General News

DECO Testing granted ISO 17025 accreditation

DECO Australia’s new independent testing body, DECO Testing Pty Ltd, has been granted ISO 17025 accreditation by the National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia (NATA).

As Australia’s leading national accreditation body, NATA is recognised by government to assess organisations against a number of international standards for laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing scheme providers and reference material producers. This significant ISO 17025 accreditation means that DECO Testing’s newly refurbished laboratory has scope to offer five material performance and corrosion tests, with results accepted globally. These tests include: • Cross Hatch Adhesion to ISO 2409 • Wet Adhesion to Qualicoat 2.4.2 • Machu Test to Qualicoat 2.11 • Neutral Salt Spray to ISO 9227 • Acetic Salt Spray to ISO 9227 “This respected NATA accreditation is a significant achievement for DECO Testing. It really highlights DECO’s commitment and continued dedication to quality and performance and will now also give us the ability to offer accredited testing services industry wide.” said DECO Australia General Manager, Richard Hamber. DECO Testing conducts these third-party accredited tests across DECO Australia’s wide range of products and finishes, and offers these globally recognised testing services to the wider industry with NATA accredited test certificates provided on completion.

16 champions to elevate women in STEM

The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) has announced the appointment of 16 STEM champions from across the breadth of industry and academia to lead an Advisory Group for the $41.2 million Elevate: Boosting Women in STEM program.

The program is funded by the Australian Government. The transformational program will award up to 500 undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships over seven years to women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, in partnership with the Australian Government, the higher education and research sector and industry. The Elevate Advisory Group will be co-chaired by non-executive director, engineering leader and former President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) Dr Marlene Kanga AO FTSE, and Dr Adi Patterson FTSE, an international leader in nuclear science and technology, and a Champion of Change. The Advisory Group will champion the program, secure sector wide partnerships, and guide strategy and implementation of the program. “I am proud to lead this incredible project which we hope will shift the dial in the level of participation of women in STEM. This is vitally important to secure Australia’s future as a technologically advanced nation. The Advisory Group comprises 16 of Australia’s most experienced STEM ambassadors who will collectively transform our assumptions about who can work in STEM,” Dr Kanga said.

International Women in Engineering Day

International Women in Engineering Day began in the UK in 2014 as a national campaign from the Women’s Engineering Society. Since then, INWED has grown enormously, receiving UNESCO patronage in 2016 and going truly global the following year.

National Women in Engineering Day was launched for the first time in the UK on 23 June 2014 by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate its 95th anniversary. In 2017, National Women in Engineering Day became international for the first time due to the interest and enthusiasm developed by the international audience and participants in the previous years. International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) was born to enable the celebration of women in engineering to become global. Figures as of June 2021 show that 16.5 percent of engineers are women, in Australia the figure is lower at 12 percent. INWED gives women engineers around the world a profile when they are still hugely under-represented in their professions. As the only platform of its kind, it plays a vital role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers. This International Women in Engineering Day, Swinburne University of Technology paid tribute to women who have followed their passions in engineering, overcoming the many barriers’ women face in forging successful careers in the field by highlighting Victoria Zinnecker an Aerostructure Innovation Research (AIR) Hub Research Fellow, Associate Professor Mahnaz Shafiei who is pioneering work on next generation miniaturised, low-power gas sensors and at Swinburne’s Factory of the Future Shanti Krishnan who is helping industries innovate and embrace technology through her passion for making engineering interesting.

Top tips for women to forge a career in engineering

Being fearless has helped Dr Lorena Caires Moreira forge a career in the maledominated world of engineering – now the Coventry University researcher offers her five top tips for future female engineers.

Dr Moreira has been working with engineering and technology for a decade and is a research fellow at the UK’s Coventry University’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME), where she helps transform engineering problems into innovation opportunities by leveraging the capabilities of emerging technologies. These are her top tips to help others follow in her footsteps and be a catalyst for change: 1. Be fearless. No woman should be afraid of building a career in engineering due to the ratio of men to women, use it as an extra encouragement to be a trailblazer and create change for the future. Always speak with confidence, clarity and certainty. Give yourself enough time to be prepared and never be afraid of asking questions and to be heard. 2. Have fun. There has never been a better time to join a career path in engineering for women, given the technology advancements and the need for new innovative thinking. The fact that engineering remains a male dominant sector poses extra challenges that require me to stretch my comfort zone in all directions. 3. Make kindness your superpower. Empathy and kindness are powerful skills that can be used to show respect and appreciation towards your colleagues. Help others and you can help create a supportive and collaborative work environment.

Emotional intelligence can be an undervalued skill and it can mean different things depending on the circumstances. 4. Collaborative communication. Be curious about people at work in a professional way; ask about their professional experiences, projects and areas of expertise to find out how they, eventually, could support you.

At the same time, let people know how you can help by sharing your experiences, expertise and areas of interest. 5. Know that you belong. To best thrive in this industry, you need to feel equal, know your worth and find a sense of belonging.

We are seeing various initiatives towards more equal, diverse and inclusive (EDI) workplaces and working patterns being introduced that focus on addressing the gender gaps in engineering and technology. My advice is to join societies and networks when you are studying at university and beyond.

RMIT develops a retread for our roads

RMIT University engineers collaborated with Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) to reveal a bitumen blend that is both UV-resistant and withstands traffic loads, with the potential to save governments millions on road maintenance annually.

Unlike much outdoor infrastructure, roads are not designed with any sun protection, making them prone to cracking. Australian states and territories spent nearly $2.9 billion on road maintenance in 2019–2020, according to the National Transport Commission.   This new invention provides a promising sustainable solution to Australia’s used-tyre crisis. Used tyres in Australia have been subject to an export ban since December 2020, which means new methods for recycling and reprocessing them locally is increasingly important.  The new study led by Associate Professor Filippo Giustozzi provides a sustainable solution to UV protection for roads, with results published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.  “We found that the ageing trend is actually slowed down when you add crumb rubber, which is recycled from scrap tyres, into the top layer of a road,” Giustozzi said.   “This acts so effectively as a sunscreen for roads that it actually makes the surface last twice as long as regular bitumen.  “We knew that UV would be a factor in road degradation, but not by what degree or how to protect against it, as nobody has really been looking at this aspect.”  RMIT is one of the few universities in Australia to have a UV machine for asphalt studies, it simulates weather-related ageing.  After a month and a half of continuous exposure in the UV machine, equivalent to about a year of Melbourne’s UV radiation, they

Thales Australia new CEO Jeff Connolly

Thales Australia and New Zealand announced the appointment of Jeff Connolly as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) following the decision by current CEO Chris Jenkins to retire after 14 years in the role.

Mr Connolly will take up the role on 1 September 2022, with Mr Jenkins agreeing to continue to serve Thales and its customers as a non-executive director after a period of leave. Australian-born Mr Connolly will join Thales from multinational technology and engineering company Siemens AG, where he has been Executive Chairman and CEO of Siemens Australia and New Zealand for the past 10 years. In a 30-year career at Siemens, Mr Connolly has held senior executive roles throughout Australia, Europe and Asia. “Among other notable achievements, Jeff established and chaired the Prime Minister’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce, now known as the AiGroup Industry 4.0 Forum, and he remains on the Executive Council. More recently, Jeff chaired the Federal Government’s Research Commercialisation Taskforce, the recommendations of which led to the $2.2 billion University Research Commercialisation Action Plan to drive industry and university innovation and collaboration,” Thales Australia and New Zealand Chair, Belinda Hutchinson, said. Mr Connolly said: “I am excited by the opportunity to lead one of Australia’s most innovative and trusted companies at a time when demand for its mission-critical services has never been more acute. I look forward to continuing to build on Thales’ well-earned reputation for innovation and world-class support for its defence and commercial customers in Australia, throughout the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.”

measured the changes in bitumen’s chemical and mechanical properties.  Mr Giustozzi said bitumen mixed with the high concentration of crumb rubber from recycled tyres showed 50% less UV damage compared with regular bitumen.    “You don’t want something that is UV resistant but not truck resistant,” he said. “We found adding between 18% and 22% of crumb rubber generates an ideal balance in terms of improving rut and fatigue resistance to traffic loads, while resisting UV ageing.”