Supporting tomorrow’s talent: Thales UTS Alumni present at Careers event

On Wednesday 7 September, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Alumni from the Thales Australia Underwater Systems business were invited to the UTS Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Alumni Fireside Chat and Careers Event for Mechatronic engineering students. 

Thales’ Daniel Dent, Project Manager DMCM-ISS, Aaron Di Noia, Electronics Engineer and Anika Wenceslao, Graduate Mechanical Engineer, kicked-off the evening with a presentation on Underwater Robotics. 

Their talk showcased a range of Thales Research and Development (R&D) projects including Blue Sentry, Blutonomy and ‘Mine Counter Measures in a Day’ for the Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre (TASDCRC). 

Referencing the Blutonomy project specifically, they discussed how students gain early insight into the world of maritime engineering while completing their engineering degree. This is facilitated through the UTS Design in Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems (DMMS) Industry Studio subject in combination with the successful UTS x Thales internship program.

Loletta Yuen, Business Relationship Coordinator at UTS said the experience shared by industry was insightful and relevant to current Engineering Diploma students.

‘We encourage students to gain experience in different industries but it can be challenging. Internships provide experiential experiences where students can learn technical and professional skills as well as expand their industry network and opportunities.’ 

Later in the evening, a Q&A session was held with around 50 students. All speakers on the panel are UTS Alumni of the Mechanical/Mechatronic Engineering (Hons) Degree with Diploma in Professional Practice. The Q&A session was led by UTS, and throughout the session, a number of themes were clearly echoed by all the panellists:

• Say yes to opportunities
• Your attitude towards learning can be what sets you apart from the rest 
• The importance of solving problems collaboratively 
• Engineering is becoming more and more about people
• Diverse teams create diverse solutions

On Anika’s participation at the event, and panel discussions, Loletta said ‘Anika really does help to encourage female students to speak up, get out of their comfort zone, expand career choices and impact social change. This is important as Mechanical Engineering is one of the majors with the lowest female enrolment.’ 

Of the event, Daniel spoke admirably about the scheme at UTS and believes it sets an incredible benchmark. 

‘For me, this scheme is a major reason UTS engineering graduates are so employable and why so many of our UTS interns stay on with us at Thales.’