Engineers Australia

Launceston Science and Engineering Challenge - August 2008

Firstly to the organisers I would like to say thank you for the invitation to be here with you at the 2008 Launceston Science and Engineering Challenge.

Events like this simply do not just happen. It takes sponsorship, support and importantly dedicated volunteers to make a competition a success.

So I would like to now acknowledge and thank those who have made the challenge a reality:

The University of Newcastle, The University of Tasmania, The Tasmanian Department of Education, Rotary Tasmania, the Beacon Foundation, The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and the Tasmanian Division of Engineers Australia.

And finally and importantly let me say thank you to all of the competitors.

Students without you, all of the for-mentioned would not have had much to do at all.

So well done and importantly congratulations for taking part in what is a wonderful show case of our young science and engineering talent.

When I was asked to speak to you today I was very pleased, as it is my view that over the last few decades especially, science and the engineering professions have struggled to receive the recognition that they very richly deserve.

When I was writing the speech for today I couldn’t help but think about all of the ways that engineers especially, shape and affect all of our lives.

Let me explain what I mean:

When writing my speech I sat at my ergonomically designed and engineered desk, typing on my electronically engineered key board, whilst the words that I am sharing with you today appeared on my engineer inspired computer screen-as a result of the hard work and genius of a computer software engineer.

I printed this speech on my electronically engineered and designed printer, onto paper which was manufactured in a factory that was built with input from civil, mechanical, electrical and electronic engineers using equipment once again designed and developed by engineers.

In coming here today I drove myself in my motor vehicle which is described in the sales brochure as being a marvel of engineering creativity and I can assure you as I have been assured by the companies design engineers in the same brochure that the model I drive not only has more power than the previous one, it is innovatively engineered to use significantly less fuel.

And finally so as not to forget our civil engineering friends, the roads that I and everyone here today drove on were designed once again by engineers.

Now with engineers and the work that they do impacting so much on each of our daily lives you would think that we would have an oversupply of young people clamouring for positions in this vital area that is so important to the future of this country.

However that is not the case and that is why competitions like this are so important, there is a great opportunity available to all of you here today to pursue a career in the future as either an engineer or in some other similar science based discipline.

All of you here today will no doubt have viewed some of the Olympics in the last few days and I hope that like me that at the appropriate times you have cheered as the representatives of our country do their best to achieve sporting glory.

However I also hope that like me you may also have marvelled at the engineering fetes that occurred to make these games a reality such as the construction of the massive birds nest main stadium or the transport networks that are necessary to move people and freight around the city of Beijing.

China has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is going through a sustained period of social and economic growth.

One of the key underlying reasons for this growth is that at a very fundamental level the connection between economic and engineering development is well understood.

Many of the most senior positions in the Chinese Peoples Congress and Government are held by engineers and China alone is graduating 500,000 new engineers each and every year. The Chinese very clearly recognise the importance of the engineering profession to their continued wealth and well being as a country.

However things are unfortunately quite different in Australia and my view and it is a view that is shared by the Australian engineering community is that unfortunately over the last few decades we have become complacent and forgotten the very clear association between economic prosperity and the requirement for clever innovative people to involve themselves in the fields of science and engineering.

In Australia we have only around 250,000 engineers and unfortunately even this figure is estimated to be around 6500 fewer than the number of engineers that were counted in the 2001 census.

There are without doubt excellent employment and career opportunities available to anyone who wants to take on the challenge of an engineering career and I want to once again thank the organisers for there interest in this area and for encouraging students to involve themselves in the Science and Engineering Challenge.

Students in finishing today I want to thank you all once again for taking part.

I want to wish you all the very best for the future and I hope that for many of you a career in either science or engineering will be what you will choose to do.

And remember when you next look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Birds Nest main stadium in Beijing or the Aurora Stadium here in Launceston or when you travel home tonight and switch on the lights or turn on a tap remember that engineers have made all of this possible and that one day you too could play a very important role in helping other people to live their lives just that little bit easier.

Thank you and good luck.