Moiz Rana MIEAust CPEng takes some of the most basic concepts in electrical engineering and builds them out into complex networks to make the world a more efficient place.
As told to Jonathan Bradley
This article was originally published in the February 2025 issue of create with the headline “On the right track”.
When I was in university, one of my mentors described electrical engineering to me as the “mother of all engineering”. It’s a broad field that covers so many aspects of modern life, from telecommunications to power to gadgets such as cameras. This diversity made choosing electrical engineering as my major an easy decision.
I was exposed to engineering very early in my life – my grandfather was a mechanical engineer and my father is a civil engineer – and I enjoyed the feeling when all the different components of a project began connecting.
It felt like a mathematical equation where the sides start cancelling out, and I admired the close eye the engineers maintained over the sites they were monitoring.
My first engineering work was as an intern for an electrical distribution company in Pakistan, where I was born and where I went to university, but I grew up mostly in Saudi Arabia. When it came time for my career to begin properly, that’s where I went.
I found an opportunity to work for a small subcontracting company that was working on the construction of a major private bank in Riyadh. The project involved three buildings – the operation centre, the cash centre and the data centre – and I was working on the data centre, which was the complicated one.
Read more: Data centres in the age of AI
In the real world
Where a residential building is a more straightforward proposition, reliability is extremely important for a data centre; it couldn’t stop running at any time. Integrating servers, cooling mechanisms, backup generators and the uninterrupted power supply into the one project turned out to be a very steep learning curve for me.
The other lesson I took from this project was how much an engineer doesn’t learn in their academic training. As an electrical engineering student, I primarily focused on technical subjects such as circuit design, power systems, power system protection and so on. But when you get onsite, you have to work with other teams. You need to think about budgets too, which is a big change from academia.
Taking this broader view appealed to me, and after two years working in technical roles, I began looking to move into management. To help my progress down this path, I moved to Australia to study a master’s degree in engineering management, which opened me up to ideas about project management, financial management, systems engineering and supply chain issues.
I was fortunate to secure a graduate position in railway signalling where I was able to apply these new skills. Signalling covers almost every aspect of engineering, from power systems to circuit design problems to programming.
Signalling the planet
Engineers sometimes feel that we learn principles such as Newton’s equations when we study, but never actually apply them in our day-to-day work. But signal engineers do use them, and it’s great I can make use of the basic concepts I studied. People don’t always connect signal engineering to climate change, but I believe that my work makes our infrastructure carbon-neutral. Signalling plays a big part in making railways more efficient.
I’ve become really passionate about public transport. New technologies such as ETCS (European Train Control System) and CBTC (Communications-Based Train Control) are making our railways more reliable, and the more reliable a rail network is, the more likely people are to use it, which reduces our carbon footprint.
You can see this with the excitement surrounding the connection of the Sydney Metro to the CBD last year. A key factor which makes Sydney Metro superior to other public transport systems is its signalling system.
Read more: How does Sydney Metro manage cybersecurity?
I can see the influence of my work in other ways too. My first major rail signalling project was in the Waterfall area south of Sydney, where I designed some of the signalling locations. I often would drive between Sydney and Wollongong, and, on the way, I could point to my designs.
I’m also proud of my contribution to the NSW Country Rail Network. In 2020, the operation and maintenance were being transferred to a new owner, and I created a signalling migration strategy that collected data from the old system and fed it into the new controls. The Indian Pacific train passes through some of those areas, so I’m particularly proud that I was a designer on a project that helps link Perth to Sydney.
Evidence of expertise
When I reached the four-year mark of my signalling career, I realised I needed solid evidence of my experience, and that’s why I became a Chartered engineer. Once you become Chartered, people automatically respect that you are an engineer who practices competently, independently and ethically. It’s a tangible marker of your real-life experience.
My current role is as a signalling engineer at WSP. I produce signal plans, circuit books, control tables, bonding plans and many other deliverables for railway signalling projects across Australia.
My day-to-day activities are focused on design, but as I am progressing further into my career, I’m getting the chance to work more closely with the project management and client sides of the business. I’m planning to move my career further in that direction in the future. I hope to become a key expert in signalling as an operational executive.
Currently, I’m working on the signalling design of a stabling yard and a maintenance facility for the Queensland Train Manufacturing Project. It’s a demanding and stressful project, but an exciting one.
Why become a Chartered engineer? Learn how to prepare for and begin the application process.
