Hi, I'm Adeleine!
I'm in my Final Year of a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Chemical and Metallurgical. I caught up with the Women in Engineering team to chat all things engineering and offer my advice to new engineering students.
What or who inspired you to choose engineering?
My grandfather was a chemical and metallurgical engineer. Hearing about some of the projects that he worked on, as well as the opportunities for travel as an engineer, always appealed to me. I wanted a career where I could make a difference in the world, and engineering allows me to do that, whilst also satisfying my curiosity for solving large-scale problems.
Whether it be improving safety of processes and machinery, helping the environment or improving food and water security, engineers make a tangible difference to every facet of society. I was also attracted to the diversity of career opportunities that stem from an engineering degree.
Why did you choose the discipline you are studying?
After completing the flexible first year, I really enjoyed my thermodynamics and chemistry courses, as well as the idea of using data and analysis to optimise processes, so a chemical engineering specialisation seemed the natural choice. I have since completed vacation work in central Queensland and northern South Australia at the end of first and second year and fell in love with the complexity and diversity associated with minerals processing operations, so decided to major in metallurgy.
What is one thing about university or engineering that you wished you knew earlier?
I wish I knew that engineering wasn’t all about being the best at maths and science. At the start of first year, there were times when I thought that if I didn’t understand technical concepts as quickly as others, I would not be as good of an engineer.
Whilst there is a lot of technical knowledge to learn, engineering also requires good critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, creativity, team-work and communication. Spending time developing your leadership and soft-skills is just as important, and will make university a lot easier.
What made you pick engineering at the University of Queensland over other universities?
I was fortunate to attend the Junior Physics Olympiad, Queensland Maths Summer School and play sport at UQ throughout high school. I loved the beautiful campus and abundance of wildlife, so UQ seemed like an obvious choice to complete my university study.
Attending a tour during school with the Women in Engineering team allowed me to see the high-quality facilities in the engineering faculty, such as instrumentation workshops, laboratories and collaboration spaces, and I was able to hear from the student leaders about the welcoming and friendly culture of UQ engineering.
As someone who didn’t know much about any of the engineering disciplines, I also loved the opportunity of a flexible first year at UQ before getting to choose my specialisation.
Give us your best tip for first-year engineering students?
Take advantage of every opportunity available to get involved in the engineering community at UQ!
It can be daunting to make friends in such a large cohort but making the effort to talk to people in your tutorials, spending time in the First Year Engineering Learning Centre (FYELC) between classes, or attending a society barbeque will expose you to many amazing people across all year levels.
Don’t be afraid to ask any questions; although it may seem scary, your tutors and lecturers are always willing to answer questions about your courses, and there is a lot of support available to assist with planning your degree and the transition to university.
Tell us your favourite example of amazing engineering?
Autonomous haulage trucks that are starting to be implemented in mine sites across Australia. Having fully self-driving trucks seems like something out of a movie, but has the potential to dramatically improve safety across the resources industry. The engineering involved, particularly around the communication and control systems for large fleets to operate amongst other manually operated light vehicles is fascinating to me!
What’s your dream engineering job when you graduate?
When I graduate I’d love to be on site in operations as a plant metallurgist, and work to improve safety and productivity in plant operations. There is so much exciting innovation and change occurring in the resources industry as we implement new technology and push for net zero operation, and I’d love to be helping drive this change. My dream job would be one that gives me the opportunity to travel, allows me to be constantly challenged and helps me to make a difference to society.
What do you hope to achieve as a WE student leader?
I hope to show young girls who are interested in STEM that engineering is an achievable and rewarding career path for them.
Thinking back to my journey, it was through talking to WE student leaders in Year 12 that convinced me to study engineering at UQ, and without that program, I may have never experienced engineering.
I would love to give future female engineering students that same experience and broaden their horizons to the diverse range of opportunities that studying engineering at UQ can provide.
