2014 Annual Review - Engineers Australia Sydney Division

Sydney Division

2014

A N NUAL REV I EW ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA SYDNEY DIVISION

Photo Credits: Š Jon Lee, Oneill Photographics

2

Contents Annual Review 2014 includes the following:

President’s Report............................................................... 4 General Manager’s Report ............................................. 6 Division Committee ........................................................... 7 Industry Relations ............................................................... 8 Engineers Australia Medal Winners ........................... 9 Division Events .................................................................. 10 Excellence Awards .............................................................. 10 Australian Engineering Week........................................ 11 Fellows’ Luncheons ............................................................ 12 NS Regional Convention ............................................. 13 NSW National io ion President’s Industry Leaders Meeting .. 13 CELM CE CEO’s Breakfast ....................................................... 14 Young Engineering gineering Leader Leaders R Reception .................... 14 Discover Engineering gineering Days ........... ............................................ 15 Honeywell Engineering ineering Summ Summe Summer School ................ 16 Autumn School of Engineerin Engineering .................................... 16 Engineering Careers Exp Expo............................................... .

17 Education and Assessment Fo Forum ............................. 17

Group roup Reports .................................. .................................................................... ...............................

18 Regional Grou Groups ..................................................................

Group ......

18 College llege Branches, Panels and Committees............

Committe ............ 22 Special ecial cial Inte Interest Groups ...................................................

Inter ................

28 Technical echnical Soc Societies ............................................................. ................

30

Sponsors Sponso ponso .............................................................................. .... ....... ..... ..... ... ....... ..

35

3

President’s Report Alexandra Meldrum FIEAust CPEng FIChemE President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division

26% live in the state of New South Wales.

2014 has been a year of transformation within our division. Highlights include the following: Membership The division had a strong year for membership growth. During 2013-14 membership grew to 22,600, an increase of 600 in 12 months. Growth in student membership has been especially strong.

In 2013-14, we welcomed 94 new Fellows and 292 members who gained Chartered status.

Professional Standards and Learned Society

Engineers play a critical role in our community and in shaping a sustainable future. Engineering is a key driver for increasing living standards and quality of life.

Engineers Australia is constituted to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community.

Engineers Australia ensures that the high standards of the profession are maintained through accreditation of universities degree programs and assessment of chartered status. Chartered membership of Engineers Australia signifies highly skilled professionals who adhere to the highest professional standards in this country.

Engineers Australia is a strong professional body. In Australia, we are fortunate in that we have one organisation, Engineers Australia, the peak professional body, for all engineers, all disciplines, we can come together as one voice. Engineers Australia has more than 105,000 members, of which

4

Our colleges and groups are the backbone of our learned society function.

Groups have a key role in developing engineering practice, providing networking opportunities, leading community outreach and facilitating continuous professional development. In Sydney Division, we have strong engagement: across the 34 groups in our division, we have 270 office bearers, contributing 7,000 volunteer hours per annum. In 2014, we implemented new office bearer induction processes and office bearer recognition processes, and our Board of Engineering Practice (BoEP) continues to be a forum for strategic and practical discussion of learned society function.

The division delivered activities offering 252 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) throughout New South Wales, with 8262 people attending.

Our events, activities and CPD are supported through prominent speakers and supporters, including NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer Professor Mary O’Kane, CEO of Freelancer Matt Barrie, Universities, CEOs of engineering firms, and NSW Members of Parliament.

Through the support of NSW Trade and Investment, we secured a new venue in Sydney CBD. Some groups continue to attract 200 attendees to events - Young Engineers, Women in Engineering, Civil/Structural Group, Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management and Nuclear Panel.

Sydney Division covers most of the geographical area of New South Wales.

I enjoyed visiting the regions for the President’s Regional visits. We have strengthened our support for regional members in 2014. Six of our groups are in regional areas. These groups are active and engaged. Highlights in 2014 included the inaugural Regional Fellows Luncheon, and the NSW Regional Convention. Both events attracted TV, radio and newspaper coverage. The September Chartered regional road trip delivered CPEng workshops to seven regional areas in NSW. We are embracing new technologies as part of our transformation. There is high engagement with online communications, with the President’s Message being a monthly highlight. Video conferencing has been welcomed by groups. There is a warm response to two new platforms released in 2014 by Engineers Australia, Engineering Online (EOL) for continuous professional development, and EA Connect for student and graduate recruitment.

Voice of the Profession In 2014, we initiated new approaches to raise the profile as ‘voice’ of the profession. In 2014 Sydney Division created and implemented a new external communications strategy for raising our profile and deepening strategic relations in media, government and community.

Early successes have included radio, TV, newspapers and social media.

During 2014 we established a new strategic approach for working with NSW Government, including targeted meetings to develop mutually beneficial relationships held with: •

NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer (NSW Trade and Investment)

•

NSW Public Works

•

NSW RMS

•

Transport for NSW

•

NSW Education and Communities

•

NSW Resources and Energy

We engaged with the community through Australian Engineering Week (AEW). The event has grown and AEW 2014 delivered 27 events with 1226 attendees. Due to the success of our accompanying media campaign, the month of August 2014 had the highest ever rating in terms of media profile for Engineers Australia.

For a sustainable future, we need to develop and engage the next generation, through a range of approaches. Schools programs provided opportunities for 1,200 students for active participation in Discover Engineering activities. Our Engineering Summer School remains a highlight. The Engineering & Science Challenge is embraced by our regional groups, and attended by 1,000 students.

The Engineering Excellence Awards Program has run in Sydney Division for 29 years to build links with industry and promote engineering excellence.

In 2014, there has been increased sponsorship, number of entries, and attendees at Awards dinner. More than 540 people attended the Awards evening in September. The year-long program of events in the excellence awards is part of our engagement with industry, government, universities, and with key decision makers. The year-long showcase at the Powerhouse Museum, visited by 500,000 people per year, promotes engineering excellence to schools and the community.

This year we recognise anniversaries of two great engineering achievements – 50 years since completion of the Gladesville Bridge and 40 years for the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The Gladesville Bridge was recognised with the awarding of an Engineering Heritage International Marker.

Technology has the power to transform.

Engineers from New South Wales are at the leading edge of this transformation, the creators of innovations used all around the world, including Wi-Fi technology, the global hit LEGO movie, Google maps, Freelancer, robotic technologies, sleep treatment products, sustainable materials technologies, and solar technologies.

We enter a new era based in which rapid changes in technology bring innovation and entrepreneurship to the fore. Our new committee on Innovation and Entrepreneurship is planning the inaugural Innovation workshop, skills development, to be held in February 2015.

Diversity: We have a strong future through our young engineers. More than 50% of our division members are young engineers under the age of 35, and our young engineers group is very active.

Our special interest groups play an important role - Women in Engineering, Regional Engineers, Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management, Engineering Heritage and Engineering Associates and Engineering Technologists.

Sydney Division Committee 2014 has a diverse composition: 38% female, 15% regional members, and 15% young engineers.

Governance: In 2014, Division Committee was restructured, to be more strategic and more focused. We gave new attention to governance, sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship, and to building capability. The Division Committee has now built a strong foundation upon which we can continue to grow.

A Team Effort: Congratulations to all; the strong results and achievements during 2014 have been achieved through the hard work and dedication of volunteer members and staff working together.

President’s Report

5

General Manager’s Report Steve Finlay FIEAust CPEng FIPWEA General Manager, Engineers Australia Sydney Division

We have achieved some really great outcomes over the past 12 months through the great work of office bearers, volunteers and staff. I also congratulate our National President Alex Baitch for his leadership in 2014 in driving his vision for Engineers Australia to reaffirm the high standards of the profession.

One of the most important member services offered by Engineers Australia is Continuing Professional Development.

Special thanks once again to all the panels, regional groups and technical societies for their tireless efforts in organising and delivering our CPD activities. They have been highly productive throughout the year with over 250 presentations, site visits etc. attracting more than 5,500 members delivering over 10,000 CPD hours. The very successful Regional Conference in Wollongong was the first for Sydney in fifteen years and will now be on an alternate 2 year cycle with Newcastle Division.

6

To connect with the pipeline of potential engineers we run a highly successful student outreach program through the Honeywell Engineering Summer School (currently in its 27th year) focusing on regional students and targeting 20 % female students. The Autumn School of Engineering is in its fourth year and targets metropolitan students. Discover Engineering Days have been run for a number of years by the Education and Assessment committee for Years 10 and 11 metropolitan high school students. Regional Discover Engineering Days were held in Wagga Wagga and Wollongong. We also support the Science & Engineering Challenge in Dubbo and Bowral. The Annual Education Forum with the University Deans and TAFEs provides a great opportunity for Engineers Australia to collaborate with these educational institutions over the content of engineering courses.

With excellent support from members we have continued to run a highly successful series of high quality events such as the showcase of engineering excellence in the Engineering Excellence Awards Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum Exhibition.

The Careers Expo conducted with Young Engineers Australia Sydney continues to attract high numbers. Australian Engineering Week during the first week of August was full of exciting activities and events. The Harrick’s Address by entrepreneur of the year Matt Barrie, was a standout. However we still need to look at better ways of engaging with the community in what engineers do for society. Social media is a very effective way to engage. Our Facebook “likes” during Engineering Week were the highest across all Divisions.

The CELM CEO Breakfast was held for the third year and the presentation by astronaut Dr Gregory Chamitoff sharing his space mission experiences was simply inspirational. Women in Engineering and

Young Engineers Australia continue to run very exciting events with the trivia night in Australian Engineering Week, the excellent speakers at the Young Engineers Leadership Reception and the WIE Gala Dinner, being just a few examples of these exciting events. The Fellows’ Luncheons continue to provide valuable networking and an opportunity for young engineers to engage with experienced engineers through the CELM Sydney sponsorship program. The inaugural Regional Fellows Lunch at Wollongong was a huge success and will now be on the annual calendar.

As always income is highly dependent on sponsorship and in the current economic climate sponsor dollars have proven to be very difficult to acquire. This has dramatically impacted on the ability of Women in Engineering and Young Engineers Sydney to deliver their usual programs. Sponsorship for the Engineering Excellence Awards Sydney reduced severely in 2012. I am delighted to report that we have seen a change in 2014 and sponsors have come back to support our activities.

Engineers Australia cannot achieve what it does without the volunteers who do so much to promote the profession of engineering and the benefits that engineers deliver to society. Awarding the Engineers Australia Medal to Nick Di Bono, Dr Tom Romberg and Doug Roser in 2014 is recognition of that outstanding service to the profession.

It has been a pleasure to work with all of you during 2014 and especially the Sydney Division Committee under the inspiring leadership of President Alexandra Meldrum. We in the Division Office look forward to continuing to provide excellent member service and assist you with all the things that you do so well.

2014 Division Committee Engineers Australia Sydney Division is governed by the Sydney Division Committee

The Division Committee determines the strategies of Sydney Division in pursuing Engineers Australia’s objectives, provides leadership and direction to Sydney Division groups, division office bearers and division volunteers, and liaises with the division staff.

Sydney Division committee also provides advice to Council on behalf of the members of the division, and monitoring of the division on behalf of Council. Additionally Sydney Division Committee is responsible of providing a public voice for Engineers Australia within the Sydney Division.

Committee Member Bruce Howard FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member Michael Myers FIEAust CPEng EngExec

President

Alexandra Meldrum FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member Jonathan Barnes MIEAust

Committee Member Hannah Mahony-Hayes GradIEAust

Committee Member Julia Ratnayake MIEAust CPEng

Deputy President John Stornelli FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member Mark Bartel MIEAust CPEng

Committee Member Julie Mikhail MIEAust

Committee Member Veena Sahajwalla FIEAust CPEng

Past President John Nichols FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member Norm Himsley FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member Marcus Moore MIEAust

Committee Member Brendyn Williams FIEAust EngExec

7

Industry Relations Pathways to becoming Chartered

Engineers Australia Sydney Division continues to reach out to industry through building and maintaining strong relationships with the employers of engineers.

The main area of engagement is through the attainment of Chartered. However more and more companies are seeking support and added value from Engineers Australia in the areas of deciphering engineering qualifications and Stage 1 advice; contact with Student and Graduate members for recruitment; access to Continuing Professional Development; and opportunities for brand awareness and sponsorship.

In 2014 we welcomed new partners Enstruct Group, Honeywell, Rockwell Collins and Transport for NSW. This brings the Professional Development Program (PDP) partners for Sydney Division to 67.

8

There are currently around 850 Sydney Division members on either organisational or self- sponsored PDP pathways to Chartered. There are about the same number of individuals on other pathways to Chartered (Engineering Competency Report and Mature Experienced Engineer Pathways). Sydney Division supports these individuals with in-house workshops (for PDP partners only) for Chartered participants as well as their managers and mentors. We also hold similar public events monthly at the Sydney Division OďŹƒce.

Sydney Division has been actively involved in promoting the importance of attaining Chartered status through involvement in the Strength campaign. This campaign brings together leaders in the profession who are Chartered to articulate why Chartered is important to them, the profession and the organisations in which they work.

We are proud to have Sydney-based CEOs Peter Bailey, Arup; Richard Leupen, UGL; Kevin Young, Sydney Water and Mark Pettigrew, CH2M Hill as well as young engineer Trudy Myers, Hyder involved in this important initiative. You can find what they have to say about Chartered on YouTube.

In 2015 there will be a continued focus on the outreach to new industry partners, particularly in industry sectors not currently well represented in our PDP partners such as local government and construction. There will be also focus on ways in which we can better support Chartered candidates to compile their applications on all Chartered pathways.

Engineers Australia Medal Winners 2014

Nick Di Bono GradIEAust

Tom Romberg FIEAust CPEng (Retired)

Doug Roser FIEAust CPEng

Nick Di Bono is the current Chair of Illawarra Sutherland Regional Group (ISRG). He has served the ISRG for over 25 years, and has served as Chair numerous times. Nick has been committed to engineering in the region.

He has been highly supportive of Women in Engineering and Young Engineers Illawarra, giving them the opportunity to give back to the community and achieve excellence in providing their services. His energy and dedication is recognized and greatly appreciated by Illawarra Sutherland members, volunteers and community.

Prof Tom Romberg is the past Chairman of the Southern Highlands and Tablelands Regional Group (SHTRG). Tom has been integral in the Group through his leadership, participation and delivering a highly successful seminar program each year.

Tom has been proactive in developing the group’s communications and website.

He also has been providing mentoring to younger committee members, promoting engineering to high school students and has actively supported and participated in the Southern Highlands Science and Engineering Challenge. Tom has been a driving force for SHTRG for the past 8 years and he is dedicated to Engineers Australia and its aims and objectives.

Doug Roser has broadly contributed to Engineers Australia over an extensive time period dating back to his RAAF career and later as head of CASA. His contributions include Past President of Engineers Australia Sydney Division, Member of National Congress, Chair of the Australian Society for Defence Engineering [ASDE] and chair of the NSW chapter of ASDE. Doug provides active encouragement for Young Engineers Sydney and Women In Engineering, engaging dialogue for engineering in industry forums, and continues his multi-faceted commitment to engineering in Australia in all its many areas.

Engineers Australia Medal recognises meritorious service at the divisional level by an individual or group to achieve Engineers Australia’s goals in the interests of the profession.

9

Division Events Major events organised by Engineers Australia Sydney Division

Engineering Excellence Awards 19 September 2014 Recognising the best of the best in engineering by a panel of expert judges, the Sydney Engineering Excellence Award winners for 2014 were announced on the 20 September at The Westin Sydney to 540 engineering professionals. Spanning 13 categories, these winning engineering projects were selected from 49 finalists.

The awards celebrated a broad range of projects from medical devices and software to infrastructure developments and waste projects. The Excellence Awards is a true celebration of what our industry can do. It highlights those who are willing to push boundaries in order to have a real impact on the community. This group of talented engineers have delivered exceptional projects, all of which are set to have long term positive impacts for local, national and international communities.

The most prestigious category of the Excellence Awards and the overall winner, is the Bradfield Award which recognises an engineering accomplishment of exceptional merit. The 2014 Bradfield Award recipient is CSIRO with joint entrants Flinders University, Flinders Medical Centre and Griffith University for Fibre Optic Manometry – A 21st century approach to in-vivo diagnostics.

Fibre Optic Manometry combines advanced fibre optic technology, high level engineering, and software design to develop a completely unique instrument for monitoring muscular activity deep within the human body. Such is the comprehensive nature of the technology; clinical experts have dubbed Fibre Optic Manometry “The Hubble Telescope of Gastroenterology’”

10

This year, two projects were selected as recipients of the President’s Award for displaying outstanding engineering and innovative qualities. These being; the University of Wollongong with joint entrant TAFE NSW Illawarra Institute for the Team UOW ‘Illawarra Flame’ Solar Decathlon Home; and the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, UNSW with joint entrants OneSteel & Brickworks Building Products for their project Green Materials – Novel processes to transform waste, automotive glass and plastics into value-added materials.

Professional Engineer of the Year was awarded to Dr Robert Care, Principal in the Australasia Region of Arup Group who helped lead the reform of Australia’s building regulations in the 1990s and has worked on many major global railway and infrastructure projects.

Co-founder of Open Kernel Labs, UNSW Scientia Professor and leader of the Software Systems Research Group (SSRG) at NICTA, Professor Gernot Heiser was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year, recognising his contribution to operating systems including implementations of the L4 microkernel.

Australian Engineering Week 4-10 August 2014 Australian Engineering Week took over Sydney as a celebration of the momentous achievements engineers make to our lives every day. Events occurred across Sydney from 4 -11 August with the Harricks Address, sponsored by IET, officially commenced proceedings. Matt Barrie, CEO Freelancer.com launched the week at the address to an audience of enthralled engineering professionals and very interested public.

Hosted by Engineers Australia Sydney Division and sponsored by NSW Trade and Investment, the forum panel included Chris Lock, Deputy Director General of Transport for NSW; Bruce Johnson, Transport Planner and Principal at Arup; Terry Daly, Executive Manager, City Transformation at the City of Sydney; Dr Tim Williams, CEO of the Committee for Sydney; and was moderated

by Dr Richard Sharp, Principal at Arup.

Mr Barrie presented a passionate and impressive review of the digital revolution, welcoming everyone to the technology industry and the future of business. From the re-imagination of the world in software to the technology revolution, Mr Barrie held the attention of the captivated audience and provided a stunning and inspiring introduction to what would be an action-packed week of learning, celebrations and networking.

Key Sydney Australian Engineering Week events also involved site tours of landmark constructions across Sydney including a sell-out midnight tour of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel which took fascinated attendees on a guided tour of the control room, ventilation station and maintenance systems which ensure the tunnels’ 100 year design life. Young Engineers Sydney were nurtured at The Next Step – Careers Talk, sponsored by Hyder Consulting, where engineering and HR professionals dispensed qualified advice for carving a successful career in engineering.

Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division, declared on the night; “Engineers shape the world and our profession is behind the success of many industries such as food, water, finance and technology to name a few”.

“Australian Engineering Week is all about celebrating and recognising the achievements of Australian engineers and wonders like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. We reach out to the engineering and wider community this week to join us in celebrating this success,” announced Ms Meldrum proudly.

Another highlight event of the Sydney Australian Engineering Week schedule was the Forum: Sydney Light Rail. Over 120 Sydneysiders gathered at the Powerhouse Museum on the 6 August 2014, for a contentious forum on Sydney’s transport future with major construction for Sydney’s Light Rail set to begin in 2015.

Every year, Australian Engineering Week, highlights the immeasurable impact engineering has on our communities, and recognises the contribution its dedicated professionals make to our lives and the world around us every day via a week long series of events ranging from site tours to seminars, and career talks to trivia.

Engineers Australia Sydney Division would like to thank everyone who participated in Australian Engineering Week events from the tireless volunteers and workers behind the scenes, to engineering professionals and members of the public who enthusiastically got involved and showed their support for the industry. 2014 Australian Engineering Week was a very successful event and we can’t wait to do it all again next year.

Division Events

11

Fellows’ Luncheons 10 April, 25 July and 14 November 2014 Engineers Australia Sydney Division organised 2 Fellows’ Luncheons at the Parliament House in 2014.

The April Fellows’ Luncheon was hosted by Mr Craig Baumann MP, with guest speaker Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla and was attended by 172 Sydney Division Fellows and their guests.

We welcomed 21 new Fellows into Engineers Australia Sydney Division in April. The new Fellows welcome at the Luncheon were David Airey, John Brett, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Betrit Fjall, David Ghannoum, Stephen Goh, Assoc Prof Muhammad Hadi, Timothy Hoare, Bill Wing-On Ho, Prof David Lowe, Dr Amer Magrabi, Edward Nye, Zuzana Pardel, William Phippen, MD Alim Al Razi, Prof Simeon Simoff, Peter Stamm, Garry Taylor, Dianne Thomas, Ana Valente and Jim Vickery.

The guest speaker, Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Director of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT@UNSW) spoke about a “waste to value” proposition and demonstrated that thinking outside the square, and carefully re-calibrating some important industrial processes, we can convert waste back into raw materials for production.

In July 2014 Sydney Division hosted its inaugural Regional Fellows Luncheon at the Chifley hotel, Wollongong. The inaugural luncheon was attended by 55 Fellows from both regional and metro areas of NSW. In attendance were members from a variety of regional hubs including Wollongong, Bathurst, Bowral, Wagga Wagga and Western Sydney, as well as Sydney City itself.

We welcomed 7 new Fellows into Engineers Australia Sydney Division, 5 of whom were from regional areas. The New Fellows were Arthur Castrissios, Frank Soto, Michael Lucas, Kim Morgan, Jon Thompson, Lee Pippard and Scott Munter.

The guest speaker on the day was Oscar Gregory, Director of the Australian Steel Manufacturing Research Hub based at the University of Wollongong. Oscar’s presentation gave all in attendance an honest and insightful account of the future of manufacturing in regional Australia. He indicated that it will only be the innovative companies who survive the next 10

12

Division Events

to 15 years in the manufacturing industry. It will be the same companies who accept that the manufacturing industry is under pressure and make sufficient changes.

The luncheon was hosted by Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division and was closed by Nick Di Bono, Illawarra Sutherland Regional Chair, who did the Vote of Thanks.

The November Fellows’ Luncheon was hosted by Dr Mehreen Faruqi with guest speaker Prof Alex Baitch, National President, Engineers Australia and was attended by 160 Sydney Division Fellows and their guests.

Prof Alex Baitch spoke about the vision and future of engineering and also his reflection on the year as our National President for Engineers Australia.

The 27 new Fellows welcomed into Engineers Australia Sydney Division in November were Paul Furniss, Michael Kavanagh, Trevor Wilkinson, Hossein Nabi-Bidhendi, Steve Warrell, Mohammad Islam, Geoffrey McIntosh, Andrew Ruffles, William Buckland, Amit Channan, Rocco Bressi, William Parkins, Aditya Ghose, Nabil Lakiss, Neil Browne, Edmond Gomez, Mathew Hudson, George Kruk, Kamal Laha, Daniel Reeve, Richard Turchini, Ian Hall, Malcolm Speke, Jayendra Shah, Ajay Kapur, Magdi Zaki and Aruna Seneviratne.

We look forward to welcoming the new Fellows for 2015.

2014 NSW Regional Convention 17 - 19 October 2014 In October 2014 Sydney Division held the 2014 NSW Regional Convention in Wollongong. This event has not been held for approximately 12 years however with the enthusiasm of the Southern Highlands and Tablelands Regional Group who hosted the event it was made a reality once more.

The theme for the convention was Sustainable Regional Engineering and the topics surrounding this theme included Sustainable Risk Management and Due Diligence, Sustainable Infrastructure and Roads, Sustainable Groundwater Systems and Sustainable Electricity.

Speakers on the day included Prof David Hood, Adjunct Professor in the Science and Engineering Faculty at Queensland University of Technology; Richard Robinson, Director of R2A Due Diligence Engineers; Antony Sprigg, CEO of Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia; Dr Noel Merrick, Retired Associate Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney; and Dr Robert Barr, Director of Electric Power Consulting Pty Ltd. Prof Alex Baitch, National President, Engineers Australia and Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division also made presentations on the day.

The Gala Dinner on day one proved to be a great social occasion with most delegates in attendance. Prof Judy Raper, Vice Chancellor of University of Wollongong, made an engaging presentation on the future of engineering education. Her main message being that Engineers can make a big contribution to solving the worlds problems, but they cannot do it alone.

They need to work together with people from a diverse range of disciplines and they all need to be innovative and entrepreneurial.

National President’s Industry Leaders Meet & Greet 17 October 2014 On Friday, 17 October 2014 Prof Alex Baitch, National President, Engineers Australia, made the journey to Wollongong to meet with industry leaders from the Illawarra region. The purpose of the Illawarra Sutherland Regional Group initiative was to connect the National President with local industry to promote the strategic direction and vision of Engineers Australia.

The event was a great success with 16 industry leaders present from companies such at Wollongong City Council, Hatch, Port Kembla Coal Terminal, Soto Group, SMEC Australia, Douglas Partners and more. Also in attendance was Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division and the Regional Special Interest Group with representatives from all over Australia.

WIN News Illawarra did a piece on this event which aired on the nightly news and an interview with the National President and industry representatives speaking about the importance of engineers supporting their national professional body, what direction the engineering profession is heading in and the significance of promoting maths and science to young students to encourage them to consider a career in engineering.

On day two of the convention delegates were treated to a presentation and site tour of the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong Innovation Campus and a site tour of the award winning Illawarra Flame House.

The 2014 NSW Regional Convention was proudly sponsored by Douglas Partners, University of Wollongong Engineering and Information Science Faculty and Landteam.

Division Events

13

CELM CEO’s Breakfast 20 May 2014 CELM Sydney, held their annual CEO’s Breakfast at the Sky Venue in Sydney Tower, a most appropriate venue for what was to follow. This year’s topic was A Glimpse into the Wonders of Space Flight and an Insight into the Ongoing Scientific Benefits of NASA’s Space Programme.

With an air of enthusiasm, CEOs and Senior Executives from Australia’s leading engineering employers arrived around 7:15 am to network. James Phillis, CELM Sydney Chair, initiated the morning with a brief opening and then introduced the first guest speaker Prof Alex Baitch, National President, Engineers Australia.

The special guest speaker for the day was Prof Gregory Chamitoff, the Lawrence Hargrave Professor of Aeronautical Engineering with the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Sydney and a NASA Astronaut.

Originally from Montreal, Canada, Greg was selected as an NASA Astronaut candidate in 1998, and in 2008, he served as the flight engineer and science officer for a 6-month mission aboard the International Space Station during Expeditions 17 and 18. Greg also served as a Mission Specialist on the 25th and final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour and during this mission, he performed operations with both the Shuttle and the International Space Station Robotic Arms, including the installation of a particle physics observatory (the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) and he also undertook 2 space walks, the last of which marked the completion of station assembly and was the final spacewalk of the Space Shuttle Program. During his career, Prof Chamitoff logged more than 198 days in space.

Prof Chamitoff’s presentation was captivating, inspirational and empowering and motivated the audience to think more clearly about how their skills and knowledge can be applied at work and in the community to better society as a whole. He encouraged engineers to find better ways to engage with “future engineers’”and to find better solutions to counter the tide away from STEM subjects in schools across Australia. He also emphasised the critical role that the Australian Government plays in engaging the scientific interest of Australia and the role engineers must play in helping the Government implement that engagement.

14

Division Events

Young Engineering Leaders Reception 2 September 2014 The Young Engineers Leadership Reception Gen ‘Why Not?’ maximising todays opportunities for tomorrow leaders was held on the 2 September 2014 by Young Engineers Sydney in partnership with the Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management at the QVB Tea Rooms.

The event brought together over 200 emerging engineering leaders and senior professionals to discuss the generational differences faced within our industry today, how will young engineer solve the challenges of today and advice on personal experiences.

The evening saw three distinguished speakers, Chris Jenkins, CEO – Australia / New Zealand Thales Group; Dr Mehreen Faruqi, NSW Legislative Council Member, The Greens; and Andrew Marsonet, Project Director, Leighton Contractors. The night was facilitated

by Peter Achteerstraat the former Auditor-General of NSW. The speakers all conveyed a common theme for young engineer to embrace change and do not suppress thought, take a step back, question knowledge and communication is key.

The feedback from attendees was that the event was inspiring, thought provoking and achieved in providing young engineers the opportunity to break through the generational barrier which is commonly encountered.

We would like to thanks our sponsors Aurecon, Northrop, Evans & Peck and CELM for their support and the YEAS Committee for organising the event.

Discover Engineering Days 25 March, 12 June & 14 August 2014 Discover Engineering Days for 2014 have been yet another successful series of events with our host venues for the year being William Clarke College, Sydney Boys High School and Mater Dei Catholic College.

The first Discover Engineering Day was held at William Clarke College on 26 March 2014. The day was a huge success with an attendance of over 120 students from surrounding schools including Redfield College, Rouse Hill Anglican College, Cherrybrook Technology High School, Carlingford High School, Muirfield High School, Tangara School for Girls, Pacific Hills Christian School, Knox Grammar School and The Hills Grammar School. The presenters throughout the day were professional engineer speaker Nabeel Darwish, fire engineer, AECOM; and student engineer, Jay Manley, recent graduate from UWS who completed a bachelor degree in robotics and mechatronics.

When the students were not captivated by our presentations they were given the opportunity to rotate around a range of different activities that helped them learn more about engineering as a future career path. Activities on the day included an Education Hub with ambassadors from University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Technology, Sydney, University of Western Sydney, TAFE Nirimbra and Defence Force Recruitment.

Our second Discover Engineering Day was held at Sydney Boys High School on 12 June. There were 145 students who attended from Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls High School. To start the day the students were introduced to the world of engineering with a presentation by our Careers Manager, Jennifer O’Donovan.

Other presentations throughout the day were professional engineer speakers Isabel Duffy, structural engineer, Northrop; Steve Johnson-Hill, electrical engineer, Aurecon; and a student engineer, Annette Au, current engineering student from UNSW who is in her 4th year studying a Bachelor’s Degree in Mining Engineering .

The last Discover Engineering Day was organised by the Riverina Regional Group which was held at Mater Dei Catholic College in August 2014. There were 113 potential engineers from 9 high schools which attended with some travelling from as far afield as Temora. Feedback from the students has been very positive with 62% saying they were more likely to consider engineering as a career following the day.

The presentation about Robocup from Brad Hall (UNSW) was again the most popular session. Presentations were also given by Defence Force Recruiting and current engineering students Juliet Schilling from UNSW and Connor Horgan from ANU as well as from Riverina TAFE and Deakin University staff about alternative pathways into engineering. Breakout sessions included the Education Hub, university course information from 8 universities and discussion with university representatives; a presentation from Ian Davies, Riverina Regional Group past Chair; and Stuart Morgan from Newcastle University about what engineers do.

Hands on exercises were construction of crash barriers to stop a battery powered car and marshmallow catapults. The winning distance of the catapult was 17 metres.

A big thank you to all the Teachers and Career Advisors from William Clarke College, Sydney Boys High School and Mater Deo Catholic College for allowing us to use their venue in hosting a wonderful event. We would also like to thank all the committees and volunteers involved with making the Discovery Engineering Days a big success!

Division Events

15

Honeywell Engineering Summer School

Autumn School of Engineering

1 – 6 December 2013

14 - 17 April 2014

The 2013 Honeywell Engineering Summer School brought together 100 Year 11 students from across NSW and ACT. 80% of the students were from regional areas and half of the students were funded or partly funded by local rotaries and high schools.

The students were accommodated at Dunmore Lange College, North Ryde, and mentored for the week by live-in house parents, themselves engineering students from the host university, University of New South Wales who also facilitated the Farewell Dinner at Coogee Diggers during the week.

The Autumn School is an Engineers Australia Sydney Division initiative supported by NSW ‘Engineering’ Universities and participating Rotary Districts. It is an intensive week full of educational and interesting visits. The principal aim of the program is to give high school students a better understanding of what engineering is and how it works in everyday life, as well as the ability to visit engineering universities to aid in their selection of university.

Throughout the week-long program the Summer School students met and interacted with professional engineers from a wide range of engineering backgrounds; which additionally provided the students with valuable insight into career opportunities available to women and men in engineering. Visits to participating engineering companies provided the students with the rare opportunity to gain first-hand experience in regard to the role of professional engineers and provided them with the opportunity to understand the role of engineers in society and the variety of engineering disciplines.

The students attended lectures and hands on demonstrations at the University of New South Wales, Host University; University of Technology, Sydney; University of Sydney; University of Western Sydney; Macquarie University; and the University of Wollongong.

Site visits included Honeywell, Weir Minerals, RAAF Base, ANSTO, BlueScope Steel, Barangaroo and WesTrac.

Another significant program inclusion was the Careers Evening, held on Tuesday 3 December. The evening provided the students with the opportunity to meet and talk informally with a broad range of engineers. Guests included: Matthew Tildesley, Defence; Damith Herath, Robological; Jonathan Barnes, Transport NSW; Isabel Duffy, Northrop; Nabeel Darwish, Aecom; Isabelle Testoni, WMA Water; Sam Lumley, Schneider Electric; Phillip Lathourakis, Arup; Oliver Jones, Jemena; and Darko Stevanovic, Custom Energy Solutions Pty Ltd.

16

Division Events

The 2014 Autumn School of Engineering brought together 50 Year 11 and 12 high schools students with many of the students being funded or partly funded by Rotary and their high schools. Throughout the week-long program the students met and interacted with professional engineers from a wide range of engineering backgrounds; which additionally provided the students with valuable insight into career opportunities available to women and men in engineering.

The students attended lectures and demonstrations at the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and University of Technology, Sydney. Their visits to participating engineering companies provided the students with the rare opportunity to gain first-hand experience in regard to the role of professional engineers and provided them with the opportunity to understand the role of engineers in society and the variety of engineering disciplines. Site visits the students attended included Warragamba Dam, Barangaroo, Cochlear and Nepean Engineering.

Another significant program inclusion was the Careers Morning, held on Thursday 17 April. The event provided the students with the opportunity to meet and talk with a broad range of engineers.

Guests included Matthew Aberline, Aurecon; Janice Yousheyah, Coffey International; Roy Kwan, Norman Disney & Young; Julie Mikhail, Department of Materials Organisation; and Phillip Lathourakis, Arup.

Engineering Careers Expo

Education and Assessment Forum

18 March 2014

26 June 2014

The Engineering Careers Expo took place on Tuesday 18 March at the Sydney Masonic Centre. The event was supported by 21 exhibitors and attracted over 500 students from over 5 universities.

The annual Education & Assessment Forum was held on Wednesday 26 June at the Engineers Australia Harricks Auditorium. Chaired by Norm Himsley, Education & Assessment Committee Chair, the forum aims to Provide a link within schools, TAFE, universities, Board of Studies and Engineers Australia to work towards common goals of engineering education.

The event was opened by Jack Zhang, Representative from Young Engineers Sydney, who was the Master of Ceremonies for the Forum How Best to Find a Job which was panelled by 4 industry representatives.

The industry representatives on the forum were Lauren Dennis, Fulton Hogan; Fiona D’Assisi, Ericsson; LCDR Benjamin Robinson, Defence Force Recruiting; and Jenny O’Donovan, Engineers Australia. The panel addressed questions from the audience in regard to resume writing, interview skills, and how to get job placements in the industry. The exhibition was opened to the students after the forum which provided the students with the opportunity to mingle with the exhibitors and gain valuable information and guidance for future graduates and employment opportunities.

The 2014 Careers expo exhibitors were AGL Energy, Arup, ASIS, ASIO, Burton Contractors, Cardno, Contact Singapore, Defence Force Recruiting, Department Of Defence, Eaton, Ericsson, Fulton Hogan, Keller Australia, OSIsoft Australia Pty Ltd, Redflex Traffic Systems, ResMed, Taylor Thomson Whitting, Thales Australia, URS Australia Pty Ltd and WSP. Many thanks to the speakers, exhibitors, and to all of the volunteers who gave up their time and helped make the evening an overwhelming success.

Representatives from the Board of Studies, TAFE NSW, 2Realise, University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Wollongong and Macquarie University were present as well as many facets of the organisation.

Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division outlined the indicated EA women in engineering initiatives and the value of promoting engineering to female students and that innovation, sustainability and systems thinking are the solution for the future.

From discussion throughout the afternoon it was clear that the common goal was to make both the study and the practice of engineering more prevalent. While Engineers Australia Sydney Division runs and supports many programs that encourage engineering, there are many great initiatives that we are still unaware of and would benefit from being involved with.

There were also several suggestions on ways in which the group could collectively foster the profession.

We look forward to continuing our relationship with all those involved with the forum and reflecting on our development again next year.

Division Events

17

Group Reports Reports by the Regional Groups, College Branches, Panels and Committees, Special Interest Groups and Technical Societies of Engineers Australia Sydney Division

Regional Groups Dubbo and Central West Regional Group Dubbo Regional Group stepped in and serviced the Central West group for much of 2014. This is not ideal because of the great distances some Central West centres are from Dubbo. Engineers Australia Sydney Division is seeking a committee from the central west who can run events of a more local nature.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

11-13 Mar

Newcastle Science & Engineering Challenge, Dubbo. Included sponsors dinner on the 11 March.

Burrendong Dam Projects – Temperature control curtain, emergency spillway saddle dam & main spillway gates painting.

Narromine Irrigation Scheme Modernisation Project – New river pumps, channel lining, scada controlled regulator gates, 189 km stock & domestic piped system.

Meeting with Prof Euan Lindsay from CSU, Bathurst to discuss proposed Master of Engineering (Civil Systems) degree to be offered from 2016.

Chartered Workshop. Conducted by Richard Hanna in Dubbo with support from the Dubbo Regional Group.

21 May

24 Jul

14 Aug

30 Sep

9 Oct

5 Nov

18 Nov

Tomingley Gold Mine Site Tour. Brand new gold mine 50km south of Dubbo, first gold poured February 2014.

Nyngan Solar Flagship project Site Visit. 102mw Solar PC Power Station, 1.35m individual solar modules – cost $290m.

Annual Dinner Meeting: Electric Cars in Australia – An owners perspective. Held at Cattlemans Motel, Dubbo, with guest speaker Chris Dalitz.

Committee Stewart McLeod (Chair), Chris Dalitz (Secretary), Owen Johns (Treasurer), Alexandra Hartwig, Matthew Clark, Chris Bassingthwaite, Jaskaran Soni.

Illawarra Sutherland Regional Group (ISRG) Leadership and Influence A subcommittee of ISRG committee members meet regularly with the region’s Institutions Leadership; Prof Chris Cook, Executive Dean of Engineering & Information Sciences at the University of Wollongong (UoW) and Marty Burgess, Faculty Director, Trades & Technology at TAFE NSW – Illawarra Institute. The aim of these meetings is to share information, coordinate activities, maintain communications and address issues confronting the engineering profession, education and development.

Recognition, Promotion and Membership •

Illawarra TAFE Institute – Faculty of Engineering Awards night ( 4 awards).

•

University of Wollongong – Faculty of Engineering & Information Sciences Awards night ( 2 awards).

•

Illawarra TAFE Institute “Night of Stars” Award – (1 award).

•

Year 10 High School Achievement Award (30 Illawarra high schools and 7 high schools in Sutherland area). Sponsors include : Douglas Partners, GHD, Hatch, PPM , UoW Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences and Soto.

•

Sponsorship of the UoW Formula SAE 2014.

•

Dawit Sayoum assisted in judging the UoW Flight Competition in April 2014 .

•

Support & sponsorship to Warrawong High School on F1 in Schools Challenge.

•

UoW Annual Creative Design Competition - Best Oral presentation judging and award Nov 2014.

Internal Structure and Administration Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division paid a visit to our regional group committee meeting to present and discuss initiatives, new regulation changes, office bearer responsibilities, code of conduct, spokesperson policy and proposed Engineers Australia Governance changes to go to members vote in early 2015.

Community Engagement A sub committee working on broadening Engineers Australia community profile. In October 2014 had the opportunity to invite Prof Alex Baitch, National President, Engineers Australia to attend our region and address a group of invited industry leaders to discuss issues of membership, chartered status and other topics on the Friday prior to the Regional Convention. Our region and Engineers Australia was also featured several times in the local media on Win TV, Local ABC Radio and Illawarra Mercury.

Other Items of Interest

18

•

ISRG held the Inaugural Regional Fellows Luncheon. Total of 59 were in attendance held at the Chifley in Wollongong.

Host Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division. Guest speaker, Oscar Gregory spoke on The future of Manufacturing in Regional Australia. Eleven new Fellows were presented with certificates and inducted as Fellow members.

•

A Regional Convention was held in our region in October 2014 hosted and organised by Southern Highlands and Southern Tablelands Regional Group Committee. The theme was Sustainable Regional Engineering and was well attended by delegates representing regional groups from all over the country.

Technical Activities The 2014 program showcased a year of very informative and up-to-date seminars and site visits to our members and guests.

Date

Activity

Mar

Site Visit: Vesuvius plant Port Kembla. 29 people attended.

Seminar: Wollongong GPT Shopping Complex 91 people attended.

PKC –Port Kembla Stack Demolition. 70 people attended.

Sydney Harbour & Anzac Bridge refurbishment .

44 people attended.

Apr May Jun Jul

Presentation: Research Projects at Sustainable Buildings Research Centre, UoW. 30 people attended.

Aug Engineering week activities this year were AEW events initiated by the Young Engineers Australia Illawarra and Women in Engineering Illawarra.

These included • Site Tour of Illawarra Flame House Winner of Solar Decathlon. 23 people attended.

• AEW Cocktail Party. 45 members and 6 non members attended.

• YEA-I Q &A. 28 members and 2 non members attended.

• WIE-I High Tea. 11 members and 13 non members attended.

Sep High Speed Rail. 34 people attended.

Oct

Fire Protection Technologies and Design. 21 people attended.

Nov

Annual General Meeting. The guest speaker spoke on Artificial Muscles..

Committee Nick Di Bono (Chair), Madeline Cross (Secretary), Peter Nasta, Trevor Wilkinson,Dr Muhammad Hadi, Michael Muston, Pieter Van Breda, Dr Robert Barr, Chris Hadenham, Craig Dunn, Dr Dawit Seyoum ( Regional Special Interest Group Representative), Stephen Yarnold, Karen Gates.

YEA-I representatives: Ruchi Chhikara and Craig McDermott.

A total of 10 EAR Committee Meetings were held during the year. All committee meetings were held at the Mercure, Wagga Wagga. Steve Warrell participated in the Regional Group Chairs teleconferences and meetings.

Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division visited the EAR at Wagga Wagga and presented about Our Food Future – Mining boom to dining boom? The talk was particularly appropriate given the Riverina’s position as the food bowl of NSW and also the changes that we are facing through climate change.

Alexandra also discussed Engineers Australia Sydney Division initiatives, and Engineers Australia’s vision and strategy. The opportunity was also taken to meet with Charles Sturt University representatives about their proposed Regional Engineering Course.

EAR continued its very strong relationship with COMPACT, and was involved in a number of programmes designed to attract school students into the engineering profession. Principal among these was the very successful third Discover Engineering Day held in the Riverina, and the annual Build-a-Bridge – And get over it camp.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

29 Apr

Gas Remediation Site Visit, Wagga Wagga.

27 May

Visit to Ausply Plywood Manufacturing Plant, Wagga Wagga.

24 Jun

Concrete Durability and Repair Workshop.

17 Jul

Visit by Alexandra Meldrum, President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division. Alexandra: Our Food Future – Mining boom to dining boom?

07 Aug

Discover Engineering Day. Held at Mater Dei Catholic College with 113 potential engineers from 9 high schools in attendance, some travelling from as far afield as Temora.

12 Aug

Hampden Bridge Demolition Site Guided Tour

19-21 Aug

Build-a-Bridge and get over it.... Camp was attended by EAR Committee Member Ian Davies to assist with mentoring attending students.

It is held annually at the Borambola Sport & Recreation Centre near Wagga Wagga.

13 Sep

Visit Murrumbidgee Irrigation and Griffith.

02 Oct

eChartered Presentation by Richard Hanna.

Oct

Visit to the Mill Residential Development and Base Hospital Redevelopment, Wagga Wagga.

19 Nov

EAR AGM and End of Year Dinner. The guest speakers at the dinner were Gary Vidler, Riverina Water presenting on Water Supply Strategy for Wagga Wagga and the Replacement of the River Water Treatment Plant; and Samantha Leah, from nghEnvironmental presenting on History Surrounding the Water Supply in Wagga Wagga.

Riverina Regional Group (EAR) In early 2014 Ian Davies announced his intention hand over EAR Chair duties to his replacement. Steve Warrell became the Chair of EAR commencing March 2014. Ragavan Vythilinkam agreed to become Secretary. Ian Davie’s contribution to the success of the EAR over several years is recognised and we wish him all the very best in his new venture.

Committee Steve Warrell (Chair from March 2014), Ian Davies (Past Chair), Scott Farrell (Deputy Chair), Ragavan Vythilinkam (Secretary), Bryan Short, Sam Millie, Alex Fenwick, Zibby Wrobel and Tom Mackerras (remote member based in Griffith).

Shoalhaven Regional Group

Group Reports

19

Technical Activities Date

Activity

13 Mar

Site Visit: Newly Commissioned Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) at Kangaroo Valley.

Shoalhaven Water staff kindly offered their time and provided the group with an in depth tour and explanation of the WRF and its role as part of the wider Kangaroo Valley sewerage scheme.

26 Jun

2 Oct

Site visit: e-Waste Facility at South Nowra.

The facility recycles all types of electronic equipment including computers, printers and televisions. The operator of the facility is a leader in the field of e-waste recycling and is working on an Australian first in recycling.

Site visit: Nowra Pool Upgrade Construction Site.

Representatives of Shoalhaven City Council and the contractor made themselves available to outline the project objectives and to detail various design, demolition and construction features of the project.

Committee Mark Klein ( Chair), Greg Westlake (Secretary), Caroline Griffiths (Treasurer), Nick Osterloh, Ross Nimmo, Paul Collins.

Southern Highlands & Tablelands Regional Group (SHTRG) The core activity of the group is to hold dinner seminars monthly from March through 8 months of the year. We arrange speakers relevant to a theme for the year. In 2014 this was Sustainable Engineering. The titles are listed below but the slides from all our talks are posted on the SHTRG website: www.engineersaustralia.org.au//sydney-southern-highlands-andtablelands-regional-group We have also introduced sponsorship this year in order to keep down the cost of our seminars. So far we have been able to reduce the cost of our meetings by $8.50 for all attendees.

Since 2010, jointly with the Rotary Club of Bowral Mittagong, we have run a local Science and Engineering Challenge. This is a day’s activity involving 8 local high schools and 256 Year 10 students. The challenges are designed and administered by Newcastle University and involve building bridges, hovercraft etc out of simple materials in a competitive and time-constrained environment. For the past 2 years we have assisted Goulburn to start another challenge for their local schools and two of our committee members have helped with fund raising and running that event.

Our group has a stand at the local Careers Expo held in Mittagong in June for high school students so that they can gain information about a career in engineering.

Of particular note this year is the revival of the NSW Regional Convention which was hosted by the SHTRG and organised by a special committee comprising SHTRG committee members working with Sydney Division staff. It also had a Sustainable Engineering theme and was held in Wollongong in October. The main topics were:

20

•

Sustainable Regional Engineering – Alex Baitch, National President, Engineers Australia.

•

Engineering a Robust Profession in NSW – Alexandra Meldrum , President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division.

•

Sustainability – Rethinking our economic model.

•

Sustainable Risk Management and Due Diligence.

•

Sustainable Energy.

•

Sustainability of Groundwater Systems.

•

Assessing Sustainability Performance of Infrastructure and Assets.

In the next 12 months we intend to continue all the above activities (except the Convention). The theme for 2015 is still under discussion but, in the light of more and more manufacturing moving overseas, we want to bring focus to areas of manufacturing that Australian engineers can develop.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

27 Mar

Seminar: Sustainable Eco House – Wollongong University Project.

20 May

Science & Engineering Challenge.

29 May

Seminar: Sustainable Waste Recycling - SITA.

3 Jun

Careers Expo.

26 Jun

Seminar: Sustainable Solar & Wind Power.

31 Jul

Seminar: Higher Speed Rail.

28 Aug

Seminar: Wingecarribee Dam Upgrade.

25 Sep

Seminar: Southern Highlands Water Sustainability.

17-19 Oct

NSW Regional Convention.

30 Oct

Seminar: Badgerys Creek Airport.

27 Nov

Seminar: Contaminated Land Legislation.

Committee Dr Tom Romberg (Chair till September 2014), Will Eddowes (Chair from September 2014), Graeme Sanders (Secretary), Bob Bishop (Deputy Chairman), Cary Stapleton (Treasurer), Rod Aistrope (MC), Claudia Novati, Leila Sadler and Yashasvi Shah.

Western Sydney Regional Group (WSRG) The WSRG experienced further growth in activities in 2014. The Group is currently supporting University of Western Sydney Engineering Frontier and Science and Engineering Challenge for high school students annually in Greater Sydney West. Both events had a total of 300 students participating. The high school students enjoyed the event and good feedback was received. Therefore WSRG decided to continuing support these two events.

This year WSRG organised a Badgerys Creek New Airport Forum.

The forum was very successful with 140 participants ranging from local community to engineers and government officials.

WSRG future direction is further growth in committee members and increase in activities.

Group Reports

Technical Activities

Date

Activity

Date

Activity

11 Oct

26 Mar

HV Substation Earth Grid Technical Presentation/ Workshop- Part 1. This event consist of series of 4 one day workshops that is practical as well as theoretical, covering 4 different areas.

Family fun night: Looking at the Stars at UWS Observatory. The event were attended by family members. Kids had fun.

22 Oct

Site Visit: North West Rail Link Project. It started with a presentation on the overall project in the NWRL (NWRL) Community Information office at Castle Hill. Participants were then taken on a tour of the rail alignment from Cherrybrook Station to Cudgegong Station and to the end of the proposed line at the Rapid Transit Rail Facility for the stabling of the metro trains.

11-12 Nov

UWS Engineering Frontier. This event consist of presentation on different area of engineering, quizzes and bridge challenge for over 150 students.

29 Nov

WSRG Christmas Function

29 Apr

06 May

14 May

Site Visit : Rouse Hill Town Centre. Centre Managers GPT guided a group through this award winning development. A solar panel array under construction on the centre roof, into the power distribution and air conditioning plant rooms, into the car park and basement of the complex showing the technology adopted to manage the needs of a energy efficient development.

CPEng Workshop 1. Richard Hanna presented the workshop. This workshop is cater for engineers from Greater Sydney West.

Water Sensitive Urban Design and Ecosystems.

The Principal Scientist at the Office of Environment and Heritage and Technical Policy Advisor with the Office of Environment and Heritage of the NSW Government in Sydney presented this workshop.

24 - 25 May UWS Science and Engineering Challenge. This event is encouraging high school student to be engineers. The participant swere 150 students from greater Sydney West. It was well received and WSRG will continue supporting this event.

06 Aug

Forum for Badgery’s Creek Airport. The federal government’s proposal to proceed with the development of Sydney’s second airport at Badgerys Creek has presented an opportunity to WSRG for multiple functions during the planning, building and commissioning phases of this proposal. It was well attended.

Committee Dr Olivia Mirza (Chair), George Grodzicki (Treasurer), Jonathan Barnes, Steve Lewis, Steve Middleton, Ian White, Steve Krezo, Barry Yardley, Josh Merritt, John Stornelli, Con Calfas, Dominic Cancian, Stefan Mozar, Sanshi Lui, Josephine Okwuofil (YEAS and Campus Co-ordinator), Peter Tamsett and Tobias Reid (Interest Party).

Young Engineers Australia Illawarra (YEA-I) At the end of 2013 YEA-I identified the 4 major focuses, network, share, voice and develop, that guided our actions this year. The highlights of 2014 were: •

The new Sponsorship Package.

HV Substation Earth Grid Technical Presentation/ Workshop- Part 2. This event consist of series of 4 one day workshops that is practical as well as theoretical, covering 4 different areas.

•

Establishing a YEA-I representative position on the YEAS committee.

•

Continuing YEA-I annual Networking event successfully .

Site Visit: One Steel Electric Arc Furnace at Rooty Hill. The site tour consist of presentation, tour of melt shop and rolling mill.

•

Second year of running the Engineering Q&A .

•

Site Visit: UWS library Construction. A tour of site for new construction of UWS new library. The tour include presentation by engineer and tour of the site.

Organizing our first Leadership Workshop in collaboration with CELM Sydney.

•

Organizing our first eCER writing session .

•

Launching the Australian Engineering Week Cocktail Evening.

18 Sep

Transition Workshop: How to Sell Yourself & Be Remembered. A workshop by WSRG that covers the areas of job applications, resume writing skills, and interview skills involving speakers from a recruiting background to present as speakers

These are only a few of the highlights. We did a lot of work on the committee organization, background systems, communication structure, new partnerships as well as engaging and motivating all committee members to ensure that they achieve their goals and the YEA-I goals.

25 Sep

YEAS Student Support: Life After University.

A workshop is being organised especially for university student to see the different aspect of their life after university. Speakers ranged from graduate engineers, mediate engineers and senior level engineers.

Technical Activities

07 Aug

1 Sep

17 Sep

07 Oct

CPEng Workshop 2. Richard Hanna presented the workshop. This workshop is cater for engineers from Greater Sydney West.

Date

Activity

19 Mar

Networking Evening. The guest speaker was Kirsten Lewis.

30 Apr

Young Professionals Share. Guest speakers were Peter Fraser, Hatch and Tom Goldfinch, UoW.

28 May

Chartered Workshop .Held by Richard Hanna, Engineers Australia Sydney Division..

Group Reports

21

Date

Activity

25 Jun

Leadership Workshop. The Guest speaker was James Phillis , CELM.

17 Jul

ECC Writing Workshop.

6 Aug AEW Event

Q&A session: The Importance of Engineers in our Communities’ Guest Speakers were Prof Chris Cook, UoW; Mr Peter Moy, Cardno and Ms Natalie Burroughs, Regional Development Australia.

8 Aug AEW Event

Engineering Week Cocktail Party. The guest speaker was Kim Morgan (Hatch)

29 Oct

Industry Leaders Share. Guest speakers were Cory Hamlin, ANSTO; Rosemary Crowhurst, Shellharbour City Council and Ben Lake, Hatch.

22 Nov

Entrepreneurship Weekend Workshop. The guest speaker was Dr Lee Styger, Sydney Business School.

Committee Abhiruchi Chhikara (Chair), Craig McDermott, Hudson Bouma, Piers Hardwich, Pawan Goti, David Gilbert and David Pollum, Shiobhan O Brien, Matt Adams, Supriya Mehta, Sagarika Panchadar and Rebecca Lowrie.

College Branches, Panels and Committees Australian Engineering Week (AEW) Committee Australian Engineering Week (AEW) highlights the immeasurable impact engineering makes on our communities, and recognises the contribution its dedicated professionals make to our lives and the world around us every day. The week long program which takes place annually in August is an amalgamation of exciting events including site visits, various school and university competitions, forums, social outings and fund raising events all of which are suitable for a wide variety of audiences. The AEW committee successfully organised a total of 24 events throughout Sydney and Regional NSW with over 1300 participants for 2014.

Committee Jonathan Barnes (Chair), Jon Lee, Christopher Cheong, Alexandra Meldrum, Marcus Moore, Veena Sahajwalla, Julia Ratnayake, Antony Zaglas, Ryan Jenkins & Paul Furniss.

Board of Engineering Practice (BoEP) The Board of Engineering Practice (BoEP) was established in 2012, and has continued to meet quarterly in 2014. Meetings provide a forum for the key leaders within the division to meet, form networks, and to discuss common problems and issues relating to the Learned Society Function of Engineers Australia. Through the Board of Engineering Practice, Chairs of groups can meet with each other and also with the elected Sydney Division representatives to the National College Boards. In 2015, the BoEP will undergo a name change to become the Learned Society Advisory Committee (LSAC) in order to align with the Engineers Australia Regulations.

There are 44 current members of the Board of Engineering Practice, reflecting the diversity of groups and interests within the division.

22

Group Reports

In 2014, Sydney Division and the groups within the division have continued to offer a very diverse and active program of events Members of Engineers Australia can participate in a very broad program of activities for their Continued Professional Development (CPD) and for networking with members of the engineering profession.

Some key topics discussed at The Board of Engineering Practice in 2014 include: •

Communication of events to members and how to engage membership in activities.

•

Introduction of payment for non-members to attend our events. (Groups with special requirements can apply to be exempted from this requirement.) Charging for non-members has been introduced as part of the initiatives to deliver more value to Engineers Australia members.

•

The delivery of CPD and initiatives to improve the delivery in line with Engineers Australia’s CPD revitalisation project.

•

Chartered engineering and professional standards.

•

National initiatives such as sustainability and climate change policies

•

Sydney Division initiatives such as external relations and spokesperson plans.

Purposes • To provide a forum for units to interact and discuss CPD issues.

• To coordinate a program of technical activities.

• To examine and report on matters referred to it by the Division Committee.

• To analyse the appropriate reports on CPD. • To facilitate some alignment of the Sydney Division • Program with college CPD direction Meetings The BoEP meets quarterly, four times per year. Meetings are usually held at the Sydney Division Offices at Chatswood.

Reporting Quarterly reports to the Sydney Division Committee.

The Nov/Dec meeting of BoEP sets the coordinated program for the following year.

Committee Julie Mikhail (Chair). The Board consists of the Sydney Division based Chairs of Colleges, Technical Societies, Panels, Special interest Groups and Regional Groups, and the Sydney Division representatives to the National College Boards.

Chemical Engineering Branch For the Joint Chemical Engineering Committee (Engineers Australia Sydney Chemical Engineering Branch and IChemE), our main activity is to organise technical meetings of interest to chemical engineers including students, graduates and professionals. We also host the Best Presentation Competition awarding prizes to post graduates on the basis of their research work.

We select the best undergraduate thesis from University of Sydney for a prize that is awarded at the graduation dinner.

Seeking to be more inclusive with the University of New South Wales School we had discussions with the Head of School, Prof.

Chen. We look forward to greater involvement.

Date

Activity

25 Nov

21st Century Engineering for 19th Century Structures. Joint Presentation with Engineers Australia Heritage Committee.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

22 Jul

Technical meeting: Surge Analysis of Piping Systems.

26 Aug

Postgraduate Symposium: Best Presentation Competition.

28 Oct

Technical Meeting: Membrane Systems; Filtration, Separations, Effluent Reclaim.

28 Nov

Technical, Social and Annual General Meeting: The Future of Engineering in Australia, The perspective of a plant designer and business operator.

Committee Wayne Davies (Chair), Jeffery Shi (Secretary), Emily Leow, Dominique Vagi, Andrew Dowly, Billy Chan, Deb Raha, Peter Slane, Ryan Jenkins and Timothy Langrish.

Civil and Structural Engineering Panel During 2014, the Civil and Structural Panel organised and hosted 10 Technical Presentations, which were held at the Zenith Theatre in Chatswood. Attendance at these presentations was typically in excess of 140 persons (both members and non-members of Engineers Australia). Two of these presentations were jointly hosted with other Sydney-based engineering groups.

The Panel also funded and presented a number of prizes to engineering students for their outstanding achievements, at the University of NSW, Sydney University, University of Technology Sydney and the University of Western Sydney.

Technical Activities

Committee Brendon Hyde (Chair), David Willows (Secretary), Richard Hitch, Gene Hulowatyi, John Nichols, Ken O’Neill, Rick Pilz, David Cooper, Nick Livanes, Scott Munter, Daksh Baweja, Philip Blundy, Rocco Bressi, Peter Key, Darren Flynn and Matthew O’Hearn (resigned in May).

Coastal, Ocean and Port Engineering Panel (COPEP) COPEP is an active group that holds monthly panel meetings and technical presentations. These technical presentations by industry professionals are undertaken between February and October, on the third Monday of the Month at the Engineers Australia Harricks Auditorium, Chatswood, following our monthly panel meetings. Each October the monthly presentation takes the form of a site visit. This year the site visit was held at Barangaroo Headland Park site.

In addition to the monthly presentations, a half day seminar is held every August, in association with PIANC. This year’s topic was Construction in the Coastal and Marine Environment.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

17 Feb

Tidal Analysis. The guest speaker was Ben Moora.

17 Mar

Artificial Reefs for Coastal Protection. Guest Speakers were James Carley and Matt Blacka

28 Apr

Examining Economic and Environment Benefits for for Geophysical Asst. Guest speaker was Jason Erray.

19 May

Progress Towards an Understanding of Tsunami Risk in NSW. Guest speaker was Felicia Andrews.

21 Jul

Engineering Solutions for Oil and Gas Maritime Export 460 Nautical Miles Upriver in PNG . Guest Speaker was Lincoln Quilliam.

Date

Activity

26 Feb

Sydney Opera House VAPS Upgrade

25 Mar

North Strathfield Rail Underpass Project Removing bottlenecks and enhancing freight capacity.

18 Aug

15 Apr

Wynyard Walk – Building connections. This was a joint presentation with Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE)

Half Day Seminar: Future Directions for Coastal, Ocean and Port Management in NSW. The event had multiple speakers.

15 Sep

27 May

Inner West Light Rail Extension.

Problems with Reinforced Concrete Structures in the Marine Environment. The guest speaker was Andrew Patterson.

24 Jun

The New Structural Steelwork Compliance Scheme for Australia.

7 Oct

COPEP Site Visit to Barangaroo Headland Park.

20 Oct

22 Jul

Risk Management for the Development of Former Quarry Sites in the Sydney Region.

26 Aug

Concrete Developments to Improve the Environment.

Sinking of the Ex-HMAS Adelaide – Scuttling, design, coastal engineering, and ecology.

Presented by Guy Russel, Dan Messiter, Kate Reeds and Andrew Levett.

23 Sep

Timber Fabrication for Commercial Projects & Innovations in Timber Connections.

21 Oct

Delivering the North West Rail Link.

Committee Kate Panayotou (Chair), Alexis Berthot, Alan Betts, Matt Blacka, James Carley, Goran Dimovski, Sean Garber, Peter Horton, Indra Jayewardene, Deborah Lam, Doug Lord, Ben Modra, Ben Morgan and Jillian Smith.

Group Reports

23

Construction Engineering Panel

and Assessment Committee has been developed to maintain this communications network.

LinkedIn Group The Construction Engineering Panel has been striving to enhance its contact with, and relevance to, construction engineering practitioners. One challenge is that most of the National Committee of Construction Engineering (NCCE)’s archetypal “constituents” are unable to attend our quarterly CPD Presentations. The NCCE has recently launched its own LinkedIn Group, as a sub-group of the over arching Engineers Australia banner. We are enthusiastic about using this medium to reach all construction engineers around the country.

Activities The Sydney Division Education and Assessment Committee focuses on promoting engineering as a profession to school students through a number of different events, including Discover Engineering Days.

EEA During 2014, we have been working with Engineering Education Australia (EEA) to assist in the creation of on-line learning modules focusing on Construction Engineering-related topics. These modules are intended to not only meet the needs of graduates thrust onto construction projects, but to benefit non-construction professionals such as designers and consultants.

Mentoring Initiative NCCE has commenced liaising with universities in Sydney as part of our Mentoring Initiative. We aim to establish a link between engineering graduates and experienced construction engineering practitioners, utilising and expanding the NCCE network. This will also demonstrate relevance of Engineers Australia membership, and facilitate greater take-up of chartered status in the construction industry.

Engineers Media The NCCE has also worked with Engineers Media on two levels.

Firstly, by raising awareness of construction engineering in the EA Magazine. Secondly, by assisting Engineers Media in gathering information regarding construction engineering per se.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

Mar

8 Chifley Square Sydney Project.

May

Cotter Dam Project.

Aug

Digital Engineering - BIM .

Nov

Opera House VAPS or Recent Developments in Formwork.

Committee Carlo Garofali (Chair), Josh Baker (deputy chair), Marton Marosszeky, Michael Ward, Tim Pittaway, Bill Stavrinos, Stephen Neal, Steven Sancbergs, David Heins and Nicole Waterman.

Education and Assessment Committee Engineers Australia, as the peak professional body representing the profession of engineering in Australia, must develop and maintain communication channels with the major bodies responsible for the education of the students enrolling in engineering studies and the education of engineers for the future.

This is achieved at various levels and forums by Engineers Australia at a national level. There is also a responsibility for Engineers Australia to develop and maintain effective communications with the various trainers and educators impacting on the engineering profession at the local level, in Sydney Division. Consequently, the Sydney Division Education

24

Group Reports

Committee Norm Himsley (Chair), Astrid Perdriau, Jim Vickery, Jon Lee, John Perdriau, Kamal Laha, Stan Scahill and Andy Draper.

Electrical & ITEE Branch The Sydney Elect & ITE Engineering Branch aims to support and promote the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of engineers in various fields of engineering including electrical, communications, computer systems and electronics. The year 2014 has proved to be fruitful with a wealth of knowledge and industry experience shared with current and future engineers. The Sydney Elect & ITE Engineering Branch in joint collaboration with IET and IEEE has continued to successfully provide 22 lectures through the year in a wide range of topics including WiFi, renewable energy, battery and energy storage, application of electronics and IC design in medical devices, mobile communications, transformer design and many more. The lecturers were subject matter experts from both academia and industry fields. All the lecture presentations were delivered at Engineers Australia Harricks Auditorium and copies of the 2014 lecture presentations are available on the Engineers Australia Sydney Division website link: www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sydney-division/technicalpresentations Elect & ITE Engineering Branch also held their monthly committee meetings at the Sydney Division Office and their monthly Joint Institutions committee meetings with IET and IEEE at Chatswood RSL Club.

The committee continues to be active in the area of student awards and working in conjunction with the universities in the Sydney area.

Of particular highlight is the Annual Student Prize presented at the AGM lecture by Dr Bronwyn Evans, the CEO of Standards Australia. The presentation on AGM (4th December 2014) is used to promote the CPD lectures to the students and heads of the university engineering schools from the USYD, UNSW, UTS, Macquarie University, Wollongong University and UWS. Thanks must go to the support and dedication from Elect & ITE Engineering Branch Committee Members; liaison through the joint institutions committee (EA, IET and IEEE) and the Engineers Australia Sydney Division office support and professionalism.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

13 Feb

Presentation: Earthing System Design.

27 Feb

Presentation: Wi-Fi Wireless Broadband Market.

13 Mar

Presentation: Safety Issues With Photovoltaic Systems .

27 Mar

Presentation: Remote Diagnostics of Power Systems.

Date

Activity

The focus for 2015 will be to:

10 Apr

Presentation: Ceramic Fuel Cells & Smart Grid.

•

8 May

Presentation: Space Engineering Research at ACSER, School of Electrical at UNSW.

build group membership and extend activities further into the heritage community

•

22 May

Presentation: Generator Application and Design Basic.

provide Continuing Professional Development to Engineers Australia members in the field of heritage engineering

12 Jun

Presentation: A Brief Overview of MIMO Wireless Communication Systems.

•

extend participation with community groups working with engineering heritage .

26 Jun

Presentation: 100% Renewables for Australia?

Challenges & Opportunities.

10 July

Presentation: Low and Medium Voltage Motor Design.

24 Jul

Presentation: The History of Cochlear Implant Systems and Focuses on Electrical Challenges Involved.

14 Aug

Presentation: Cardiovascular Modelling and Arterial Pressure, A biomedical presentation.

28 Aug

Presentation: Ethics in Engineering Practice.

11 Sep

Presentation: Application of Heuristics in Engineering.

25 Sep

Presentation: Remote Metering Systems.

9 Oct

Presentation: Design Review, Risk Management in Transformer Procurement & Design/ Manufacture.

23 Oct

Presentation: How to Get What You Need From eHealth.

13 Nov

Presentation: Underwater Communications by Marine Science & Ocean Systems Engineering.

04 Dec

AGM, Eminent Speaker Lecture & Student Prizes.

11 Dec

Presentation: Kiosk Substations.

Committee Sherry Moghadassi (Chair), Kim Yan (Secretary), Allan Sangster, Gohulan Markandoo (Deputy Chair), Richard Clarke (Treasurer), Brian Clarke, Prof Graham Town, Peter Hitchiner (ITEE College Chair), Chris Skinner (ITEE College Rep), Frank Fatih Colgar, Peter Henderson, Mark Edmunds, Mai Yeung (Elect College Rep), Janie Geldenhuys, Vicky Thai and Raymond PK Pau.

Engineering Heritage Committee (EHC) The focus of the Group remains •

To promote the contribution made by engineers to Australian society and the wider community.

•

To encourage Engineers Australia members to contribute to the conservation of Australia’s engineering heritage through the application of their engineering knowledge and experience.

The group was re-structured for 2014 to utilise more effectively the specialist abilities of the members. This has resulted in a higher level of involvement by members, an increase in membership and an ability to cover a broader range of activities (geographically and specialities).

Technical Activities Date

Activity

24 Apr

Lecture: Tribute to Lancelot Eldin de Mole, Inventor of the military tank and Water Board engineer. Presented by Dr. Mike Kelly.

2 Jun

Lecture: Timber Truss Bridges in NSW. Presented

by Amie Nicholas.

11 Aug

Lecture: Mixing Engineering and Archaeology at Port Arthur. Presented by Richard Barnes & Simon Wiltshier..

1 Oct

Engineering Heritage Recognition Program: Award of Engineering Heritage International Marker to Gladesville Bridge.

13 Oct

Lecture: Gladesville Bridge: Golden Jubilee.

Presented by Ken Maxwell .

25 Nov

Joint Engineering Heritage Sydney and Civil and Structural Panel Lecture. 21st Century Engineering for 19th Century Structures.

Presented by Richard Barnes, Simon Wiltshier, Amie Nicholas, Alex Been & Brad Martin.

Other • EHC representative attendance at all scheduled Board of Engineering Practice Meetings.

• Representation on Engineering Heritage Australia Board (Immediate Past Chair and Sydney Division Representative together attended two meetings and one phone conference).

• Attendance at the EHA Stand during the Engineers Australia 2014 Convention.

• Attendance at 4 Roads and Maritime Services Heritage Committee meetings.

• Attendance at 5 National Trust Industrial Heritage Committee meetings. Attendance at 3 Ministers Heritage Roundtable meetings • Prepared submissions in support of State Heritage Register listing for: • Sydney Harbour Control Tower.

• Hampden Bridge Wagga Wagga .

• Gundagai Viaduct.

• Prince Alfred Bridge, Gundagai.

• Moruya Quarry.

• Michael Clarke received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for service to engineering, and to the conservation of Australian heritage. Michael has been a member of the Sydney Engineering Heritage Committee since 1990.

Committee Glenn Rigden (Chair), Stephen Lockhart (Secretary), John August, Alex Been, Doug Boleyn, Ian Bowie, Jon Breen, Michael Clarke, John Gibson, John Heathers, Neil Hogg, Ken Maxwell, Sam Millie, Amie Nicholas, Bill Phippen, Scott Renwick, Buzz Sanderson and Simon Wiltshier.

Group Reports

25

Excellence Awards Committee

Date

Activity

The Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards (SEEA) recognise the expertise of both individuals and engineering organisations in our community. The awards are the pinnacle of the Divisions professional calendar.

21 Aug

Pinch Vales – Types and industry applications.

Presented by Steve Cockin.

18 Sep

Warehousing & Logistics: Systems reaching greater heights. Presented by Peter Geoghegan.

The awards comprise of thirteen categories and four personal awards.

SEEA provide an opportunity to encourage excellence through the identification and promotion, of both within the profession and the community at large, for outstanding achievements in the advancement of the science and practice of engineering.

20 Nov

3D Printing. Presented by Shane Rolton.

Committee Geoffrey Stone (Chair) and Ian A. White.

Committee Bruce Howard (Chair), Alexandra Meldrum (President, Sydney Division), Amal Hanna, Bill Thompson, David Kinniburgh, Norm Himsley and Julia Ratnayake.

Membership Committee

Honours and Awards Committee

The establishment of the Membership Committee is a key strategic objective at both division and national levels based on national membership growth targets.

The role of the Honours and Awards Committee is to identify, recognise and reward; outstanding achievement in engineering, conspicuous service to the engineering profession, eminence in engineering or an applied science, conspicuous service to the Australia people and outstanding achievement. An additional role is to promote engineering and the value added by the engineering profession to the health, wealth and well being of the Australian people.

Committee Peter Tyree HonFIEAust CPEng (Chair), Ronald David Christie AM HonFIEAust CPEng, David Graeme Croft AM HonFIEAust CPEng, John Gilmour Nutt AM FTSE HonFIEAust, Mike Dureau HonFIEAust CPEng FTSE FAICD JP, Peter Wellings FIEAust, Shane Geha FIEAust and Graham James Davies FIEAust

Mechanical Branch Following Technical events were organised by the Sydney Mechanical Chapter: Engineers Australia Sydney Mechanical Branch, IMechE, and ASME. Technical Activities Date

Activity

20 Feb

Post Fix Anchors. Presented by Zac Boucabake and Mike Coburg.

20 Mar

The Importance of Good Drawings and Documentation. Presented by Ian A. White.

17 Apr

Buildings a Threat to Railways? Presented by Basil Hancock.

15 May

Interesting Examples of Interdisciplinary Engineering from Research to Implementation in Power Generation and Water. Presented by Andrew T. Harris.

19 Jun

An Incomplete History of Risk. Presented by Steve Williams.

17 Jul

Air Release and Vacuum Break Valves for Water Wastewater and Slurry Systems. Presented by Jeremy Kerringan.

26

Group Reports

The Membership Committee was first convened in 2013 and this year was chaired by the 2014 Deputy President, Engineers Australia Sydney Division, John Stornelli.

The committee’s main objectives are to undertake and review efforts to: •

Improve membership retention.

•

Engage new members.

•

Improve student membership.

•

Engage students to upgrade to Graduate membership.

The committee has received great input from Young Engineers Australia representatives and invited and linked with Engineers Australia University Campus coordinators. The committee has also prepared and distributed geographical membership maps to the chairs of many Engineers Australia groups and colleges, identifying member clusters in order to improve member service delivery.

Committee John Stornelli (Chair), Alexandra Meldrum, Julie Mikhail, Brendyn Williams, Leila Sadler, Jonathan Barnes, Hannah Mahoney-Hayes and Daniel Cannavo.

Quality in Engineering Panel “Quality” is focused on ensuring that systems, solutions and products provide for the needs of end-users. The activities of the Quality in Engineering Panel span aspects of quality management, safety management and environmental management in the context of managing the delivery of outcomes which address stakeholder requirements.

During 2014, the Quality in Engineering Panel continued to facilitate engagement activities which promote the importance of ensuring ‘quality’ in the context of engineering – across all disciplines of engineering, all phases of the project life cycle, and all industry sectors.

A focus during the year was Standards Development, with a highlight seminar and panel discussion being held in February 2014. It included a presentation by Bronwyn Evans as the new CEO of Standards Australia. The Quality in Engineering Panel is seeking to see Engineers Australia Members more involved in all aspects of standards development, for the ultimate benefit of the Australian Community.

The Quality in Engineering Panel Chair, Brendyn Williams, represented Engineers Australia during 2014 on a range of industry engagement activities including on the Standards Australia Committees for Quality Management (QR-008) and Safety Management (SF-001), and at the Non-Conforming Building Products Workshop facilitated in Sydney by AiGroup in March 2014. Brendyn has also continued to represent the Quality in Engineering Panel at the Board of Engineering Practice in Sydney Division.

Our Deputy Chair, John Brett, was awarded the Engineers Australia Medal in late 2013 primarily for his career-long contribution to the activities of the Quality in Engineering Panel.

The Quality in Engineering Panel’s new Secretary, David Zhao, has helped lift the administrative discipline of the committee and has written several articles published on the Engineers Australia website which summarise the outcomes of various Quality in Engineering Panel engagement events.

Event advertising and the Quality in Engineering Panel’s website have been developed this year with considerable assistance from staff in the Sydney Division Office, and we wish to thank Nimali Herath in particular.

Over the past couple of years the Quality in Engineering Panel has been inviting Expressions of Interest for involvement on the panel committee. Consequently, several new committee members have met eligibility requirements and been accepted onto the panel committee. During 2014, we welcomed Will Devia, Dipen Nandodwala and Hamid Fatemi, but said goodbye to Jon Lee, Michael Berman, Ranjit Singh, and Peter Shrewsbury.

We wish to thank all those who have contributed to the activities of the Quality in Engineering Panel, and look forward to another effective year in 2015.

Committee Brendyn Williams (Chair), John Brett (Deputy Chair), David Zhao (Secretary), Ari Fernando, Deryck Clarke, Ellen Zhao, Shailesh Tyagi, Will Devia, Dipen Nandodwala and Hamid Fatemi.

Water Engineering Panel The Water Engineering Panel had a highly successful year in which it provided a diverse range of seminar opportunities for practitioners working in the water resources and water supply sectors. Committee members organised five seminars which served to engage graduate engineers, water supply engineers, stormwater engineers, bridge design engineers, floodplain managers, climate adaption specialists, environmental scientists and local government engineers. Participation in all events increased relative to the previous year and some very positive feedback was received.

The Panel’s activities culminated in a Q&A style seminar which was hosted in same fashion as the well known ABC TV current affairs program of the same name. The Q&A seminar involved 6 panelists from local and state government organisations and the private sector, who were quizzed on the challenges and opportunities associated with managing climate change in the water industry. The evening was ably hosted by Ian Rowbottom from the Water Panel Committee who directed questions from the audience to the guest panelists. Approximately 120 practitioners from all sectors of the industry attended.

Website: www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sydney-division/qualityengineering-panelhistory.

In 2015 the Panel plans to convene a similar number of seminars which will provide EA members with opportunities to achieve CPD. This will include a half day seminar on two-dimensional flood modelling and a special seminar on the importance of water for NSW in 2021.

Technical Activities

Technical Activities

Date

Activity

6 Feb

Seminar and Panel Discussion: Quality in Standards Development. The event was held at Engineers Australia Harricks Auditorium and included Brendyn Williams, Bronwyn Evans, Jean Cross and Alex Ezrakhovich.

4 Sep

Seminar: RAAF F/A-18 Hornet Tactical Fighter : What it takes to keep it flying. Presented by WGCDR Neil Armstrong of The Royal Australia Air Force. This was a joint event with the Australian Society for Defence Engineering (ASDE) held at Engineers Australia Harricks Auditorium.

14 Oct

Seminar: Requirements Management for Wynyard Walk Project. Guest Speakers were Mark McKinley, Tharan Karunalayan and Ruben Welschen. The event was supported by Risk Engineering Society (RES), Transport Engineering Panel, and Systems Engineering Society Australia (SESA) and was held at the Engineers Australia Harricks Auditorium. .

6 Nov

Debate and Q&A: QUALITY GUARANTEED. The discussion was held with John Nichols as moderator. The debators were Herve Michoux, Hugh Tait, Hamid Fatemi, Daniel Cannavo and Brendyn Williams (Rapporteur). The was a joint event with Young Engineers Australia Sydney (YEAS) held at Engineers Australia Harricks Auditorium.

Date

Activity

6 Mar

CARM Project.

30 Apr

Student Honours Thesis Presentations.

14 May

Water Sensitive Urban Design & Ecosystems.

23 Jun

Local Scour and Protection at Bridge Piers.

18 Nov

Q&A Forum: Climate Change and its Impacts Challenges and opportunities.

Committee Chris Thomas (Chair), Monique Retallick (Secretary), Mark Babister, James Ball, Peter Brady, Scott Button, Paul Hart, Erwin Jeremiah, Ian Rowbottom, Grantley Smith, Rhys Thomson, Marlène van der Sterren and Jason Tae Hyung Kim.

Group Reports

27

Special Interest Groups Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management (CELM) 2014 has been another year of development for CELM Sydney following on from the progress made in 2013. We were fortunate to have Raji Ambikairajah, Ellen Gorissen and Anna Squire join our small group as they added some great perspectives to the way we operate. We were also fortunate to have ongoing volunteer assistance from Melissa Jovic (Fellows Luncheon sponsorship).

Date

Activity

3 Jul

Young Engineers Australia - Illawarra Leadership Workshop.

15 Jul

Seminar: Re-engineering Your Career for the Modern Workforce. Presented by Andrew Pratley.

19 Aug

Seminar: Culture vs Strategy. Presented by Peter Bailey.

8 Sep

Mentoring – Closing Event.

18 Nov

Annual General Meeting.

18 Nov

Seminar: The Challenges of Living Up to Your Professional Code of Ethics – Is it doable.

Presented by Dr Attract Lagan.

Some Highlights for 2014: Committee James Phillis (Chair), Jordan Drenth (Secretary), Ian Ackland, Raji Ambikairajah, Ellen Gorissen, Sameh Ibrahim (resigned), Jon Lee, Sherry Moghadassi, Anna Squire and Darko Stevanovic.

•

Our Mentoring Program continues to grow strongly. CELM Sydney continues to set the benchmark for CELM nationally.

•

A very successful third CEO Breakfast was held at the Sky Tower. Each year we are seeing an improvement in attendance and interest.

•

Ongoing engagement and dialogue with CELM nationally and all CELM divisional operations.

•

Ongoing consolidation of the Sydney Fellows Luncheon sponsorship.

The NEP held 5 committee meetings and arranged 5 technical presentations in 2014. The technical presentations are available on the NEP website.

•

Overall, the CELM Sydney Board delivered on key aspects of the planned strategic actions for 2014, but we did let ourselves down in terms of our website and collaborating with other groups.

The NEP chairman attended the Board of Engineering Practice meetings and the Sydney Division Strategy meeting. NEP members again presented at several conferences in Australia and overseas in 2014.

Areas for Improvement: •

A larger and more expansive seminar program, which will be assisted by having more committee members, although we’re making very good progress.

•

A broader and more diverse board – we are making excellent progress in this regard.

•

Working with and between various divisional and regional groups. Attempts to engage with Regional groups did not get much traction.

•

Use of the website and social media such as LinkedIn.

Technical Activities During 2014 CELM Sydney held monthly committee meetings and held 2 Strategic Strategy Workshops in September and October. CELM Sydney Chair attended 3 Board of Engineering Practice Meetings and 3 CELM National Joint Chairs Meetings during the year.

Nuclear Engineering Panel (NEP)

The NEP contributed to the Engineers Australia Convention 2014 by organising a half day Nuclear Forum. Adi Paterson, CEO ANSTO, delivered the keynote address followed by presentations from Ian Hore-Lacy (WNA), Ben Heard (Think Climate Consulting) and Tony Irwin (NEP). Martin Thomas chaired the forum which finished with a Q&A session. The Nuclear Forum was linked with the Energy Security Forum and the Future of Electricity Generation, Transmission and Distribution in Australia Forum as an Energy Narrative at the Engineers Australia Convention.

The NEP technical presentations continue to attract members of the general community who would not normally attend Engineers Australia presentations, but want factual information about nuclear issues. The NEP sees this as an important part of community relations for Engineers Australia.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

27 Feb

Questions about Power in NSW. Presented by Prof Mary O-Kane at Annual Four Societies .

19 Mar

Molten Salt Reactors. Presented by Mark Ho.

28 May

OPAL Reactor Successes and Challenges.

Presented by David Vittorio.

23 Jul

The Future of Electricity Generation in NSW. Presented by Jonathan O’Dea.

Date

Activity

28 Jan

2014 Strategic Planning Workshop.

10 Mar

Mentoring 2014, Kick-off Meeting.

18 Mar

Seminar: Neuroscience of Leadership. Presented

by Silvia de Ridder.

24 Sep

10 Apr

Sponsorship of Engineers Australia Fellows Luncheon.

The UNSW Nuclear Engineering Program.

Presented by Prof John Fletcher.

5 Nov

20 May

CEO Breakfast. The Guest Speaker was Prof Greg Chamitoff.

Risk Assessment for Nuclear Reactors. Presented

by Mark Summerfield.

24 Jun

Mentoring Mid-term Session.

28

Group Reports

Committee Tony Irwin (Chair), Don Higson (Secretary), Martin Thomas, Barrie Hill, Bob Fry, Neil McDonald, Peter Airey, John Harries and Elizabeth Si.

Women In Engineering (WIE) WIE Sydney Division is a special interest group within Engineers Australia that promotes the awareness of female engineers, encourages young female students to study engineering in universities and supports the retention of women engineers in the workforce. Each year WIE holds a range of events from a sit down breakfast to cocktail evenings, panel discussions and company site visits; all of which provide an opportunity for networking and promotion.

In 2014 WIE Sydney Division ran its usual program with the addition of an inaugural event focused at year 9-12 female students. Our Student Conference held at UNSW was a huge success and is likely to become a fixture in our annual program.

The regular program fixture of International Women’s Day Cocktail Evening was greatly supported by Women in Project Management (Project Management Institute), and the partnership expanding to run the regular panel discussion as a highly successful joint event.

WIE continued to see support from last year’s sponsors Resmed and Evans and Peck (now Advisian) however the student conference was a big draw card for many new sponsors. Turn out for events remained high despite an increase in non-member prices.

Our event highlights continue to be the Winter Gala Dinner held at the Star Room to close off Engineering Week and the Eminent Speakers Breakfast, both of which had outstanding speakers.

Technical & Networking Activities

Over the past year we have had some fantastic events starting of the year with a networking evening which attracted over 100 people. Kim Mcguiness presented to the group on basic networking skills and how to increase your personal and professional networks.

The Young Engineers Leadership Reception themed Generation ‘Why Not?’ was held with over 200 people attending to hear from three industry leaders, Chris Jenkins, CEO Thales Australia, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, NSW Legislative Council Member The Greens, Andrew Marsonet, Project Director Leighton Contractors. The event provided young engineers the opportunity to network with senior executives and discuss the generational differences within our industry.

YEAS also organised and participated in events which included CPEng Workshops, Business Skills Workshops, Entrepreneurs Workshop, Careers Events and the annual Trivia Night, where we partnered with Engineers Without Borders.

The YEAS Facebook page has over 1000 likes and is growing daily, the inclusion of a social media representative on the committee has ensured the Facebook page has been informative and regularly updated with Engineers Australia initiates and events.

Thank you to the 2013-14 committee for your continued involvement and commitment over the past year. We have elected a committee to lead us into the New Year and hope to provide more events and value adding initiatives over the next year.

Technical & Networking Activities Date

Activity

18 Feb

Careers Day 2014.

27 Feb

Professional Networking Evening.

07 Apr

Business Skills Workshop.

17 Apr

Honeywell Engineering Autumn School.

13 May

Business Skills Workshop.

29 May

Winter Gala at the Star Room (IMAX). Speaker: Kathy Hirshfield

Young Engineers Australia and Institute of Civil Engineers Debate: Has contractor self-certification benefited the industry.

10 Jun

CPEng Workshop.

‘Experience It’ Student Conference at UNSW.

12 Jun

Discover Engineering Day.

Eminent Speakers Breakfast: Where can Engineering Take you? Held at Four Seasons Hotel.

31 Jul

Entrepreneurs Workshop.

05 Aug

Next Step Career Talk and Bridge Building Competition.

20 Nov

Annual General Meeting.

EWB/YEAS Trivia Night.

6 Dec

Christmas High Tea.

15 Aug AEW Event 02 Sep

Young Engineering Leaders Reception.

30 Sep

YEAS Committee Introduction Night.

Date

Activity

18 Jan

Strategic planning Meeting

6 Mar

International Women’s Day Cocktail Evening: Inspiring Change, Be the Change. Held at Shelbourne Hotel.

12 May

Mentoring Program launch.

18 Jun

Panel Discussion: Champions For Change. Held at MLC Centre.

9 Aug 24 Sep 23 Oct

Committee Julie Mikhail (Chair), Melissa Melrose (Secretary), Jade Gan (Vice Chair), Allira Hudson-Gofers (Treasurer), Melissa Jovic (National Representative), Yee Yeng Lambropoulos (Website Coordinator), Rezarta Rushitaj (Publications Coordinator) and Mai Yeung (Mentoring Coordinator).

Young Engineers Australia Sydney (YEAS) YEAS committee is a special interest group within Engineers Australia that represents Engineers Australia members from the age of 18 – 35 who are currently completing or have completed a tertiary engineering qualification. We aim to show young engineers the value of being actively involved in Engineers Australia by providing them with the opportunity to develop, pursue creative and innovative solutions, leading by example and inspiring and empowerment of young engineers.

Committee Matthew Aberline (Chair), Chris Turner (Vice Chair), Jonathan Barnes (Treasurer), Christine Chen (Secretary), Hannah Mahony-Hayes (Past Chair YEAS), Oliver Jones (Past Chair YEAV), Hugh Tait (National Rep.), Steve Johnson Hill (Major Events), Vera Tchikina (General Events), Isabel Duffy (Social Media), Sam Lumley (Membership), Daniel Bower (General Rep.) and Matt Adams (General Rep).

Group Reports

29

Technical Societies Australasian Tunnelling Society – Sydney Group (ATS) 2014 has been both a busy and successful year for the Australasian Tunnelling Society. In Sydney the drought of previous years is truly over as we have moved into the tender and construction phases of numerous large local tunnelling projects.

The ATS Sydney Group have continued to have regular technical sessions throughout the year, and have seen the return of old friends and some new faces with the specialist workforces coming back to Sydney. Technical session attendance has been growing steadily and in August we had a record attendance of 145 people. The individuals within the fraternity come from a wide range of backgrounds, both public and private organisations, from designers to builders, from asset owners to component manufacturers, but we all share the common goal of continual improvement and development within the tunnelling and underground construction industry.

The 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference was held at the Sydney Hilton in September. The importance and value to the community of tunnelling and underground construction was again illustrated by the high attendance and success of the conference. There was more than 370 registered delegates and participation by political representatives and captains of our industry. There were 125 draft submissions received from all around the world including New Zealand, United States, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, France, Spain, Hungary, Iran, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Australia. The high calibre and range of presentations, combined with the preconference TBM workshop and post conference excursions, all made for a highly successful 5 days.

We would like to recognise the many hours put in by the volunteers of the ATS conference organising sub-committee, in particular Ted Nye, the Conference Chair.

The David Sugden 2014 Young Engineers Writing Award (sponsored by the ATS) was awarded to Simon Strong of Herrenknecht Australia. The Allen Neyland Award (triennial) for outstanding achievement associated with tunnelling and underground construction in Australasia went to Dr Doug Maconochie.

One of the Initiatives we hope to promote further in 2015 is the development of the young engineering professionals, and to include a young engineer representative on the local committee, so we appeal to those of you that support younger engineers to guide them towards the ATS. There is a lot to be learnt about the industry and one of the best avenues for this is to get involved with the local technical society. ATS also intend approaching academia to increase interaction and discussion on tunnel theory and practice.

ATS Sydney group has had one of its most successful and engaging years in the pursuit of creating a stronger, vibrant and relevant tunnelling industry. We look forward to the challenges of 2015 working in Sydney and promoting all areas of tunnelling and the development of underground space.

30

Group Reports

Technical Activities Date

Activity

19 Feb

The North Strathfield Rail Under Pass – Driven tunnel. Presented by Ted Nye, Mott Macdonald Australia.

16 Apr

The City East Cable Tunnel TBM – The dream, the drive, the reality. Presentation by Tim Burns, Thiess Project Manager CECT.

25 Jun

The Accelerated Procurement of NorthConnex.

Presented by Richard Martin and Duncan Stirling, Evans & Peck.

20 Aug

NWRL – Planning Australia’s longest rail tunnel.

Presented by Geoff Bateman, TfNSW and Matt Frewer, AECOM.

17-19 Sep

15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014: Underground Space – Solutions for the future.

12 Nov

Specialised Rock Testing for Excavation and Tunnelling Projects. Presented by Bill Bamford, Bamford Rock Testing Services (BRTS).

Committee Daryl Gilchrist (Chair), Ted Nye (Past Chair), Matthew Frewer (Deputy Chair), Jessica Qui (Secretary), Robert Nievergelt (Treasurer), Samantha McWilliam, John Brown, Peter Watson, Paul Roberts, Francisco Cortes and Tom Burns.

Australian Geomechanics Society – Sydney Chapter (AGS) The Sydney chapter of the AGS has had another successful year.

An average of 50 people have attended our monthly meetings.

Our annual Symposium from 2013, jointly organized with the Structural Panel on the topic, Retaining Structures: Recent advances and past experiences, was very successful attracting over 180 participants.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

12 Feb

Introducing Geotechnical Design to Shallow Geothermal Systems. Presented by Ian Johnston.

12 Mar

Engineering Geology of the Pilbara Iron Deposits. Presented by Mark Eggers.

09 Apr

The Centre for Excellence in Geotechnical Science and Engineering and Work at the Ballina Field Test Facility. Presented by Richard Kelly.

14 May

AGS Research Award Presentations. Guest Speakers were • Hassan Sabetamal, University of Newcastle, speaking on Finite Element Algorithms for Dynamic Analysis of Geotechnical Problems.

• Rasika Athukorala, The University of Wollongong, presenting on A Theoretical Model on the Erosion Behaviour of Lignosulfonate Treated soil.

• Thanh Vo, The University of New South Wales, speaking on Interactions Between a Rigid Retaining Wall and Unsaturated Soils.

Date

Activity

11 Jun

2012 Terzaghi Lecture, Geoenvironmental Engineering: Problems Solved and Challenges Remaining. Presented by David Daniel

09 Jul

Young Geotechnical Professionals Night. The Presenters: were • Cillian McColgan, Pells Sullivan Meynink, speaking on Response to Cyclone Oswald – Case study on rapid damage assessment for North Burnett Regional Council.

• Idy Li, SMEC, speaking on Design and Construction of Trapezoidal Reinforced Soil Walls.

• S.M.Ali Tasalloti, University of Wollongong, speaking on Geotechnical Assessment on the Behaviour of Coal Wash – Steel furnace slag blends as a structural fill.

• Richard Brehaut, Pells Sullivan Meynink, speaking on Geotechnical Assessment of Bored Piles – A contemporary view.

The Chapter continues its association with the Sydney Aerospace and Defence Interest Group (SADIG) an initiative of the NSW Government. The Chair of ASDE NSW is the Chair of SADIG’s Industry Supply Chain Sub-committee and is a member of the SADIG Executive Committee. The major activity of the Supply Chain Sub-committee was the initiation of a Workshop of NSW industry and other interested organisations to develop a submission on the ‘defence industry policy’ aspects of the Defence White Paper. The Workshop arranged by the NSW Government Regional Development was held on 19 June 14, was attended by over 40 (including 2 of the ASDE committee), mainly from industry and developed a series of issues and recommendations to be submitted for consideration in the development of the Defence White Paper.

On the 5 September the Chair of NSW ASDE attended a meeting with the Manager, Australian Business Defence Industry, to contribute to its submission on the defence industry policy aspects of the Defence White Paper.

Special Projects of ASDE NSW •

National Convention

1 Aug

1 day Core Logging Course. Presented by Fred Baynes.

13 Aug

Trollope medal winner presentation: Prefabricated Vertical Drains and Preloading by Vacuum: Design and performance. Presented by Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn.

The ASDE Sydney Chapter is assisting the ASDE National Committee with the arrangements for the ASDE Australian Defence Engineering Conference (ADEC), which will be incorporated into the National Convention to be held in Melbourne in November 2014.

10 Sep

Deep Sewer Tunnels in Hong Kong. Presented by Dr John Endicott.

•

08 Oct

Annual General Meeting and Global Slope Performance Index. Presented by Tim Sullivan.

20 Oct

Benefits and Limitations of Quantitative Risk Assessment in Dealing with Natural Hazards.

Presented by Suzanne Lacasse.

The National Committee of ASDE has decided to defer further work on this project until early 2015 as Engineers Media has not had the required effort to develop any outlines and ASDE members are heavily occupied on the National Convention. It is hoped that DEBOK will be incorporated into the Engineers Australia Communities of Practice Program.

7 Nov

All day Symposium: Resilient Geotechnics.

•

25 Nov

Site Visit to Barangaroo Headland Park Tour.

Committee Professor David Airey (Chair), Dr Jason Surjadinata (Secretary), Hadi Khabbaz, Sally Peacock, Hugh Stallard, Tim Nash, Tim Mote, Sam Mirlatifi, Henk Buys, Mark van Uden, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn, Hana Liu, Adrian Hulskamp, Bosco Poon, Cillian McColgan, Tristan McWilliam and Stefano Pirrello.

Australian Society for Defence Engineering (ASDE) The Australian Society for Defence Engineering (ASDE) New South Wales Chapter Annual General Meeting was held on 3rd February 2014. Committee meetings were held on 14th March 2014, 24th June 2014, and 16th September 2014 with a final one for the year held in December.

Relationship with other Organisations Our relationship with the Australian Industry Defence Network (AIDN) of New South Wales, established in 2010, continues and gives us access to their Newsletter and they receive an invitation to our presentations. Both organisations continue to cooperate to seek other mutual benefits. The Chair of the NSW ASDE Chapter attended the AIDN NSW 20th Anniversary Dinner at the ShangriLa Hotel, Sydney on 18 September 2014.

Defence Engineering Body of Knowledge (DEBOK)

World War 1 Commemoration

The Chair of ASDE NSW is one of the 3 member Engineers Australia Project Team which is managing the Engineers Australia project to commemorate the contribution of engineering to the operations of World War 1 and to defence operations since. The website is well underway and that the arrangements for the presentations are beginning to firm up. The first presentation to launch the program will be in Canberra during Australian Engineering Week 2015, probably at the Australian War Memorial. A number of other divisions have agreed to host a presentation as has a regional area in northern NSW. The Head of the Corps of the Royal Australian Engineers is assisting with the identification of speakers. ASDE NSW will need to consider the arrangements of the Sydney presentation. The project will be officially launched at the ADEC Conference in Melbourne in November.

•

DSTO/ASDE Defence Science Series

Recently the National ASDE Committee has agreed to host an annual DSTO/ASDE Defence Science Series of presentations of noteworthy achievement by a member of DSTO, selected by his peers. The DSTO representative selected for 2014/2015 is Dr Cato who is a renowned authority on sonar and underwater acoustics and his presentation will be ‘Sonars, Shrimps, Whales and Submarines’ ASDE NSW will arrange the Sydney Presentation

by Dr Doug Cato during next year.

Group Reports

31

Involvement of ASDE with Engineers Australia

•

Facebook and LinkedIn. Simon Lewis, assisted by Ian Askell, has been successfully operating and growing Facebook and Twitter. Simon will be using Facebook to advertise functions, hopefully to attract more members. Tim de Grauw continues to grow LinkedIn with new Society members. Total count exceeds 100.

•

EECON NSW 2014.

The conference at the Australian Technology Park was extremely successful and the exhibition space was fully booked. Each conference session was broadcast live by webinar and sold to Essential Energy and others. They are also recorded for future sale. Evaluation will be online this year and the format is being reviewed based on an excellent result last year. This enabled a first class report to be prepared for the sponsors and exhibitors.

•

Peter Dulhunty has continued as the Australian contact with CIRED. He provided a brief report at this year’s conference.

•

6 submissions for our competition to attend the CIRED conference at Lyon in 2015 were received and a winner was chosen from United Energy.

•

Tony Patterson is much appreciated as the bulletin editor.

•

The Chapter remains healthy financially with $28,000 in bank accounts and about $141,000 in term deposits.

•

Larry Meng has continued as our valued Treasurer for both this State and for the National organisation. His work is invaluable and very much appreciated.

We continue to receive great support from National Office and Sydney Division. We interact with them in our range of interests.

Technical Activities The following presentations have been hosted or held by the Chapter in 2014: Date

Activity

4 Mar

Eminent Speaker Series hosted by ASDE with Dr Bruce Ward presenting on the Over-the-HorizonRadar System and its Development.

5 May

Seminar: Battery Research and Development by Prof Tony Vassallo, University of Sydney and Dr Jon Pemberton, Director of Zest Energy. This was jointly presented and arranged by ASDE NSW and EESA.

Aug AEW Event

Visit to the UAV Laboratories and Robotics Centre at Sydney University arranged and conducted by ASDE NSW Chapter.

4 Sep

– ASDE NSW and the NSW Quality Panel (Engineers Australia Quality in Engineering Panel, EAQEP) arranged and hosted a presentation by Wing Commander Neil Armstrong of the Tactical Fighter System Program Office on the Maintenance of the FA – 18 and the Super Hornet.

3 Nov

Presentation: Simulator for Australian Light Armoured Vehicle (ASLAV) by Philip Swadling, Technical and Engineering Manager at Thales Australia’s Avionics, Training and Simulation business.

Committee Doug Roser (Chair & Secretary), John Brett, Christine Chen, John Elliott (Treasurer), Tom Fink, Greg Marsh and Rafid.

Electric Energy Society of Australia NSW Chapter (EESA) EESA Meetings have been held monthly in the Engineers Australia Sydney Division office at Chatswood. Total committee membership is now 27 of which 7 are regularly corresponding.

The committee has been concentrating on the need to adapt to the changing environment and has been following up the projects identified in last year’s planning session each month.

•

•

Technical Program Maurice Overy has maintained an excellent program plan and record. He has developed a proposal for the 2015 technical program including a list of suggested webinar topics.

New Committee Members Alan Murray has joined the committee as the representative from Ausgrid following the retirement of Patrick McMullan.

Patrick will remain an active and appreciated member of the committee.

Jeff Allen has been nominated to join the committee at the coming AGM. Philippe Reboul, a member of the Queensland chapter committee, has offered to attend our monthly meetings when available. That will provide a useful additional link between the chapters.

32

Group Reports

Technical Activities Webinars have been the primary focus for education and three have been successfully held this year attracting a total of 208 delegates, including 2 non members.

Paul Russell has been actively organising seminars in Newcastle, co-badged with the Newcastle EA. Six seminars have been held attended by one EESA member, 190 EA members and five non-members.

Two seminars have been held at EA Chatswood in Sydney attended by 110 EESA delegates.

Committee Bob Smith (Chair & Secretary), Jeff Allen, Ian Askell, David Barr, Dr Robert Barr, Harry Colebourn, Neville Cooper, Chris Dalitz, Peter Dulhunty, Tim de Grauw, Chris Halliday, Winodh Jayewardene, Terry Lampard, Peter Langdon, Simon Lewis, Patrick McMullan, Larry Meng, Alan Murray, Maurice Overy, Bob Parkinson, Tony Patterson, Paul Russell, Robert Smith, Dennis Stanley, David Sweeting, Ray Thorn and Steven Trainer.

Risk Engineering Society (RES) As a Technical Society of Engineers Australia, the Risk Engineering Society (RES) facilitates and promotes a better understanding of risk management in an engineering context by all engineering disciplines, and contributes towards the ongoing development of risk engineering as a specialisation.

The NSW Chapter Committee met regularly throughout the year to develop and coordinate a range of engagement activities including networking events, seminars, workshops, Chapter AGM, and joint events with interested groups/organisations. RES NSW also provided substantial input into the RES National Conference held in Brisbane in May 2014.

During the RISK 2014 National Conference, RES initiated development of the Risk Engineering Body of Knowledge (REBoK).

In the coming year and with support from Engineers Media, RES NSW will be actively working with other RES Chapters to develop REBoK.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

15 Mar

Behind-the-Scenes Members only event at Powerhouse Museum Discovery Centre, Castle Hill.

26 Mar

Eminent Speaker Alain Garcia, Airbus on Flying in 2050.

30 Apr

Autonomous UAV Operations Research presentation.

4 May

RAeS was present at Wings over Illawarra Airshow.

28 May

Presentation by Barry Murphy on Sydney’s Second Airport.

25 Jun

Presentation by Adam Burford from Thales on ATC Safety.

30 Jul

Website: www.engineersaustralia.org.au/risk-engineering-society/nsw

Presentation by Roger Chambers CASA on Safety Panel.

27 Aug

Presentation by Group Captain John Ibbotson on Australia and the F-35 Lightning II.

Technical Activities

1 Oct

KS Lecture by Margaret Staib on Future Air Services.

RES NSW has been nominated to host the RISK 2016 National Conference in Sydney. The NSW Chapter will facilitate an ongoing planning program for the 2016 Conference, with Ian Ackland nominated as the RES National Conference Chair.

The LinkedIn site for the Risk Engineering Society (initiated by the NSW Chapter) has grown substantially and now includes over 400 members.

After 20 years of valuable contribution, Emeritus Professor Jean Cross has announced that she will no longer be able to participate as a member of the RES NSW Committee. On behalf of the Committee and Engineers Australia we thank Jean for her insightful contributions to the risk profession.

Date

Activity

1 Oct

Industry Consultative Panel.

23 Jan

Beer Tales and Ales : A Beer Degustation with Dr Chuck Hahn.

29 Oct

Presentation by David Forsyth on CASA Regulatory Review.

5 May

The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Risk Management.

26 Nov

9 Sep

Managing Effects of Uncertainty on Objectives : ISO 31000 and Beyond.

Presentation by Prof Andy Dong on The Importance of Design to Engineering.

Debate between Sydney and UNSW Students on an Aviation Topic.

29 Oct

Beyond Risk Registers to Risk-based Planning & Decision Making. It as a joint event with RMIA NSW Chapter.

10 Dec

AGM and panel discussion: Prediction on Top 10 Developments in Aviation.

5 Nov

Risk Assessment for Nuclear Reactors. It was a joint event with the Nuclear Engineering Panel.

Committee Pedram Danesh-Mand (Chair), Brendyn Williams (Deputy Chair and Treasurer), Peter Flanagan (Secretary), Ruben Welschen, Jean Cross, Ian Ackland, Sanjeev Kumar, Hope Dilworth-Kidd and Grant Hookway.

Royal Aeronautical Society – Sydney Branch (RAeS) The Sydney branch has been very active through 2014. The Branch has just under 300 members and over 600 people on its mailing list.

Committee David Cox (Chair), John Vincent (Secretary), David Adkins (Vice Chairman), John Vincent ( Hon. Secretary and Membership c’tee Chair), Atila Olgun (Hon. Asst Sec), Jeff Lock (Hon. Treasurer).

Student Liaison & Membership: Eugenia Wong (next UNSW representative), Samanvay Karambhe (next USyd rep), James Yong (USyd) Committee Members: Ross Barkla, David Kelly, Brian Greeves and Peter Marosszeky (External Events c’tee Chair).

Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) The RINA group: •

provides technical presentations in association with the Institution of Engineering Science and Technology (Sydney Branch) from February through October.

•

arranges for recording of some of these presentations for posting as webcasts on the EA website.

•

organises the Christmas party for the Sydney Marine Industry, SMIX Bash, aboard the three-masted barque, James Craig.

•

provides awards for the best academic performance by students enrolled in Years 1, 2 and 3 of the naval architecture degree program at the University of New South Wales.

Our key aims are to: •

Provide lectures that inform,

•

Form stronger links with our industry partners,

•

Support activities that bring young people into the industry

•

Use the knowledge and experience of our members to provide a forum and advice to advance the debate on key issues

Group Reports

33

Technical Activities Date

Activity

05 Feb

Advances in Slow-speed Marine Diesel Engines. Presentation by Eric Clarke, Business Development Manager, MAN Diesel & Turbo Australia.

05 Mar

The Quest for Speed under Sail. Presentation by Sean Langman, Principal, Team Australia

05 Mar

Annual General Meeting, Royal Institution of Naval Architects, NSW Section.

02 Apr

The RAN's new Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyer. Presentation by Chris Eggleton, Business and Capability Development Manager, Forgacs Engineering.

07 May

Design and Construction of Cutting-edge Vessels. Presentation by Brett Crowther, Managing Director, Incat Crowther Design

04 Jun

Reliability-centred Maintenance in a Maritime Environment. Presentation by Rob Gay, Director, PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

02 Jul

45 m Shallow-draft Pusher Tugs Building at Uzmar Shipyard in Turkey for South America.

Presentation by Neil Edwards, Principal, Edwards Marine Services.

06 Aug

Ballast Water Treatment. Presentation by Selwyn Oliveira, Marine and Diesel Manager, Alfa Laval Australia.

03 Sep

Performance of Propellers in Off-design Conditions. Presentation by Phil Helmore, Naval Architecture Stream Coordinator, University of New South Wales.

22 Sep

Workshop, Working towards Chartered Status.

Presentation by Trevor Blakeley, Chief Executive, Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

01 Oct

LNG — The New Fuel for Ships? Presentation by Graham Taylor, Principal, Taylortech.

04 Dec

SMIX Bash 2014, on board James Craig

Committee Alan Taylor (Chair), Anne Simpson (Secretary), Craig Boulton, Adrian Broadbent, Valerio Corniani, Nathan Gale, Phillip Helmore, Sue-Ellen Jahshan, Graham Taylor and Robert Tulk.

Society of Fire Safety (SFS) The Society of Fire Safety was established to foster excellence in fire safety in Australia. As a learned society, the aims are to draw together individuals who are actively engaged in fire safety, to provide a national focus and leadership for the development, understanding, practice and application of fire safety engineering to achieve reductions of risk for life, property and environmental damage and the implementation of cost-effective fire safety codes and regulations.

34

Group Reports

The key SFS achievements in 2014 are: •

Continue to provide technical seminars which promote excellence in the practice of fire safety engineering.

•

Attend meetings and maintain effective communication with Fire and Rescue NSW, the Building Professionals Board, and the Department of Planning and Infrastructure.

•

Liaise closely with SFS members, initiating comment and promoting debate on selected fire safety engineering issues

•

Provide submissions in relation to proposed fire safety related legislation including:

•

•

FRNSW guidelines on fire severity

•

FRNSW fee structure

Finalisation of tenability criteria practice note and risk based committee initiated.

Technical Activities Date

Activity

19 Feb

Verification Methods.

16 Apr

Impulse Fans.

18 Jun

Combustible Facades / Insulation.

20 Aug

Emergency Egress.

22 Oct

Engineering for Bushfire Safety.

10 Dec

Future of Fire Engineering.

Committee Peter Gardner (Chair), Sarnia Rusbridge (Secretary), Atul Bhargava, Bruce Bailey, Carlos Quaglia, Daniel Levy, Darin Evans, David Boverman, Derya Horasan, Micael Lundqvist, Mike Donegan, Sandro Razzi, Stephen Grubits and Vivek Apte.

Sustainable Engineering Society (SENG) Technical Activities Date

Activity

26 Jun

2014 Young Environmental Professionals Networking Night.

29 Jul

Treating Endocrine Disruptors in our Waterways.

Committee Matthew Guy (Chair), David Gamble, Rachael Lindup, Pedro Arrondo and Tom Fink.

2014 Sponsors Engineers Australia Sydney Division gratefully acknowledges the support of our sponsors:

Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards Bradfield Award Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Australian Engineering Week

35

Sydney Division

Level 3, 8 Thomas Street, Chatswood NSW 2067 PO Box 1389, Chatswood NSW 2057 Phone: 1300 653 113 Facsimile: 02 9410 0000 sydney@engineersaustralia.org.au www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sydney ABN 63 020 415 510