Student Reflections

Martin Luna Juncal IPWEAQ's first Student member

Being an undergraduate student, finding opportunities to develop my network as an engineer and get real world experience is difficult to come by. A lot of my focus is always directed at my university study, and it’s difficult to realise that developing engineering skills extends to more than just what you study at university.

When I was presented with the opportunity to attend the IPWEAQ Annual Conference in October, it was an event that I was keenly interested in attending. I knew it was a big event and I relished the opportunity to get involved with other engineers and members of the public works community. I went in early with my younger brother, Michael, having travelled up to Brisbane from the Gold Coast, and the immediate reception was spectacular; friendly

faces with a massive IPWEAQ arch really set the tone for the day. Once inside the main venue we were fortunate enough to have a bit of a look around at the different stalls that were embedded in the main hall which was set up and ready to welcome 525 delegates this year. It was quite fascinating to see a range of different companies and boards from a very broad range of public works and engineering disciplines. I took this opportunity to speak to a few of the people at the stalls

and learn about some innovative designs that they were developing, ranging from new, lightweight, cheap composites to cold-pour asphalt. Really, there were so many different companies that it’d be hard to not find something that’s interesting or applicable to undergraduate students. After this introduction session however, the real highlights of the annual conference began. Kicking off the day, the Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner, began proceedings by sharing his vision for the growth of the region and the significance of continuing to invest in developing our regional economy. This keynote was enough on its own to ensure that I was going to enjoy the day, but it was followed up with another incredible speech by the 2012 Young Australian of the

Year, Marita Cheng. She simply inspired the room with her efforts to promote women in STEM, and her story about overcoming adversity was simply spectacular. Marita highlighted just how important robotics and technology in general can be to our lives, and just how vital a simple vision can be to success. After the two keynotes, morning tea was served, where I took the opportunity to go around and talk to more of the people behind the stalls that were offered at the event. Again, it was great to see the hard work and innovation that is being contributed to Queensland by the public works and engineering firms. This was followed by even more brilliant papers and an insightful panel discussion relating to planning in Australia for the year 2050, including the challenges, hurdles and opportunities that we have as a nation to grow and really develop, based on our strengths and core values. After another networking packed lunch break, the conference was split into several streams. As a student keen on water studies, I went along to the ‘Delivering Surface Water Solutions’ stream. This was a particularly interesting

session covering some of the typical water topics, such as rainfall modelling, flood mapping and mitigation; but also some interesting and unconventional spins, such as using waterways as a social aspect, rather than solely as a means to transport water throughout a city. Finally, towards the end of the day, there were even more amazing talks in the main room, where important topics such as future innovations for road networks and traffic management challenges were discussed. Fittingly for me, the day ended with student presentations as part of the IPWEAQ Futures Challenge, which really summarised the experience for me: it was about learning, networking and sharing. I really think that I was able to come away from the conference with some more experience about critical and key issues that future engineers such as myself will face. Overall, it was an event that I would love to recommend to all undergraduate and graduate engineers. Experience and networking is paramount in our field, and events like this are the perfect opportunity for young engineers to really get involved and network as well as learn from experienced members in the region.