Ahead of Neurodiversity Celebration Week, we share the stories of neurodivergent engineers, and their innovative and impactful career journeys.
Ever since Dayana Sedova picked up a racket at age three, tennis became a passion.
For the talented player from Uzbekistan, the gruelling training and match schedules led to some success. However, by age 17, injuries got the better of her and she had to retire. But there was another reason that prevented Sedova from dominating the sport.
“I was okay during practice, but it was really difficult to concentrate during the match,” Sedova said. “A vital part of being a tennis player is that you need to stay focused in order to win.”
What Sedova did not know then is that she is neurodivergent. That diagnosis would come many years later, after she completed her degree in computer science at the University of Wollongong and embarked on a job search. She was very keen on a role in game development and applied, unsuccessfully, for more than a hundred positions.
“My mental health declined during this period, so I sought medical help,” she said. “I was diagnosed with ADHD and suddenly everything made sense to me.”
Sedova then chanced upon an ADHD support group on Facebook, where a member mentioned Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA) and their neurodivergent-friendly workplace. She joined the company as a junior data analyst.
A not-for-profit work-integrated social enterprise, ASA was set up by Geoffrey Smith in 2020 to reduce unemployment for young neurodivergent adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, including autistic Australians who face a staggering 34 per cent unemployment rate.
Smith firmly believes that diversity recruitment doesn’t cost, it pays. His efforts have been recognised both across Australia and internationally; he is also the 2025 Queensland Australian of the Year.
Read more: How two engineering companies are bolstering diversity and inclusion
Neurodivergence encompasses a wide range of conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and others that affect how individuals think, learn and interact.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that, in 2022, there was a 41.8 per cent increase in Australians with ASD compared with 2018.
However, there are few alternative pathways for those with ASD to access the growing digital economy. According to autism organisation Amaze, the unemployment rate for people with autism is six times higher than the rest of the population.
“People with ADHD tend to hyperfocus on tasks, especially if they’re very interested in it,” Sedova said. “This helps them to work fast and provide very accurate results. It’s my ‘superpower’ and I don’t see a need to explain why I am the way I am.”
She has now transitioned out of ASA’s Digital Engineering Team and found full-time employment at Ventia as a CAD Drafter. Sedova is working on the new high-capacity, ultra-low-latency fibre network that Ventia is building for Telstra along Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane routes.
“I’m responsible for drafting network paths and working closely with designers to ensure everything aligns,” she said.
Project success
Like Sedova, mechatronics engineering student Eltaf Amini discovered his “superpower” at a similar age. A refugee from Afghanistan who migrated to Australia at the age of three, Amini struggled through school and tertiary studies. After dropping out of university, he was working at Coles when one of his coworkers asked him if he had ADHD.
“You never finish a train of thought, and you are always bouncing between things,” he said. “It’s not a bad thing; it’s just something you might want to look into.”
Amini sought medical advice, was diagnosed with ADHD and started treatment soon after.
“The medication helped me focus and prepare for my exams,” said Amini, who earlier considered dropping out of university and pursuing a trade. “There are also plenty of resources online to help deal with things like study fatigue and lightening the burden.”
He finds memorising content and repetition a challenge.
“My brain spaces out and doesn’t want to partake in that activity, but building a robot as part of my course was fun. Neurodivergent people enjoy problem-solving, are logical thinkers and are well-suited to the engineering field. I think the percentage of neurodivergent individuals in the engineering industry is a lot higher than what many people think.”
Edla Ücker, Digital Engineering Manager at project management and design consultancy FSC Range, agreed.
“While studying and even working as an engineer, I had many, many colleagues and teachers who were neurodivergent,” Ücker said.
She runs a small team that is responsible for producing design drawings and 3D modelling on a diverse range of infrastructure projects, and often lands more work than they can handle.
“We gave 3D-model production and associated documentation to an overseas subcontractor. While that worked for the most part, the time-zone difference, remote management and the absence of a dedicated offshore team proved challenging.”
She came across the services offered by ASA and engaged them to assist with 3D models for the St Leonards Boat Ramp upgrade project in NSW.
“I trained their team on Revit and found them open-minded and eager to learn. It was good to sit alongside the team and they picked up the tasks quickly. While the overseas outsourcing company could offer a quick turnaround, I found that the ASA team consistently delivered significantly higher-quality work that exceeded my expectations.”
“Uniquely skilled”
Brisbane Airport’s (BA) Quinton Cooper echoed this sentiment. Cooper, who is Digital Engineering Manager at BA, tasked ASA’s Digital Engineering Team to work through the digital models of their international terminal and maps of their wider campus.
“Building contractors typically provide more diagrammatic outputs suitable for construction, however once we’re operational, we need a lot more information embedded in the model,” Cooper said. “The ASA team first carried out some 3D modelling and improved the accuracy. They then added additional parameters related to warranty periods, maintenance cycles, manufacturer information and categorised the data to make it more intelligent and searchable.”
BA owns and operates more than 90 buildings onsite with more than 100,000 maintainable assets. This includes all the air conditioning, security systems, drainage, electrical networks and other equipment that require maintenance.
“The neurodivergent teams at ASA are uniquely skilled in being able to apply a set of standards, a logic or a set of rules and repeat that process accurately,” said Cooper, who is looking to accelerate the work BA does with ASA in the coming months. “Not only do they enjoy the work, but most actually find it therapeutic.”
The unexpected brings results
Engineers Australia has set up the Ability Allies Community of Practice (AACoP). This community helps engineers develop systems, products, and infrastructure that cater to a broad spectrum of needs, from physical and cognitive disabilities to temporary or situational limitations.
Diversity Council Australia has designated 17-23 March as Neurodiversity Celebration Week, which is a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences.
Cooper also stresses the importance of clear and regular communication, and experienced this first-hand through trial and error on two separately outsourced GIS and BIM modelling projects with ASA.
“Our initial approach involved a lot of work to pre-emptively correct the data before outsourcing the job. In this instance, we were less hands-on and less communicative with the ASA team through that project,” Cooper said. “The second project took a different approach and did almost nothing to correct the work upfront, but set very clear expectations on the desired outcome and checked in regularly with the ASA team.”
The results on the first project were not what Cooper envisaged, whereas the latter revised approach achieved the desired results.
“Ever since then, we have been clear about what we want, and we make time for check-ins with the ASA team. We no longer spend resources to pre-emptively package up jobs in a way that’s neat and tidy. The ASA team thrives on pulling disparate information together and making it better.”
Read Engineers Australia’s submission to the Pathways to Diversity in STEM report.
