Ever wanted to represent Australia? You may have thought that being a cricket, netball or athletics star is the way to  go.

For some top students their scientific knowledge has become their passport to don the Green and Gold and compete for Australia.

The International Science Olympiad is a program where top science students compete in a range of subject areas. This year the Physics students will head to Mexico, Chemistry students to the UK, Biology students to Japan and Infomatics students to Bulgaria.

Last year Australia picked up two gold, six silver and four bronze medals. Good luck to this year’s Olympians and let’s see if we can do better!

(Source: Brisbane Times | Image: Brisbane Times)

‘Anything is possible when you follow your passion…’ That’s the message from the new campaign from the South Australian Government designed to encourage students to study maths and science and look to future careers in the field.

The campaign includes an interactive website, career ambassadors and a competition to win an ultimate worksite visit.

SA Deputy Premier, Kevin Foley announced, “We need more students thinking about careers in science, engineering and technology, as well as the mechanical, electrical and construction trades.” Adding, “Choosing the right subjects in the final years of high school is a vital prerequisite to working in these dynamic sectors.”

South Australia has a high demand for these industries, particularly due to defence, research, information technology and mining sectors.

This is an excellent resource for anyone considering their future. This campaign has the same core goals as EngVibe, so we’re big fans. Check it out, the main site is here:

 www.TheresMoreToIt.com.au

Overall, this is an outstanding initiative by the SA Government.

(Source: SouthAustralia.biz | Image: TheresMoreToIt)

The impact of the GFC is starting to be felt in Australia, with the announcement this week of unemployment reaching a five-year high.

Separate news reports over the past few weeks have shed some light onto how this will impact the engineering and scientific industries.

The first article from the ABC talks about jobs drying up for new graduates: “Four years ago there was a lot of demand for engineering places and I guess the market was growing a lot but now it’s the exact opposite, so it’s a bit of a shock to the system.”

The second article from the Australian, highlights the impact the slower market has had on school leavers, with universities showing a significant rise in applications: “In what will be seen as a welcome response to skills shortages in the national priority discipline of engineering, undergraduate enrolments are about 12per cent higher than last year. At 20 per cent higher than last year, full-year engineering enrolments for overseas students heave reached the highest level in recent years.”

It will be a tought time ahead for new uni grads and those currently looking for work. The increase of engineering students, however, will be a big boost for industry over the next few years.

Image by stuartpilbrow

Opportunity currently open:

Australian university students with something “eco” on their minds are being asked to step forward with their ideas on sustainable energy solutions for the 2009 Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds Forum, and be in with a chance to represent Australia at an International Forum in Auckland, New Zealand.

In partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Bayer Eco-Minds program aims to foster awareness, thirst and passion for the environment amongst students from across the Asia Pacific region. In return, the winning students receive an all expenses paid trip to Auckland for the opportunity to present their ideas and participate in solution-orientated group work, cross-cultural activities and knowledge sharing in a bid to tackle real-life sustainable development issues.

In Australia, the initiative is being supported by leading environmentalist Jon Dee who believes the Eco-Minds Forum is an ideal opportunity for students to put their passion to good use. 

“What better way for young Aussie students to get their suggestions for sustainable energy solutions out there,” says Dee. “Eco-Minds provides the perfect forum for tomorrow’s leaders to exchange ideas with each other in a proactive, pan-Asia effort to make a very real difference to the future of our environment, today.”

2009 will see the third bi-annual Eco-Minds Forum take place. At the 2007 Forum in Thailand, university students Rachel Cain from the University of Adelaide, Laura Joseph from the University of Western Sydney and Eric Knight from Sydney University represented Australia when the best minds from across Asia Pacific came together to explore real-life issues and sustainable development ideas for fresh water supply. 

Rachel Cain, who has been involved with the Youth Environment Council of South Australia, as both a member and mentor, and has completed voluntary work in Central America, says:  “Eco-Minds has helped to fast track my career by providing me with an unforgettable experience to work alongside students from across the region to try and solve issues of sustainability that affect all of us.

“Each student brought their own knowledge and skill-set which helped fuel the discussion and ideas and allowed each of us to learn so much from each other. It’s opened up doors for me and I’ve created some wonderful friendships.” said Ms Cain. 

The 2009 Eco-Minds Youth Forum will focus on a topic that is of growing importance to the world - Sustainable Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. As part of the week-long event, participants will look at some of the challenges around energy supply, including climate change, and the practical solutions that can overcome such challenges with a visit to New Zealand’s hydro and geothermal supply systems.

For those “eco-minded” students who have ever seen something and thought “I could do it better”, this is their chance. The Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds is open to all university students aged 18-24 years with delegates from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India, Indonesia and China attending.

For entry details and application forms, students can log on to www.eco-minds.bayer.com, or contact the Australian Eco-Minds Co-ordinator on

(02) 4736 0892. Entries close on 28 March 2009.

(image by ian.plumb)

James Willcox, a seventeen year old student from the Hunter School of Performing Arts has had the NASA experience with another round on the horizon.

The youth astronaut program involved a science and engineering challenge held in California. This challenge involved the design and build of Mars Rover-type model vehicle capable of going over rough terrain. No easy task.

For James one of the highlights of the trip was the chance to see the neutral buoyancy lab used for astronaut training.

After impressing the staff at NASA, James has been invited back in a teaching role. This is hopefully the next step towards a career as an astronaut. Big goals, good luck to him.

Source story from the Herald.

Each year students throughout Australian get a chance to put engineering concepts to work through the Australian International Model Solar Challenge – an event where teams go head to head through the construction and racing of model solar cars.

One such team was Jack O’Toole, Daniel Reed and Jason Streat from St Matthews Central School who won a spot at the Australian International Model Solar Car Championships in Hobart. Their car took two months worth of lunch breaks, after school work and of course, balsa wood.

Events of this type are a great exposure to engineering and scientific concepts for students in a fun and interactive way.

For more info about the St Matthews Central team have a read of the article from the Mudgee Guardian. For more info about the Model Solar Car competition have a look at the website.

Wollongong local Michael Donovan has picked up the prize for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student of the Year for 2008.

Michael is a 24 year old engineering fabrication TAFE student currently undertaking an apprenticeship with AGi Engineering. His win follows the receipt of the NSW Training Award earlier this year. 

Sounds like a worthy winner with the Wollongong Training and Employment manager Dean Mortimer summing it up – “He’s a good apprentice and a good guy.”

Well done to Michael. Story from the Illawarra Mercury.

While travelling overseas recently I met a young Canadian engineer. We started trading stories about our respective university experiences where at one point she drew my attention to a simple metal ring she was wearing. She explained that in Canada engineers wear these rings after having them presented at a ritual on graduation. I was fascinated at this point: rituals, special rings; this sounded more like a secret society than an engineering graduation.

I did some further research and present the background and purpose of the ‘Iron Ring’.

In 1922 a civil engineering professor, Herbert Haultain, spoke to a meeting of engineers in Montreal which was attended by past presidents of the Engineering Institute of Canada. At this meeting he suggested the need for a statement of ethics which would unite the profession and be something for engineering graduates to aspire to. This was well received and Haultain got in contact with Rudyard Kipling, who had mentioned the work of engineers in previous poetry. Kipling then wrote both an obligation statement and a ceremony titled, ‘The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer’. This ceremony was held for the first time in 1925 and is still conducted to this day in universities throughout Canada.

The full detail of what occurs at this ceremony isn’t public knowledge and my Canadian friend certainly remained tight-lipped about her experience. The purpose of the ceremony is well known however, and it serves to remind new engineer of their social responsibilities and obligation to maintain high standards of professional conduct.

As part of this ritual the graduating engineer is presented with an Iron Ring, a symbolic ring worn on the little finger of the working hand which acts as a symbol of both pride and humility. My friend said that she uses it as a reminder to always check her work and followed this us with a story about a Quebec bridge which collapsed in the early 1900s, killing 75 people due to an error in judgement by the bridge’s engineers – a sober reminder indeed.

I remain impressed by the notion of a simple, physical item which identifies someone as an engineer.  My question now is, could Australia engineers introduce a similar concept and would we want to? I believe it could increase the sense of belonging amongst engineers and generate a greater sense of pride and would support an initiative if it remained true to its purpose: humble and meaningful.

One thing I am sure of, next time I’m in Canada I’ll be keeping a look out for an Iron Ring, the symbol of a fellow engineer.

For more information visit www.ironring.ca.

EngVibe is all about the positive – cool engineering jobs, fun projects and Pong. Today though I thought I’d present a humorous, but somewhat accurate, piece about the less fun side of studying engineering – this article is from Aaron Rowe (Wired Blog Network):

For many students, earning a degree in engineering is less than enjoyable and far from what they expected. Here are our biggest complaints about the educational rite of passage. Of course, they are sweeping generalizations. Feel free to disagree. 

5. Awful Textbooks
Thick, dry, black and white manuscripts are rarely a source of inspiration and sometimes can cause loads of confusion. Often, the text is poorly written and interrupted by lengthy equations with symbols that are different from those used by the professor during lectures.

4. Professors are Rarely Encouraging
During each class, a professor that would rather be tending to his research will waltz up to a blackboard or overhead projector and scribble out equations for an hour without uttering a single sentence to create some excitement.  

3. Dearth of Quality Counseling
College students may not have a sense for how to build their resume and they might be clueless about the variety of career opportunities that await them. Unfortunately, some academic advisers do little more than post fliers about internships and hand out a checklist of classes to take. They should make some projections about the future job market, learn about the interests of each young scholar, and offer them tailored advice for how to best prepare themselves.

2. Other Disciplines Have Inflated Grades
Brilliant engineering students may earn surprisingly low grades while slackers in other departments score straight As for writing book reports and throwing together papers about their favorite zombie films.

Some professors view undergraduate education as a type of natural selection, but their analogy is flawed. Many of the brightest students may struggle while mediocre scholars can earn top scores because they have a larger group of supportive friends to or more time to dedicate to studying.  

1. Every Assignment Feels the Same
Nearly every homework assignment and test question is a math problem. Only a few courses require creativity or offer hands-on experience.

Two fourth-year University of Queensland students have made PNG their place of work as part of the university’s Professional Engineering Placement Scholarship program. 

David Shaw and Adam Brown will work at New Britain Palm Oil Limited where they will apply work conducted as part of their research projects related to the company.

The projects involves optimising the operation of a screw press that extracts oil from the palm fruit and improving the efficiency of steam emissions, reducing costs. 

‘Things are so different to Australia, so we had to adapt to a totally different way of working,’ David said. 

The UQ press page is here.