Newcastle Division President's column by Michael van Koeverden FIEAust CPEng - November 2015
This month Newcastle Division hosted our 2015 Fellows dinner – a very enjoyable evening with Fellows travelling from Grafton, Tamworth and throughout the region to share great wine and food, and talk all things engineering. It was great to hear from past national presidents, division presidents and group chairs on the tremendous engineering history we enjoy in Newcastle. I encourage all members to aim to achieving Fellowship status in the future.
In 2015, Newcastle University celebrated 50 years and I enjoyed the celebration evening hosted by Dr Adam Spencer. He reminded us technology is changing so quickly that it is not us who will be amazed by future changes in engineering but our children – things really are moving that fast. According to Dr Spencer, when the Australia one square kilometre array telescope is turned on soon, it will produce data more than four times the current global internet traffic. Clearly we will face some challenges as a profession, but together we can solve these issues and achieve great things.
Our division subcommittees have been very busy over the past month:
- Over 40 members in our division are currently undergoing the eChartered process, supported by the Chartered Committee and the great work done by John Waanders as our local National assessor. Our profession needs leaders and Chartered members provide the high level of leadership we need as a profession to address future challenges.
- A broader education scheme with increased local and national focus, thanks to our Education Committee which conducted its final evening for 2015 on 16 November.
- Engineering Awareness Subcommittee has established prepared media position statements and with support from transport professionals David Stewart and Mark Waugh are to meet with the office of the transport minister to provide important input into future transport planning for Newcastle.
I’m looking forward to welcoming you all to the National Heritage Conference in Newcastle on 7 -9 December, and seeing a special heritage marker unveiled on one of our historic landmarks.
If you have any questions or comments on how we can enhance our division and our engineering profession I would be happy to hear from you. Please email Newcasle Division on [email protected].