Though I am still a student I have already had the opportunity to gain experience in the professional world through the internship program at UTS. The following are descriptions of the roles I have undertaken in the engineering industry so far.
Trainee Civil Engineer February 2010 - August 2010
I took this job in fourth year as the second internship for my course at UTS. Having completed my first internship in an office orientated role, I was keen to get out on site and get a first hand look at big construction projects. This position, it turns out, was the perfect role for this as I worked on the construction of the Woonona Commuter Car Park from start to finish as well as other smaller jobs. Here I had the opportunity to take part in all aspects of the job; when I think back over it I am often surprised at how much I learnt and the diversity of tasks that I was allowed to take part in.
My main responsibilities in this role revolved around the project paperwork - Quality Assurance, Project Safety Management, Environmental Management etc - and in particular, its implementation on site. Our clients, TIDC (now TCA), are a government authority, thus the paperwork was required to be highly detailed in every facet and a strict expectation lay with us to maintain it. We received regular audits and inspections for quality and safety which, due to good team work between my supervisor, foreman and me, we happily passed with few issues. I feel acutely aware that working with these documents on site gave me the chance to see how the eventual quality of a project can be determined well before earth has been broken. For example, I was given charge of drafting the Inspection Test Plans (ITPs), which involved studying the Specification Contract in great detail and extracting its key details for the purpose of comparing all finished works with allowable tolerances. This was an opportunity to emerge myself in the technical details of the project - an opportunity well enjoyed. I then saw the ITPs on site being used by the foreman to meticulously check his work as he completed it, thus a high standard of work was achieved and we had documents to prove our diligence. I can't say paperwork is my favourite aspect of engineering, but I must admit to having a strong sense of satisfaction in being part of such an efficacious procedure.
A great aspect of this job was that, just when I thought I was burning out with the paperwork load, relief would often come in the form of in the field activities. Sometimes I would be surveying or setting out, sometimes I would be supervising excavations and quite often I would be in a hole with a shovel in my hands and sweat on my brow. I found this work endlessly interesting as it demonstrated for me, first hand, what is involved in construction. It gives me a great deal much more confidence in the theory and planning aspects of engineering work to be able to visualise what will happen on the day of construction. I also feel that when I am in the field in future, I can give direction to construction workers with the confidence of someone who has been there and done it myself; I can now say. To me this experience will underpin much of my understanding of the industry and how it operates.In addition to learning plenty about engineering I was also given the opportunity to prove myself in self-discipline as I was required to be onsite at 6:30am each morning. This was no easy task, I lived on the Sydney's Northern Beaches and the site was near Wollongong, a considerable drive. I take pride in the fact that I maintained my punctuality despite the challenges in doing so.
If I were to sum how this job has benefited my engineering education the most, I would say it is through mere contact with both engineers and skilled tradesmen. There is nothing like picking the brains of someone who has decades of experience, and this is something that I took great pleasure in doing. It was also most educational to see the different perspectives existent within the industry. In particular, I saw the difference between the views of the engineers and those of construction workers. It occurred to me that both parties often see the project from very different angles but it is important that they are all considered such that the job can be run smoothly and efficiently. This is a lesson whose message I will take with me throughout my career.
Toby Fiander & Associates
Junior Design Engineer, November 2007 - September 2008
Toby Fiander and Associates is a company located in Castle Hill that specialises in hydrology and hydraulic engineering as well as environmental and scientific projects. The consultancy takes on a range of jobs including, but not limited to, the design of wastewater disposal systems and water mains; drainage and on site detention design; rainfall and flood estimation and environmental reporting.
If I were to sum how this job has benefited my engineering education the most, I would say it is through mere contact with both engineers and skilled tradesmen. There is nothing like picking the brains of someone who has decades of experience, and this is something that I took great pleasure in doing. It was also most educational to see the different perspectives existent within the industry. In particular, I saw the difference between the views of the engineers and those of construction workers. It occurred to me that both parties often see the project from very different angles but it is important that they are all considered such that the job can be run smoothly and efficiently. This is a lesson whose message I will take with me throughout my career.
Toby Fiander & Associates
Junior Design Engineer, November 2007 - September 2008
Toby Fiander and Associates is a company located in Castle Hill that specialises in hydrology and hydraulic engineering as well as environmental and scientific projects. The consultancy takes on a range of jobs including, but not limited to, the design of wastewater disposal systems and water mains; drainage and on site detention design; rainfall and flood estimation and environmental reporting.
Initially, the role that I undertook at Toby Fiander and Associates was as an assistant to a more senior engineer as he carried out studies in rainfall and flood estimation. Often included in these tasks were typical design processes that followed such studies, design process that mainly revolved around preventative or remedial suggestions in response to the problems caused by excessive rainfall, during and after the construction process. My favourite thing about this job was the range of software and techniques that I learnt to use, as well as the fact that towards the end of the internship I was asked to teach newer interns what I had learnt - teaching is the perfect way to consolidate one's learning.
My biggest (and favourite) project at this company was a flood study for a property known as Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, the new venue for the annual Byron Bay Blues Festival. To carry out this project, I was asked to take on a variety of software that I was unfamiliar with; I was also asked to learn about techniques in hydraulics and hydrology, subjects that I had not yet studied at university. I really was dropped in the deep end with this project and I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely. To do a flood study there are several stages: identifying catchment areas, surveys, inspecting channels and culverts, creating computer models, and expressing the results for inspection by clients.The software packages, such as Manifold GIS, AutoCad and XP-Storm, all provided me with a great number of little challenges, all of which I feel I overcame well. It is hard enough undertaking the theoretical details underpinning these studies but to have to learn so many new computing skills was tough. However, I really do enjoy immersing myself in new software, especially those that require the employment of spacial reasoning.
My biggest (and favourite) project at this company was a flood study for a property known as Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, the new venue for the annual Byron Bay Blues Festival. To carry out this project, I was asked to take on a variety of software that I was unfamiliar with; I was also asked to learn about techniques in hydraulics and hydrology, subjects that I had not yet studied at university. I really was dropped in the deep end with this project and I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely. To do a flood study there are several stages: identifying catchment areas, surveys, inspecting channels and culverts, creating computer models, and expressing the results for inspection by clients.The software packages, such as Manifold GIS, AutoCad and XP-Storm, all provided me with a great number of little challenges, all of which I feel I overcame well. It is hard enough undertaking the theoretical details underpinning these studies but to have to learn so many new computing skills was tough. However, I really do enjoy immersing myself in new software, especially those that require the employment of spacial reasoning.
Being allowed to teach other interns from my university was a real pleasure. Not only did I enjoy the social aspects of the task (I quite like chatting about technical things), I felt reasured that I had proved myself competent at the skills I had been taught in the beginning of the role. Teaching, it turned out, was an excellent way of revisiting the beginnings of my own experience. I was able to observe others while they accomplished that which I had accomplished, though sometimes via different methods. It was reassuring to see that these tasks that I had, at times, struggled with were not easily conquered by others and that I had actually coped quite well, comparatively. In training others I was also given the opportunity to solidify the concepts that I had learnt. One cannot convey an idea well without having a thorough understanding of that idea, thus it was required that I double check how I had accomplished my previous projects. This was an activity that underscored some of the more important concepts behind the projects and also led me to work on some ideas that I had not fully comprehended when they were first explained to me.
All in all I was really pleased to have taken on this job. I enjoyed the mental challenge of learning new concepts, and in particular, of collating vast amounts of information to be distilled into immediatly useful tools for people to utilise. For me this job allowed me to explore, what I feel was, a brilliant mixture of science and engineering.
