A Sydney-based engineer and four Sydney engineering companies and projects have been awarded Australian Engineering Excellence Awards at the 2006 Australian Engineering Excellence Awards.

Presented at a black tie dinner at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday 22^nd November, these winners were invited to enter the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards as national finalists, following their success at the Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards in September this year.

Maroubra resident and Cochlear employee Andrew Botros has been named Engineers Australia''''a 2006 Young Professional Engineer of the Year. Andrew was awarded the University Medal for Computer Engineering by University of New South Wales, and by 2004 he completed Masters Degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Information Technology. In collaboration with the University of New South Wales, Andrew is currently undertaking an industry-based PhD, developing further means of simplifying Cochlear’s products via machine intelligence.

Andrew’s principal role at Cochlear is to create intelligent software that makes cochlear implant systems more effective and easier to use. Andrew is also a researcher in music acoustics at UNSW, where he models woodwind instruments to assist performers and composers. The Virtual Flute, his undergraduate project, won the 2002 Siemens Prize for Innovation and the 2003 Australian Acoustical Society Excellence in Acoustics Award.

Andrew is a professional member of Engineers Australia. In recent years he has taken part in Institution events such as National Engineering Week, Honeywell Engineering Summer School and Neighbourhood Engineers.

ResMed Ltd has been awarded the prestigious Australian Government Engineering Innovation Award, sponsored by AusIndustry. ResMed’s integrated S8^™/Swift^™ system for treating obstructive sleep apnea by continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) consists of an airflow generator (S8) that directs air to a mask (Swift), with soft tubes making an airtight seal into the nostrils.  Optional accessories include a heated humidifier.  In the most advanced form, sensors linked to an inbuilt computer allow treatment of each and every breath, with records interpreted for diagnosis.

The system meets the extreme requirements of comfortable maintenance of a therapeutic pressure of air to the nose with minimal noise during 8 hours of sleep.  The distinctive advances in engineering over prior and competing systems are its modular construction, and, most importantly, compact size.  Launched in April 2005, sales in May 2006 of 43,000 per month for the S8 and 60,000 for the Swift, makes this system world market leader in a competitive industry.  There are demonstrable benefits to the Australian economy and to world health.

The Stingers F1inSchools World Champions has been awarded the prestigious ‘President’s Prize’. The Re-Engineering Australia (REA) Forum, organisers of the Australian Schools Innovation Design Challenge, entered The Stingers, a team of five Australian school boys, into the awards. The Australian champions of the Schools Innovation Design Challenge took their winning model car and portfolio of supportive work to the International Championships in the UK, competing in the F1inSchools World Finals. Competing against teams from 17 countries they won the title of World Champions and Best Engineered Design.

Producing a body of work that impressed Europe’s top engineering executives with its innovation, understanding and use of advance engineering techniques, they received international acclaim for their work – all the more outstanding given the fact that the boys are 13-14 years of age.
The Stingers’ project is presented in its entirety, and it is the students and their project that is the entrant, and winner, to the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards.

Of course, the students would not have had the opportunity to compete in such an event if it weren’t for the REA Forum, based in Pennant Hills, NSW. REA is a group of like-minded organisations from industry, government and education, working together for the future of Australian Industry and all Australians. By focusing on what Australians can achieve through the use of advanced technologies, REA hope to inspire many more Australians to develop an innovative culture and take their ideas to the world.

The Westlink M7 Motorway and the companies contracted to build it have been awarded an Australian Engineering Excellence Award. Joint entrants Abigroup Contractors Pty Ltd, Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd, Maunsell Australia Pty Ltd, SMEC Australia Pty Ltd and the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales were invited to submit the Westlink M7 in the Australian awards following their outstanding success at the 2006 Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards at which the M7 was awarded the prestigious Bradfield Award, the highest level achievement of the Sydney program.

The Westlink M7 Motorway is a $1500m project and Australia’s largest operating urban road project. It was delivered under a “public private partnership (PPP)” model to the satisfaction of all stakeholders and even at this early stage of operation, it is clear that it is one of Australia’s most successful pieces of infrastructure.
This infrastructure has many areas of excellence including:
·         Community benefits such as major improvement to travel times, ease of access, improvements to air quality and reduction in greenhouse emissions in Western Sydney;
·         Opening up a substantial area of Sydney to development fostering new employment;
·         Maintaining a major focus on safety, including construction of the largest interchange in the Southern Hemisphere over and around traffic on one of Sydney’s busiest motorways;
·         Planning and managing the massive logistics required for designing and constructing 144 bridges, 7 million cubic metres of earthworks, 40km of motorway, 47km of noise barriers, 42km of shared path and 20km of local road upgrades. 

Ventracor Limited, a Chatswood based company, has been awarded an Australian Engineering Excellence Award. The VentrAssist™ Left Ventricular Assist Device is a life support system which is permanently implanted in patients dying of heart failure. The VentrAssist is an alternative to heart transplantation and is capable of restoring patients to normal health and daily activities.
 
The core of the system is a small blood pump featuring patented contactless bearings, a laser-welded hermetic titanium-alloy structure, unique blood-compatible diamond coatings and an integrated slotless motor. There are no wearing parts, yielding operation in the body indefinitely without maintenance.

All engineering including pump design, computational fluid dynamic/magnetic analysis, diamond-like coating optimisation, control electronics, firmware and manufacturing optimisation has been performed by Australian engineers. A $A10 million production facility certified to international standards has been established in Sydney.

The VentraAssist is completing clinical trials in Australasia, Europe and USA and has been implanted in over 50 patients with duration > 3 years with outstanding clinical outcomes.

Amal Hanna, Engineers Australia, Sydney Division President, said she is pleased to see Sydney engineering recognised on a national level. “The value of engineering to lead and assist in the sustainability and development of society is most ably demonstrated through the Engineering Excellence Awards,” Mrs Hanna said.

Finalists in the annual Australian Engineering Excellence Awards are members of an elite group of Australia''''s premier engineers who have set global benchmarks for best practice in their fields of endeavour and are leaders in the profession, showing world class expertise and innovation in developing and implementing engineering solutions. Engineers Australia congratulates all those that reach this level of achievement. More information on the Engineering Excellence Awards can be gained through Engineers Australia, at www.engineersaustralia.org.au.