International Women's Day Launch - Cocktail Evening

Engineers Australia - Women in Engineering Sydney Division celebrated International Women’s Day on Thursday 7 March 2013. Engineers Australia invited members and guests for a Cocktail Evening at the Shelbourne Hotel. The night kicked off with some inspiring speakers, mother and daughter team of Dr Catherine Killen; UTS academic in the field of innovation engineering,and Annabel Killen who both spoke about their personal journeys and experiences working in the field of engineering. 

Dr Catherine Killen provided great insight into her motivations which lead her to become a mechanical engineer and followed on by conveying her experiences on being the only female engineer at that time within the firm she was employed at. Annabel Killen spoke of her experiences as a Roads and Maritime Services (formerly RTA) scholar and then about her experiences of working at Evans and Peck consultancy. The evening was a great success, with students and professionals participating in the International Women’s Day celebrations and gaining valuable insight into the real experiences of women initiating change in the engineering profession.

This particular event was inspiring as I am a young engineering student myself. Coming from a background where engineering as a profession was not considered, in family and schooling to being in a room full of 50 or so women who have gone on to achieve amazing and exciting endeavours, was a truly invaluable experience. Being the youngest attendee, I met many current university students and many graduates who had secured astonishing graduate programs in their field. Throughout the night, I met inspirational women from all walks of life and those who had held reputable positions. Listening to the speeches of Dr Catherine Killen and Annabel Killen, it was inspiring to see the change of "women in engineering" from one generation to the next. It made me realise how significant this change was, right now, and that I am a part of this transition. Speaking with Dr Catherine Killen and about her background, I had realised that we were very similar, despite the generation gap, and I hope to go on to achieve an astonishing career. 

The night went on with a warm buzz amongst the general chatter and delish food. It was unfortunate that the night ended too quickly. Meeting inspirational women from various fields of engineering and who have achieved remarkable success, in a time where society and their gender outnumbers them. The main lesson I had learned from the cocktail event was to not be afraid to put yourself out there amongst strangers. You have nothing to lose and the only person holding you back is yourself! Network as much as you can to those who share your passion for engineering. Meet with people from all walks of life and you never know where it can take you. 

As reported by Harshaa Raha, 2012 Sydney Wie Division Scholar and Civil/Environmental Engineering student at the University of Technology, Sydney and Elizabeth Si, 2011 UTS Women in Engineering Scholar and Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Technology, Sydney

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RMS site visit: Transport Management Centre for NSW

Today, the WiE&IT Team took almost 30 UTS students on a site visit to the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) Transport Management Centre for NSW. The Transport Management Centre is situated in Redfern, and is the centre for traffic control for all state roads in the whole of NSW- that's 18,000km of road! We were invited into their presentation room, the very same room where they greet politicians and international partners, which had a great view over the Transport Operations Room. Having never heard of the TMC before, I was truly amazed to see the huge screen occupying an entire wall and displaying many familiar roads. Angela Cannuli, our presenter for the day,  explained that the Operations controllers work in shifts to monitor these roads 24/7, every day of the year, and to send assistance where it's needed.

Operations Controllers monitoring traffic in Sydney city

Angela showed a short video which explained the operations of the TMC in more detail. The Operations Controllers role is 'incident management', which involves liaising with emergency services, coordinating field resources, monitoring traffic, planning major events to minimise impact on non event communities (such as City2Surf), communicating with customers including using various social media and last but not least, road works (of course). Angela also described some of the innovations in traffic control management that have been implemented throughout Sydney over the years. One of these innovations includes the SCATS system. SCATS stands for Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System, and is used to control traffic flow. Before SCATS was used, traffic lights were on a time based cycle, and would change periodically despite traffic flow. Now, when a car pulls up at an intersection, weights under the road detect there is a demand for the lights to change. This makes it much easier to reduce congestion in busy intersections. This system was developed in Australia, but is operational in 27 countries and 263 cities around the world.

Angela showing us the SCATS system in action 

Other innovations include the electronic lane changing system used on the Harbour Bridge, as well as the Live Traffic NSW website. Fiona Simmonds, who works on the Live Traffic NSW website, gave a short talk about the mobile applications that are now available for Android and iPone (which I immediately downloaded!).
RMS are always looking for graduates. Anyone interested in working at RMS should apply through their website, found here:
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/careers/index.html

Keep an eye on our Facebook for more upcoming events and site visits!
http://www.facebook.com/groups/UTSwieandit/

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September Speakers Workshops at UTS

Between February and July this year, the Sydney Women in Engineering & IT (SWIEIT) Speakers Program have engaged with 25 schools and over 1000 school girls from years 8 to 12. This program is jointly sponsored by the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), NSW and GHD professional services firm. More information can be found on SWIEIT Speakers Program by clicking here.

Being an active outreach initiative that WiE&IT single-handedly coordinate, speakers for our presentations and school visits are always warmly welcomed. That’s why on Wednesday 5 September and Friday 7 September, women studying either Engineering or IT at UTS were invited to come and participate in an intensive 3 hour workshop designed to improve public speaking skills.  These workshops not only gave participants an opportunity to assess and analyse their public speaking style and presence, but it also gave them an opportunity to get to know some of the other women studying in the Faculty of Engineering and IT. Principal Advisor for Workplace Diversity and Equity from RMS, Ann Pitkeathly, also attended the evenings giving some insight into the importance of public speaking skills in the public sector workplace. The workshops were open to both undergraduates and postgraduates, so there were quite a few fresh faces over the two evenings. Ian Colley from UTS Training and Development Services facilitated the workshops, giving helpful acronyms to help us remember some of the more important aspects of public speaking. Some of these tips were:

Visuals: enhance your presentation. Photos are always better than cartoons!

Audio:  Alter your tone of voice to drive home a point.

Kinaesthetic: moving and touching, getting your audience involved by asking them to raise hands. 

Head: knowledge. Knowing what you are going to talk about makes presenting easier.

Heart: emotions, try to establish an emotional connection and pull at peoples heart strings.

Feet: movement and purpose, moving around the stage but also giving your speech a direction.

Afterwards, all SWIEIT Speakers and workshop attendees were invited to the Great Hall balcony for the annual SWIEIT Speakers Party, to celebrate the years Outreach activities and acknowledge the efforts of all those who contributed to the program throughout the past few years.

WiE&IT Program staff would like to say thank you  to all the girls who have participated in the program, particularly those that have travelled long distances to reach schools in rural communities. 
Anyone who is a female studying or working in these fields, is a cadet or a cooperative scholarship recipient, or UTS female Alumni is encouraged to join the program, so they can share their story and inspire female high school students to consider engineering or IT as a career!

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WiE&IT second Hands on Day for 2012

On Friday 17 August 2012, UTS played host to almost 300 high school girls from 26 schools across NSW, making this Hands on Day the largest to date. Students from as far as the South Coast to the Hunter-Central Coast attended the Women in Engineering and IT second Hands on Day for Smarter Futures this year. Students participated in a range of activities which are designed to engage them with engineering and IT disciplines. As always, these days hinge on the contributions of activities facilitated by UTS academic staff, as well as industry partners such as Roads and Maritime Services, Commonwealth Bank, Tech Girls are Chic, Engineers without Borders NSW and ThoughtWorks. Student volunteers also played a vital role in the success of the day by helping the girls in their activities as well as telling them what its like to be a UTS female student studying engineering or IT. Whether it is designing computer games, controlling robots or constructing models of Spaghetti Bridges, each student learnt something new and gained an insight into student life at UTS.

Students learning about road construction and drainage

For more information about Hands on Days next year, click on the Hands on Day tab at the top of this page. To see another article about our last Hands on Day you can visit this link http://www.newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/2012/08/hands-on-day-marks-new-high-for-women-in-engineering-it

All our wonderful volunteers!

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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.   

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Lucy Mentoring Program Launch

The 2012 Lucy Mentoring Program was launched on the evening of Wednesday 23 May, and was kindly hosted by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia at their Darling Park offices. 

Empowerment, support and development were the themes of the Lucy Mentoring Program Launch, an industry event launching a four-month-long partnership of creativity and professional development between current female Engineering and IT students, and females in senior management and technical roles from some of Australia’s largest organisations.

The Program Launch saw a record forty four students matched with mentors from twenty four private and public organisations, including Accenture, Alcatel-Lucent, Attache-Software, Boomworks, C Smart Technologies, Deloitte, IBM, Qantas, Unilever, Woolworths, Construction Assignments, Hurstville Council, Coca Cola Amatil, Arup, John Holland, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Roads and Maritime Services, Railcorp, Siemens, Ausgrid, Hi Fraser and event host Commonwealth Bank. With an excitement akin to starting a new role or walking into their first ever university lecture, students were matched with senior professional women who will mentor them throughout the program and share their insights, life experience and expertise. 

Students were treated to an official welcome by Executive General Manager Steve McGregor, a self-confessed “Male Champion of Change” from Wealth Management IT at CBA. His welcome extended to the students chosen for the program as well as the mentors who volunteered to take part, thanking all responsible for the Lucy Program at UTS. His final words to the students, “Accept this invitation presented to you tonight – you are the generation of female talent we are proud to encourage, support and develop.”

There was a line-up of inspiring female speakers from a range of academic and corporate backgrounds. Nur Oyman, General Manager of CBA, spoke about the importance of mentoring in her career. Her golden advice to the mentees was to “be present, and have presence”, drawing on her experience of how confidence is a woman’s secret weapon in the corporate world. PhD Graduate, Minoo Masihpour, echoed the same tune. With a background in research in wireless communication networks, her academic studies gave her the confidence “never to surrender”.

The Lucy Mentoring Program is an innovative leadership program with the aim to inspire, motivate and educate young females about the opportunities available in senior corporate and public sector roles. Both mentors and mentees benefit from the mutually beneficial relationship, with Sabina Bhuiyan, Test Manager at IBM, calling it a “win-win” situation. 

Her mentee, Michelle Whye, a 4^th year Bachelor of Science in IT student, could not agree more. “I feel very privileged to be participating in the Lucy Mentoring Program. It is very encouraging to have contact with women in senior engineering and IT positions because they inspire us students to join these non-traditional female fields with confidence.”

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Engineering & IT Hands on Day for Smarter Futures

If you were around the UTS city campus last Friday 27 April 2012 then you were probably wondering why there were so many students around during Vice Chancellor’s week. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss a memo and class didn’t start back a week early- it was just one of the Women in Engineering and IT's bi-annual ‘Hands on Days’. 

The Women in Engineering and IT (WiE&IT) team invite schools from all across New South Wales to participate in a fun and interactive activities day, aimed at encouraging female school leavers to consider engineering and IT as a study option and future career. Students travelled from places as far as Mudgee, the Central Coast and Newcastle to participate. The activities involved many aspects of engineering and IT learnt through studying at UTS, and ranged from making prosthetic legs, creating computer games and apps, controlling robots and even how to make artificial hearts. 

These activities couldn’t happen without support from industry partners, who donate their time to talk to the students. Each year, WiE&IT encourage industry partners to run an activity, giving the students an insight into engineering and IT career pathways and an opportunity to speak to women already working in these industries.  Companies such as Thales Group, the Roads and Maritime Services, Engineers Without Borders, Thoughtworks Australia and Microsoft Australia all ran activities that taught the girls how engineering and IT are embedded in almost every aspect of our lives. The Engineers Without Borders team did an excellent job of reinforcing this, by proving that the majority of the world's problems can be fixed using engineering solutions. 

Nekisa Mostafavi, a 5^th year Mechanical Engineering student and a facilitator for the ‘Mousetrap Race Cars’ activity, was delighted by the participant’s enthusiasm.

“I liked that everyone was involved, not just the students but the teachers as well,”  Nekisa said.

“I think the ‘Mousetrap’ activity gave them an idea of how engineering [principles] can be incorporated more into high school subjects [such as, science and physics].”

At the end of the day, over 200 hundred students had learnt something new about engineering and IT, and hopefully inspired them to pull us towards the vision of Hands on Day- ‘Engineering and IT for Smarter Futures’. 

By Shellee Murphy-Oates

UTS Events Cadet, Faculty of Engineering & IT

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