Then and now

Then and now: the 150th anniversary of engineering at Melbourne (1861-2011)

Engineering at Melbourne has come a long way since its modest beginnings in 1861, when just fifteen students were enrolled in the University’s first engineering course.

Now, 150 years of engineering education later, the Melbourne School of Engineering is the oldest of its kind in Australia and comprises a vibrant student community drawn from over 100 countries, with an alumni network nearly 25 000 strong.

Changes have been numerous over those 150 years. The School was established just after the gold rush, when Melbourne was one of the richest cities in the world. Student numbers have gone up and down – at one point, in 1947, some classes had to be held outdoors because of severe overcrowding – and curriculums and qualifications have changed with the times, from the first Certificate of Engineering awarded in 1866 to the current, new-wave Master of Engineering.

The first computers came along in the 1960s and the School later played a key role in the dot-com boom. Today most communication with students is done via email. Fees have variously been increased, abolished and re-introduced under a deferred payment scheme, and fee-paying international students now make up a large proportion of enrolments.

Of course, it’s people who provide the creativity and depth to any institution, and Engineering is no exception, having seen some remarkable people move through its ranks. The following stories of two alumni and one current student provide insights not only into personal experiences but also how the University and the School have changed and adapted over the years.

Thankfully some things never change: milestones are to be celebrated, and the main event for the Melbourne School of Engineering’s 150th anniversary is a gala dinner to be held in the NGV’s Great Hall on 28 October 2011. (Tickets can be purchased here.)

Sir Archibald Glenn – the centenarian

As one of the oldest living Engineering alumni, a Knight of the Realm (of the Order of the British Empire), and an engineering leader at ICI/Orica for many years, Sir Archibald Glenn (BE 1933) is a well-known Australian figure.

Born in 1911 in Sale, Gippsland, Sir Archie grew up on a dairy farm, and in 1927 enrolled at Scotch College, where he excelled. Upon being awarded a prize in mathematics by another famous engineering alumnus, Sir John Monash, Sir Archie said that he hadn’t decided on a career, to which Sir John replied:

‘Well, what are you waiting for? Mathematics is the language of an engineer.’ Sir Archie began studying engineering at the University of Melbourne in 1930.

Sir Archie recalls having to work out the stresses in a seven-storey steel-frame building, and working with 10-figure logarithmic tables to solve equations with 17 unknowns. ‘I remember working over all the University holidays on this sort of thing. Today they do it with a computer.’

Drawing was a big part of the course at that time – the slide ruler featured heavily and drawings were meticulously composed, with every rivet and bolt drawn in precisely. A big difference between studying in Sir Archie’s day and now is that Sir Archie had no formal training in finance or economics, and any management experience came later on the job.

He completed his degree in 1933 and a few years later joined ICI where he stayed for twenty-six years, starting in the drawing office, rising from Maintenance Engineer (explosives), to Chief Engineer, to Technical Director, then to Managing Director. He moved from the technical side of engineering, studying at Harvard and travelling to London, to master the management side. Following this, Sir Archie headed Westpac Bank, joined the Council to set up Monash University and was the founding Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University.

Asked if he would encourage students to study engineering, Sir Archie said he certainly would. And what would he expect them to be good at?

‘I think they have to have a feeling for humanity.’

Jan McDonald – ‘the girl’

Being joined by another woman in her third and fourth years of studying engineering at the University of Melbourne was a ‘great relief’, says Jan McDonald (BE 1972), who, for the first two years of her course, was the only woman enrolled. Though not the first woman in this position, ‘no more than a handful had gone before me’, she says.

Notwithstanding the challenges Jan faced being the sole female, she graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Electrical Engineering.

While everybody knew her name, she was generally known as ‘the girl’. Things were much the same on the academic staff front at the time. In Jan’s entire time studying at Melbourne, the only women who taught her were two tutors and two demonstrators. As she points out, ‘this would be almost impossible to imagine today’.

Another thing that’s difficult to imagine is that computers were not central to Jan’s study; her exposure to them consisted mainly of three assignments that were ‘detached from the main emphasis of our course work’. Now, of course, it’s all CAD/CAM, MATLAB, robotics and the like, and the set squares, compasses, drawing boards, protractors and blueprints of Jan’s day are a thing of the past.

Although she didn’t go on to work as an engineer (her first job out of University was at the Parliamentary Library in Canberra and her current position is Rare Books Librarian at the State Library of Victoria) Jan believes the course gave her valuable skills. Principles underpinning those skills include the need to see a problem in context, and, central to what engineering is all about, the ability to problem solve, which is ‘something I have tried to carry with me all my working life’, she says. Jan is a regular donor to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering – ‘I got a lot out of engineering … and I just want to give something back’, she says – and, having visited the Engineering Faculty several times recently, is ‘impressed by how much more realistic and interesting the teaching of engineering has become’. While she’d likely be pleased to know that 22 per cent of the 2011 intake for Master of Engineering students is female she’d certainly be gratified that the school is providing targeted scholarships and implementing other initiatives to increase female participation to 33 per cent.

Rowan Habel – the Model Melbourne student

Taking a gap year between high school and first-year uni was a good move for Rowan Habel. He was initially accepted into Medicine at Melbourne, but, after twelve months of thinking time, realised that Biomedical Engineering – a field that spans the gap between technology, medicine and biology – would much better suit his skills and personal attributes.

Rowan began his Bachelor of Biomedicine¹ in 2008. Previously he would have completed a four-year Bachelor of Engineering, but under the Melbourne Model (MM) his undergraduate degree involved three years of study, which he’s just completed, followed by the two-year professional Master of Engineering² he’s currently enrolled in. This means that, for an extra year of study, he’ll graduate with a Masters in Biomedicine. As he points out ‘there are a lot of jobs overseas … where [employers] basically won’t accept anything less than a masters degree, so it makes us more competitive on an international level’.

At first, Rowan intended to work in the prosthetics industry. Now he’s more interested in ‘the electrical side of things’ and plans to work as a clinical engineer designing devices such as modified pacemakers for patients on a case-by-case basis. As he says, ‘every year I’ve been studying … my understanding of Biomedical Engineering has changed’. He likens this to the opportunity that the MM’s ‘breadth’ subjects³ offer students: ‘You can go out on a limb, try something a bit different … and if you like it you can change your mind about what you’re doing.’

The future looks bright for Rowan. He’s already had a six-month research job in MCRI’s gait lab at the Royal Children’s Hospital, which he obtained through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), and he was recently awarded a $10 000 merit scholarship.

1 Under the Melbourne Model there are 6 ‘New Generation’ undergraduate degrees offering 87 major fields of study. The other 5 are Bachelors of Arts, Commerce, Environments, Music and Science.

2 Most professional qualifications are offered at masters level under the Melbourne Model.

3 Breadth subjects are ones students are required to take from outside the core disciplines of their degrees.