The Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management together with Young Engineers Australia will present the 2012 Engineering Leadership Conference (ELC 2012) in Adelaide from 30 May to 2 June 2012. This conference is the major biennial professional event in the Australian engineering industry, with over 500 delegates expected to attend.

The Women in Engineering National Committee have offered two award scholarships to two leading female engineers in Australia to attend ELC 2012. After receiving a total of 33 applications from female engineers across the country, two have now been awarded, each receiving conference registration along with $2000 in travel expenses. The winners were judged by a specially formed panel from the Women in Engineering National Committee.

Below is an outline of the two winners and why this year’s Engineering Leadership Conference is so important to them.

LISE BOLTON

Lise Bolton works in a management role for a small environment consultancy and engineering company called Ecoteam based in regional northern New South Wales. The company maintains and upgrades water and sewerage systems in three remote Aboriginal communities, as well as designs and builds constructed wetlands for water treatment, performs contaminated land assessment and provides a range of development based services.

Despite only joining the company in an internship capacity, Lise was offered a permanent role soon after and within a year, was appointed director. Currently completing her Masters degree with advanced studies in environmental engineering, Lise hopes to bring a range of new management skills to the company by utilising her studies and leadership skills to further grow the business.

Lise completed university studies which focus on communication and leadership within the engineering profession. Lise used these learnings to help structure the company as well as provide much-needed management techniques which were missing. Lise also recognised the lack of uniformity and partnership so implemented monthly meetings where all members could share their thoughts, activities and visions for Ecoteam with the rest of the company.

Lise plans to make the most of her scholarship for the Engineering Leadership Conference by meeting with and learning from other professional engineers who she might not have had the chance to meet due to her regional origins. Lise is particularly looking forward to hearing more about learning techniques which she hopes will further progress her management and team leading skills and in turn, take her company to new heights.

“I feel very privileged to be able to attend the Engineering Leadership Conference and am looking forward to improving my leadership and management skills. I intend to bring insight gained from the conference back to the company where I work,” Lise said.

MARTHA ROSS

Martha Ross is a Senior Technical Services Engineer for the CS Energy Callide Power Station, a government owned corporation in Queensland which produces power for the National Electricity Market. In this role, Martha is responsible for leadership and coordination of operational initiatives, training, mentoring, and continuous improvement on CS Energy technical and project procedures as well as providing leadership for a team responsible to plan and execute projects in line with operational and maintenance requirements.

Good leadership is integral within a business, which is why Martha is particularly drawn to the conference agenda this year. Martha believes the development of her staff is key to her own success as a leader. Leading a team of three, Martha enables her staff to develop and encourages them to be better and more efficient by utilizing on the job training and external courses where possible.

To ensure the success of your team, Martha believes it’s important to maintain your own sense of integrity as well as keep an open and honest relationship with colleagues, team members and supervisors at all times. Rewarding staff is also crucial in ensuring that they continually strive for more as well further cement her role as their leader.

Martha is also interested in strengthening her networks within the engineering profession, especially with fellow female engineers, so she can improve the ways in which she manages and leads her own team at CS Energy.

Martha hopes to utilise her scholarship to the Engineering Leadership Conference in improving her networking skills. She believes it will provide her with an opportunity to meet with other women with similar interests and become more involved with the engineering profession as a whole.

“This is a tremendous opportunity that I would not have had without the scholarship. This will enable me to network with other engineers, be involved with the engineering profession, and improve a key skill, leadership,” Martha said.

To register for the Engineering Leadership Conference please visit http://www.elc2012.org/register.asp