Melbourne 7 Oct, Brisbane 21 Oct
• Risk and liability management (2 days) Perth 17 Sep
• Project management (2 days) Sydney 11 Sep, Melbourne 18 Sep, Brisbane 16 Oct, Darwin 30 Oct, Perth 23 Oct
• Managing self and others (2 days) Hobart 22 Sep, Townsville 7 Oct, Adelaide 16 Oct, Sydney 30 Oct
• International trends in managing power quality and voltage dips (2 days) Sydney 24 Sep
• Electrical engineering practice module 3 – protection systems, motor starters and power quality (2 days) Sydney 25 Sep
• Design and fabrication of pressure vessels (3 days) Melbourne 6 Oct, Perth 13 Oct
• Asset management and maintenance (2 days) Brisbane 8 Oct, Sydney 21 Oct
• Inspection, repairs and alterations of pressure vessels (2 days) Melbourne 9 Oct, Perth 16 Oct
• Managing cultural differences (1 day) Perth 13 Oct, Brisbane 27 Oct
• Relate to Aussies (1 day) Sydney 14 Oct, Melbourne 20 Oct
• Creating and managing networks for successful business relationships (2 days) Sydney 16 Oct, Melbourne 21 Oct

• Newcastle 9 September
• Brisbane 11 September

• Adelaide 16 September
• Perth 19 September
• Launceston 2-3 October
• Melbourne 9-10 October
• Mt Druitt, Sydney 20-21 October
• Brisbane 23-24 October
• Canberra 30-31 October