Profiling WA's Top Young Engineers for 2015 Thursday, 05 November 2015

Engineers contributing to our every-day lives have been recognised in the announcement of the 2015 Western Australia Individual Awards. In announcing the awards, the judging panel acknowledged that both of the young individual award winners contribute outside their regular employment working with young engineers, industry and communities to foster involvement in the engineering profession.

Ryan Eales MIEAust CPEng – WA Young Professional Engineer of the Year 2015Ryan Eales

Current job title and function?
For the last two years, I have been performing the role of Study Lead, responsible for the overall management of a multi-disciplinary design team delivering whole of life design services to various BHP expansion and sustaining rail studies.

Why are you an engineer?
I’m an Engineer because I like to solve problems. To me, “being” an engineer isn’t a profession, or a level of study achieved, it is a way of thinking and looking at the world. Looking at how things work, and how we can make them better. I really enjoy the opportunity to come up with design solutions, and seeing them transformed into real life practise.

Engineers can save the world. Who would you want on your project team with you?
Let’s start off with an inspirational Project Manager in Richard Branson. Department Managers can be David Koche for Accounts, Captain Planet for HSE, Bill Gates for IT and Jimmy Fallon for Communications. Then we’ll get Hamish & Andy in as ‘Graduate Engineers’ because they’d be good fun to have coffee with each morning. Besides that we should probably fill the rest of the team with technical engineering experts otherwise the world would be doomed!

Any advice for young engineers just starting their career?
The best advice I have ever received was on my first day of work as an engineer. At the end of the project briefing as I was about to exit the room, the Project Manager turned to me and said, “Remember, it’s all just a game.” I didn’t fully understand what he was trying to tell me at the time, but looking back a few years later I think he was reminding me not to take work too seriously, enjoy yourself and hopefully notch up a few wins along the way. I think that is a great approach to engineering because it helps you maintain perspective.

Josh Greaves TMIEAust – WA Young Engineering Technologist of the Year 2015Joshua Greaves

Current job title and function?
I am a Civil Engineer with Aerodrome Management Services (AMS) in Perth, specialising in projects solely associated with airports. This includes anything from design and construction of brand new airports and expansions for existing facilities to the really small projects which might only involve the installation of a new windsock.

Why are you an engineer?
The opportunity to work in Western Australia over the last 5 years has allowed me to fully appreciate my role as an engineer in society. Many of the projects I work on are based at remote locations where the airport is the key piece of infrastructure connecting a community with the outside world. People rely on their local airstrip to allow access for flying doctors, mail deliveries and other supplies, especially during times following inclement weather when the local road network might be cut-off.

What are you working on now?
This year at AMS we have seen and been involved with preliminary designs for five new airports in the WA mining sector and recently a few of those have been out to tender for design and construction.
On the local government side of things, I have recently been working with two of the major public airports in the Pilbara, designing an apron expansion and an apron re-construction respectively.

What is the greatest piece of technology released in the last decade?
At risk of being predictable, I will say that Apple’s iPhone is possibly the greatest piece of technology released in the past decade. Previously, a mobile phone was just that – something to make calls from whilst on the move but they are so much more.
I also like the advancement we are seeing in drone technology and how it is now being used by the construction industry for a safer method of conducting detailed surveys in high risk areas such as mining pits.

Both winners will now represent WA at the national Engineers Australia awards to be announced later this year.