Without the contributions of engineers, new ideas will not translate into tangible economic benefits to consumers and businesses, according to an Engineers Australia submission to the NSW Innovation Strategy.
The submission, written by former Sydney Division President Alexandra Meldrum and Professor Robin King from the University of Technology Sydney, said, while reversing the decline in study of science and mathematics at school was important, the nation's engineering capability also needs attention.
"Unless Australia fully develops its engineering capacity, we believe innovation will stall and Australia risks huge opportunities," they wrote.
"Engineers are employed in almost every industry in Australia because practically every good and service traded in Australia domestically and internationally embodies the services of engineers. We believe that scientists and other researchers will be critical to discover the bright ideas that underpin innovation. But engineers are essential to develop new ideas into working prototypes."
The NSW Innovation Strategy is a response to the National Government Innovation Strategy, and Engineers Australia was invited to meet with the NSW Department of Industry following a Smarter Australia; Education and Innovation Forum held in March.
The panel featured NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer Prof Mary O’Kane. A pioneer of automatic speech recognition, O'Kane spoke passionately about innovation, drawing international surveys acknowledging the strong research in Australian institutions, yet deficits in university-research-industry application.
The other panelists included Prof Hugh Durrant-Whyte, Director of the Centre for Translational Data Science at the University of Sydney and Chair of the NSW Innovation and Productivity Council; and Alex Metelerkamp, a mechatronics engineer and entrepreneur who was the 2014 NSW Young Engineer of the Year.
The speakers identified insights for New South Wales about technology disruption, productivity and the nature of the present and future workforce needs in engineering and technology. Topics discussed included the need for more engineering technologists, the boom-bust nature of public employment, and the rise in portfolio workers and entrepreneurial careers for the engineering profession.
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