A final-year ocean engineering student has gained firsthand experience of a career in coastal engineering after being awarded a spot at this year’s prestigious Coasts and Ports Conference.
Ray McCarthy won the Doug N. Foster Memorial Fellowship Fund award to attend the Coasts and Ports Conference in Cairns in June.
Established by Engineers Australia, the Fellowship Fund aims to encourage engineering students to pursue career opportunities in coastal and ocean engineering.
This year’s conference theme was “Working with Nature”, reflecting the increasing recognition of the need to design and operate from a perspective that places the natural environment at the forefront of the project, to benefit the community and nature.
Ray drew on knowledge gained in work experience with the engineering coastal protection team at the Gold Coast City Council and an internship with Jacobs in their Maritime Structures and Coastal team to lodge a winning application to attend the conference.
Ray said he was able to differentiate himself from other applicants.
“From my studies at the Australian Maritime College I am able to demonstrate an understanding of ocean and coastal engineering while having over six months’ worth of relevant work experience,” he said.
Attending the conference enabled Ray to gain valuable insight into some specific projects in the coastal and ocean engineering field.
“The conference made me excited for my future career in coastal and ocean engineering as I was able to witness many different leading edge industry projects,” he said.
The conference also presented valuable networking opportunities in Ray’s specialty area, as well as exposure for AMC.
With one semester of study to complete, Ray has already accepted a full-time position with Jacobs, in the Maritime Structures and Coastal team, to begin in February next year.
“I am still indecisive to whether I want to focus my career on coastal or maritime structural engineering applications, but I am certain that in the next five years the Jacobs maritime structures team and coastal engineering centre for excellence team can provide me with opportunities to develop my career in both fields,” he said.
AMC and AMC Search were well represented at the conference, with Ray McCarthy joined by a number of staff and alumni, including Matt Best, AMCS General Manager Simulations, Kevin Sartipi, AMCS Manager Engineering Projects and Business Development and Gregor McFarlane, Associate Professor, Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics.
The next Coasts and Ports conference will be held in Hobart in 2019.
Published on: 04 Oct 2017
