The Warren Centre has launched an appeal to establish the Warren Centre Chair of Engineering Innovation within the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Sydney. It proposes to create a new dimension in Australian engineering education with this Chair, establishing an entirely new field of engineering graduate teaching and research.

It envisages that the challenge will not be in the engineering or scientific technology itself, but in how established corporate enterprises can better understand:

the commercial potential of new engineering and scientific technology; and

how to capture and exploit this potential to create and stimulate profitable and sustainable corporate growth.

The program will be aimed at attracting the very best of Australia’s young engineering graduates to undertake an intensive two-year master’s degree. These graduates will be selected particularly on their potential to become part of the next generation of top Australian engineering leadership.

This initiative has the backing of the NSW Government, which has made a special ‘seed funding’ grant of $250,000 and the university has made a matching grant of $250,000.

The funding target is to establish an investment capital base of $3.5 million, creating an ongoing income stream to fund the Chair permanently. Contributions to the fund are made to the University of Sydney and are tax deductible.

The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering, an independent industry-linked institute within the university’s Faculty of Engineering, was established in 1983 to mark the centenary of the first engineering lecture in Australia, by William Henry Warren at the University of Sydney. The Warren Centre’s objective is to foster excellence and innovation in all fields of Australian engineering practice. The centre has gained wide recognition for its unique approach and its achievements in engineering technology, engineering innovation and industry development.

The community, almost by default, places its trust in the sound judgment and integrity of the engineering industry in general, and the professional engineer in particular, but at the same time tends to be unaware of what engineers do and who ensures that they do it well.

Engineering is essentially about applying scientific and technical knowledge in daily commercial life to fulfil the needs of industry and the community for products, infrastructure and services that are fundamental to national economic and social well-being and progress.

Engineering innovation is essentially about applying new scientific and technical knowledge, or about applying existing scientific and technical knowledge in new ways, both in daily commercial life. Engineering innovation is a major force in bringing into general use the realisable benefits of innovation created by scientific or technical research.

The quality and vitality of engineering innovation depends on the quality and vitality at the forefront of Australian engineering leadership. Tomorrow’s top engineering leaders come from among today’s talented engineering graduates, and while engineering today attracts the talented, there are simply just not enough very talented young people choosing engineering as a career – and not enough of the very talented young engineering graduates choose to stay in engineering after graduation.

Some engineering faculties have been particularly successful in attracting talented students to ‘combined’ courses in which an engineering degree is undertaken along with a degree in law, or medicine, or economics/finance. While combined degree courses are likely to add to the skills available in the professions and industry generally, they may not add to the potential supply of future leadership in engineering itself.

Meanwhile, the demand for talented future leaders of the engineering profession is rising, particularly in fast-growing companies where continued success depends heavily on remaining commercially competitive in technologically intensive, managerially demanding global markets.

There is also a growing need for talented engineering leaders in established companies operating in more traditional markets coming to understand the commercial potential of new engineering or scientific technology and its uptake in remaining competitive in these more traditional markets.

The central aim of the Warren Centre Chair of Engineering Innovation would be to undertake a program of teaching and research to develop the talents of Australia’s most gifted young engineers and engineering scientists for the professional vocation of understanding and capturing the commercial potential of engineering innovation in the established corporate enterprise.

The Warren Centre Professor of Engineering Innovation would be able to draw on the Warren Centre’s extensive networks and significant relationships with industry throughout Australia.

Mr Peter North AM FTSE is a member of the Board of ATSE. He is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Warren Centre and Appeal Leader for the Warren Centre Chair of Engineering Innovation.