SA’s best young engineer honoured
by Geraldine Hinter
Working on upgrades of submarines is all in a day’s work for the State’s best young engineer, ASC Project Coordinator, Ha Do who was awarded Young Professional Engineer of the Year for 2007 by Engineers Australia SA last month.
As chair of the Women in Engineering Group SA, Ms Do received the accolade for her significant role in the successful Year of Women in Engineering campaign, which highlights contributions by women engineers and actively promotes and encourages female high school students to take up engineering.
"It’s a great honour to have been chosen as the State’s young professional engineer. It feels incredibly surreal to achieve such an award. I believe it is an acknowledgement of the work being done in engineering now and for the future of the profession," Ha Do said.
An active member of the Young Engineers Committee and the Engineers Australia SA Division Committee, Ha Do has been working with a wide group of people, who support what women do in engineering, to organise high profile events that have attracted good exposure and support for the profession.
"Through these events we are attempting to encourage more people, particularly women, to take an active role in engineering," she said.
A UniSA graduate with a double degree in electronics and microengineering (honours) and commerce, Ha Do believes that engineers should not only be considered technical experts but have the capacity to develop into great leaders.
"The fact that many qualified engineers hold influential executive positions in non-engineering roles should be highlighted and celebrated," Ms Do said.
She believes such action will increase the visibility, status, profile and attraction of the engineering profession.
Ha Do has been working in varying capacities at ASC, with roles in the Collins Support Program office involving project management and a range of other areas that have achieved project outcomes consistently delivered under budget, within schedule and to the satisfaction of the client.
In achieving these results Ha Do has demonstrated her skills in developing and building good relationships with clients and support across work teams.