By removing roadblocks and embracing new technology, engineering can continue to be the driving force behind Australia’s progression.
The engineering profession powers the way society moves, from our everyday travel to food and medicine distribution, according to Matt Gijselman, Director of Infrastructure Policy Advancement at Bentley Systems.
“The places people live, work and worship – along with schools and hospitals – are all fundamentally attached to engineering,” he said at a recent infrastructure engineering conference.
We are currently in the “decade for engineering”, with national priorities such as defence, energy transition and infrastructure challenging the engineering pipeline.
“Add to this government initiatives such as the National Reconstruction Fund, AUKUS and Future Made in Australia, [and] the requirement for engineers has never been more critical,” Engineers Australia CEO Romily Madew AO FTSE HonFIEAust EngExec said.
“This is because engineers can and do make a real and lasting impact on their communities and the planet, from decarbonising our industries in the face of a changing climate, to improving our quality of life.”
While the possibilities for engineering abound, there are some challenges that need to be overcome.
“This includes a leaky pipeline from school to retirement, changing education requirements for engineers, rapid technological advancements, supply chains, geopolitical pressure, economic headwinds, inequality and culture – the list goes on,” Madew said.
However, these challenges present great opportunities for the profession to tighten policy, harness technology and strengthen society.
Pipeline repair
The key engineering pipeline concerns are around the size and quantity of projects in the works, and whether there are enough resources – both human and material – to bring them to fruition.
There are some insights to be gained from the Australian Government’s market capacity pipeline that Infrastructure Australia is delivering, along with the multiple private pipelines.
“Greater illumination on the infrastructure pipeline needs to come through the collection of data, understanding government and policy decisions, and having confidence that they’re not going to change over time,” Gijselman said. “There’s a real need to solidify that pipeline, and then get that across to industry so they can respond.”
This in turn will help to fill some of Australia’s 229,000 vacant infrastructure roles identified by the Infrastructure Market Capacity 2023 Report, to prevent prices going up and timelines blowing out.
“There’s a global market for many of the high-specialisation jobs,” Gijselman said. “Australia is a great place to live and work, but understanding what’s in the pipeline gives many of the firms that allocate human and labour resources at a global level a chance to plot globally.”
Keeping the international student market healthy is important, as is keeping the flow of visas for those attached to the industry. But Australia also needs to produce more homegrown resources.
“The government is doing some work around encouraging engineering degree participation, including reforms around degree fees,” he said.
There’s also the opportunity to develop alternate pathways into engineering; improve culture and increase diversity, and attract more school students to want to be engineers, ensuring they are also studying maths and physics, according to Madew.
Another factor that needs to be considered is how to reskill and re-tool engineers.
“There are people trained at overseas universities – and even people from overseas trained in Australian universities – who can’t get those qualifications recognised, which is a microeconomic approach the government needs to address,” Gijselman said.
Scoping out sector gaps could be a good way to broach this issue. For example, the surveyor sector has a very high average age of employees, and a number of available roles are not being filled.
“Breaking down individual sections of the industry, and trying to address the issues that arise, is a useful approach,” Gijselman said.
Technology uptake
There are myriad exciting opportunities for the engineering profession.
“This includes the opportunity to transition into new industries, for example thermal energy into renewables or transport infrastructure to energy,” she said.
Now is the time for the sector to embrace technology, so it becomes more effective and efficient, Gijselman believes.
“A very high percentage of work sites in Australia are still predominantly paper based,” he said. “There’s an enormous opportunity to bring productivity enhancements related to technology into the sector – from AI, machine learning and digital twins to data management systems.”
From Bentley Systems’ perspective, technology is a partner, rather than a threat, to engineers.
“AI is not coming for engineers’ jobs,” Gijselman said. “We’re seeing greater efficiency achieved by engineers using that technology – including data coming out from mega projects indicating effective technology deployments are saving up to 20 per cent of time, effort and cost.
“This means engineers can get home for dinner that night or attend the kids’ weekend sporting activities, and have an overall better quality of life.”
Increased technology use also presents an opportunity for reverse mentoring, which can work to empower and incentivise young engineers.
“It’s second nature for young engineers to be able to use technology, such as gamification or augmented reality,” he said. “So those coming into the industry can teach older members and help to distribute that technology further.”
There are also plenty of technology opportunities to address sustainability and reach net zero, particularly through carbon counting.
“Having an effective master data system, a key component of a digital twin, allows for greater understanding of the component parts of projects – which in turn enables effective carbon accounting, reporting and tracking to help industry meet net zero requirements,” Gijselman said.
Looking forward, there’s a loop that could be closed around data management, including how project or asset data is collected, used, stored, maintained and consumed.
For example, when a bridge is built, and data is transferred from project team to asset owner, it’s not uncommon for it to be in the form of an Excel sheet or USB drive that’s inevitably filed away.
“The next phase is, what’s the system of systems that fits around that bridge?” he said. “And who’s managing the data for the roads that come into it, or the waterway attached to it?
“Integration and the system of systems approach are the real productivity opportunities for the sector over the next period.”