Engineering grant grows research, outreach, media

Engineering New Zealand Foundation Grant Programme.

The Foundation were seeking well-defined projects that would benefit or advance the engineering profession with the potential to enhance diversity and inclusion, acknowledge and reflect Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and raise the profile of engineering in Aotearoa.

The recipients

Alyce Lysaght, a Graduate Water Engineer at WSP in the office of Te Whanganui a Tara, received $9,620 towards the hosting and production for another year of her popular podcast, Māori in Engineering.

The Trustees commended Lysaght’s application for its plan to continue and develop a proven and successful project that was seen as having influence, community reach, and providing a positive portrayal of the engineering profession through storytelling.

Marie McCarthy (Ngāti Porou (Whanau-a- Ruataupare), Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Whitikaupeka, Ngāti Tama (Mokai Patea)), an environmental social scientist, received $40,500 for her He Rau Aroha –Response to Cyclone Gabrielle proposal. He Rau Aroha will kickstart a process of bringing together Māori working broadly in the infrastructure sector, to engage in pro bono work to assist iwi and their communities in Tairāwhiti region, Te Wairoa, Napier/Hawkes Bay and Northland impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. It will be supported by Tonkin +Taylor with pro-bono time from participating consultancies Beca, WSP New Zealand (WSP), Stantec, Pattle Delamore Partners (PDP) and Mott MacDonald.

Felicia Indrawidjaja, a fifth-year mechanical engineering and English student at the University of Auckland, received $34,000 to produce ENGGEN 101, a scripted mockumentary web series highlighting the presence of women in the engineering community, increasing the visibility of role models and informing the general public about engineering in a fun and entertaining way.

Felicia has been involved with the Women in Engineering Network (WEN) club at the University of Auckland since her first year. She started with running events to support first year WEN students and went on to create social media content which inspired her project.

Esther Blain, a fourth-year Mechatronics Engineering student and president of the Women in Engineering club at the University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, received $5,000 for her Women in Engineering High School Outreach programme.

The goal of the Outreach programme is to encourage more female high school students to consider engineering as a career option and is specifically aimed at female students that are underrepresented in the current engineering cohort at the university. This includes Māori and Pasifika students, and female students attending co-ed schools.

Elizabeth Stewart, who has a MSc in Industrial and Organisational Psychology from the University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha received $12,000 over three years for her project Career Trajectories in the Engineering Profession. This initiative will be integrated into her PhD, which will focus on data from the BeLongEng Project led by the project’s other applicant, Enda Crossin, who runs the Engineering Management programmes at the university.

The BeLongEng project is the first prospective longitudinal study of practicing engineers and is the biggest ever study of its type globally, including about 350 engineers who reside in Aotearoa New Zealand.