Girl Geek Dinner : Continuing on Computing Ideas Through the Ages - How Nerdy Women Help Each Other and More

This June, geeky girls over three generations gathered at the Atlassian office in Sydney city- all anticipating a night of great ideas about engineering and IT with delicious pasta, drinks and chocolate.

The first speaker, Peggy Kuo, a developer at Atlassian, shared with us various tips on how to make websites extra 'shiny'. By using HTML5 to give the site structure and content, then further polishing it with CSS3, websites become a lot more representative. She also recommended some other sites that may assist the audience to finding or making better website templates.

The second speaker, Deborah Martin, a retired software engineer, shared with us her joy in teaching seniors, especially elderly women over the age of 55, on how to use a computer. She discussed the reasons and benefits of why these women turn to her and her computer club in Parramatta for help in learning about technology. Her work also extends to educating the elderly about internet scams, security on the net and online banking. She has found that seniors are more eager to learn and in particular, her course on how to use Facebook is very popular with seniors, who hope to understand their children and grandchildren by keeping up with the internet trend.

The last speaker, Nabeelah Ali, a frontend developer at Atlassian, shared with us a slice of her life story from engaging in programming since she was young to finishing her mechatronics engineering degree and now to being a programmer. She also discussed findings from the Flow Theorem. In particular, she emphasized the importance of uninterrupted time - 'being within the zone' and how it has contributed to the success of others. Nabeelah also voiced her opinion that open plan office space may not work in helping individuals stay 'in the zone'.

In friendly but no less nerdy company, the evening ended with an open floor shout-out of job offerings, job seeking and the promotion of other events that other girl geeks are organizing, followed by much socializing, applause and laughter.

For those who missed out on this fantastic event, don't you worry! The next event will be around the corner and it's absolutely fine to have gents come along too!

By Jenny Lui, Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical & Mechatronics), UTS

readmore »»  

Best Foot Forward Career Skills Workshop: Writing Effective Applications

In the WiE&IT office, we know that applying for internships or graduate positions can be a daunting and rather overwhelming process. That’s why last week WiE&IT hosted a careers workshop in conjunction with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). This workshop was aimed at better equipping undergraduate and postgraduate female students to prepare for joining the workforce.

The manager of the CBA Graduate Program, Elise, gave an insightful and inspiring presentation on some of the processes involved when constructing a resume and filling out applications. She covered resume structure, cover letters, wording, psychometric testing and filling out applications in the session. The workshop was facilitated by Maria, the CBA Manager for Organisational Development, who gave some insightful comments and tips on how best to communicate achievements. Some important discussion points included:

-          How best to structure your resume

-          Protocol on providing references

-          When proofreading: read, re-read and re-re-read!

-          Use professional language

-          Apply for positions well before the closing date

-          Take your time to complete an application; its alright to save it and come back later

-          Never undersell yourself!

At the end of the presentation, students were encouraged to apply for some of the graduate programs available at CBA. Currently CBA are recruiting for their Summer Internship Program. Applications close in August so start your applications now!

As the workshop closed and attendees helped themselves to a little afternoon tea, the enthusiasm told us that that everyone had learned something new.

The next workshop is on 7 December 2012, registrations will open soon!

readmore »»  

3rd Seat Retrofit

The question of retrofitting existing airplanes with the new seat comes up a lot. I discussed the large amount of effort and design changes that went into the new seat in previous blog posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), but let me try to sum it up retrofitting a bit more clearly. There are two main ideas that get floated to me.


3rd belt in the pre MY2012 rear seat:

The biggest hurdle to just adding another belt to the older back seat is that the that older rear "seat" is actually 2 independent rear seats. The new rear seat is a brand new bench seat that spans the width. Two completely different designs and not a single part in common. So you can't just stick a belt in and say it is the same as the the new seat.

There are two main regulations for seat design and 23.562(b)(1) is the critical case for vertical load. All the seats have some sort of energy absorption mechanism in it. The crew seats and the new bench rear seat use crushable core, while the older rear seats use foam. But the structure underneath the energy modules is just as important as the module itself. Looking more closely, putting someone in the middle they would be riding on the edge of the two seats. Riding over both seats and the seat structure would not pass the vertical test requirements.

The seat belts attachments are also very important. A significant amount of load goes into these safety harnesses and that load has to get transferred into the airframe. To add the the 3rd seat belt we added significant composite and aluminum backup structure to both the floor and the rear bulkhead.

23.562(b) also goes into detail about the specific weight of the anthropomorphic test dummy required for the testing being 170 pounds. 23.785 also details the static structural requirements of the seat and belts. Basically because these regulations are very prescriptive for the specific requirements, you can't just choose to do a different weight and certify the belt and seat for a lighter weight occupant.

So it was a non-starter for us to just add a 3rd belt to the existing seats.

Retrofit new bench seat into old airplane:

We considered the retrofitability at the beginning of the project but it quickly became apparent that the design constraints would not allow us to make this retofittable.

As I mentioned earlier, we had to make massive changes to the airframe to be able to install and certify the new bench seat. New floors, bulkheads, hardpoints, sidewall attach points, aluminum fittings etc. It is not something you can just stick in, or even do a repair to modify it. These are the reasons why you can't retrofit the new seat into the older airplanes.

I certainly don't discourage retrofits, STC, or other modifications. These types of things are done a lot to enhance safety or add utility, and I have flown with several of them, but seat certification and occupant protection is pretty serious business, not straightforward, difficult and expensive to undertake. It is definately not an easy task to certify a seat, or add a 3rd seatbelt in any airplane which is why you just don't see it in Cirrus or any other airplane.

readmore »»  

NTSB Forum Follow Up

NTSB Board members top row,
my new aircraft design and certification panel at bottom

The forum held last week that I discussed in this post was very good. I was able to attend 7 of the 8 sessions and the speakers and topics were all very good. It is frustrating that the GA safety record has not improved over the years. One thing that came out of all of this is that general aviation consists of many different types of airplanes, and many different uses, and there is no one way to make it all safer. It always starts with the pilot getting enough good training and continuing education, but we as a community need to continue to do more to support it. I met several people, had dinner with good Cirrus safety minded folks and learned a bunch too.

readmore »»  

Engineers Australia - Women striving for Leadership Panel Discussion

Our friends at the Sydney Wie Division-Engineers Australia recently hosted a 'Women striving for Leadership' panel discussion on Thursday 21 June from 6pm at Rydges Hotel, World Square Sydney. Guest Speakers included Dr Marlene Kanga, Chemical Engineer and most importantly upcoming 2013 National President of Engineers Australia, the peak industry body in the Southern Hemisphere. Marlene re-iterated what we all know yet refuses still to be addressed; that it "is no longer acceptable for bias against any group in the workplace"  and "diversity is needed if we are to solve most of the world's problems such as sustainability etc, diversity is efficient and makes the best use of human capital-logical but not always practised, diverse boards avoid Groupthink". 


Marlene also reminded us of how far Australia has to go reflecting that our neighbour Malaysia has a target of achieving 30% women on boards by 2015. This cannot be achieved as long as one guy continues to tap the other on the shoulder when recruiting for boards, as this is one way of only recruiting from a 'very small pool of talent'. One best-practice example given by the speakers was highlighting the diversity is the recently elected French Government Francois Holland's ministry which consist's of 50% women, including a Minister for Women with Moroccan heritage. Most pointedly Marlene vision for Engineers Australia would be to return the organisation to be 'for and by the members'. A very thoughtful and gracious remark. 


Other speakers included Lucy Baker, Sustainability Leader at Aurecon who spellt out the perception that 'People are perhaps socially conditioned to take leadership suggestions from a man' and the notion that there are still backward 'preconceived ideas about 'waht is acceptable for a woman', as well as some great tips for women in leadership positions and managing a work/life balance with family responsibilities.


Final speaker, Dr Bronwyn Evans from Cochlear and Fellow of Engineers Australia, shared her journey from being an engineering cadet at the Electrical Commission to doing a PhD/becoming a lecturer, to working at Standards Australia  and GE Healthcare and finally moving to Cochlear, one of the worlds' biggest medical device organisations. The key message which was communicated and is relevant to all UTS students and graduates is that if there is case of pay inequity.........i.e. not being paid the same as your male colleagues for the exact same work, you are not only being undervalued and underpaid, but you are doing others a disservice'. Organisations will continue the trend if you do not speak up. Current pay inequity within the engineering profession sits between 10-20% within Australian workplaces. (see APESMA).


Thank you to all speakers for a wonderful and very enlightening event, and particularly for communicating the obvious..........YES, it is worth it! 

readmore »»  

NTSB GA Safety Forum

Next week the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will be holding a 2 day forum about GA safety. Titled "General Aviation Safety: Climbing to the Next Level", the forum "will address emerging safety issues in the general aviation (GA) community. The goals of the forum are: (1) to raise awareness of the GA accident rate and associated recurring safety issue areas; (2) to promote and facilitate dialogue about these issues; and (3) to determine how to effectively address these issues to improve the safety of GA operations for the future." The press release for this forum is located here.


It looks to be an interesting forum covering a variety of topics from safety programs and pilot training through weather, maintenance and new aircraft safety technologies, with many different industry experts speaking. I will be part of the New Aircraft Design and Certification forum talking about existing and potential safety technologies. I am humbled to be a part of a forum group that includes Earl Lawrence of the FAA, Greg Bowles from GAMA, Kristine Hartzell from AOPA , and Kirk Hawkins CEO of ICON aircraft. It should be a good learning experience for everyone involved.

readmore »»  

Epic Month of SWIEIT Speaker Visits in Sydney

The Sydney Women in Engineering & IT Speakers Program has broken a new record, speaking to over 500 high school girls in years 9-12 throughout the month of May. The visits held at nine different schools around the Sydney region included, St Scholastica's College Glebe, Cheltenham Girls High School, Moorefield Girls High School Kogarah, Al Amanah College Liverpool, Roseville College, Catherine McAuley Westmead, Hurlstone Agricultural High School, Glenwood High School and Loreto Normanhurst. 

SWIEIT Speaker teams of UTS female students shared their own story with high school girls and answered their questions about engineering and IT in an informal atmosphere as well as talk about senior subject selection and pathways into engineering and IT. We even had the opportunity to take along some of our robot friends and explain that they were actually built by Year 10 students in January 2012 as part of the U@UTS summer school. On the visits, female students were able to identify the robotic sensors as well as think about areas in society where sensors and engineering innovations are used. 

We would like to warmly thank Careers Advisors, Mathematics and Science teachers at the schools listed above for allowing us to inspire your students. We were warmly welcomed and look forward to visiting you all again soon. 

The Sydney Women in Engineering & IT Speakers Program is an ongoing initiative between the University of Technology Sydney and industry partners GHD and Roads and Maritime Services NSW.   

readmore »»