Dr. Steve Mackay is the founder of the Engineering Institute of Technology. He firmly believes in Nelson Mandela’s mantra that, “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.” His leadership has inspired EIT’s unique and distinctive approach to engineering education.

Since 2008 three core objectives define the essence of the institute:

Collaborating comprehensively with industry to ensure graduates are job-ready.
Employing platforms of learning to facilitate student accessibility and engagement.
Keeping the business of education student-centric.

Dr. Mackay has enjoyed a varied career in engineering, having worked in automation, data acquisition, instrumentation, data communications, and process control throughout Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America over the past 35 years. He has successfully pioneered the application of new technologies in Australia and overseas, installing industrial data communication systems and implementing live online education, (including remote laboratories), for engineering students worldwide. Dr. Mackay has been involved in a range of industries, including power stations, mining, mineral processing, oil/gas/petrochemical plants, and platforms. He has presented courses on industrial data communications, data acquisition, instrumentation, and process control to over 30,000 engineers and technicians worldwide for clients such as NASA, Rolls Royce, and BP. He has also co-authored and edited 25 engineering books that have been published across the world. Dr. Mackay is a Fellow of Engineers Australia with a license to practice as a Chemical, Mechanical, and Electrical Chartered Professional Engineer. As Dean of the Engineering Institute of Technology, Dr. Mackay leads the institute in providing microcredentials and engineering qualifications to over 2000 students per year from 140 countries. He has an unswerving focus on student outcomes and on excellence in education.

Originally from the Wild West, we engineers now need to be attuned to style and culture

April 12, 2018 9:13 am
Dear Colleagues I must confess I have always imagined engineers and technicians as the rough and tough, Wild West action types (who work out in the field in pioneering conditions), compared to our more dilettante, cultured brothers and sisters in Law, Medicine and the Arts. In a book entitled Does...Read More

Most Strategic Plans aren’t strategic

April 11, 2018 8:00 am
The Art of Support: EIT’s Learning Support Officers InformationCategory Education10 September 2020Written by: Quintus Potgieter The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) is a unique global institute, delivering online engineering short courses, diplomas, and degrees. Students around the world log into EIT’s synchronous online virtual campus to network with other... Read...Read More

Celebrate Youth Week WA this Weekend at the KickStART Festival

April 10, 2018 2:35 pm
A free week-long festival to celebrate young Perth artists kicks off this weekend. Presented by Propel Youth Arts, the Youth Week WA KickstART Festival will feature an extensive range of workshops, performances and exhibitions. These include a sketchbook exhibition, photography, comedy and exploratory music workshops, and poetry slams. Source: Propel...Read More

Opportunities for Talented EIT Students & Graduates

April 5, 2018 3:59 pm
Do you need work as a Control and Instrument Technician, Maintenance Electrician or Mechanical Technician? Z-Tech Control Systems is a UK company that provides engineering solutions for Water Utilities, Power, and Rail. They know first-hand the high quality of EIT’s students and graduates and are currently looking for talented individuals...Read More

Garbage In, Garbage Out applies particularly to the Internet of Things (IoT)

April 5, 2018 12:25 pm
The Art of Support: EIT’s Learning Support Officers InformationCategory Education10 September 2020Written by: Quintus Potgieter The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) is a unique global institute, delivering online engineering short courses, diplomas, and degrees. Students around the world log into EIT’s synchronous online virtual campus to network with other... Read...Read More

Global Day of the Engineer: Why Our World Would End if Engineering Disappeared

April 4, 2018 12:50 pm
In support of Global Day of the Engineer , we are celebrating the positive impact engineers have had on our world as we know it. Engineers aren’t just responsible for building giant skyscrapers or inventing cutting-edge technology – without engineering there would be no civilisations or infrastructure, agriculture, vehicles, tools...Read More

Part Two: Unbelievable Mechanical Engineering Stories

April 3, 2018 1:20 pm
International Space Station Source: NASA First launched into space in 1998, NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) is an engineering marvel. Costing close to US $100 billion, its construction required over 100 rocket and shuttle launches, plus 160 space walks, and the components were not all in place until 2011. Russia,...Read More

Automation’s port of entry

March 29, 2018 9:42 am
E-commerce: the buying and selling of items over the internet. People around the world are using this purchasing platform at a rate that individual companies can barely keep up with. Thankfully there are a host of companies who specialize in transportation and logistics. Even so, to adequately cope, these companies...Read More

A dent in the optimism surrounding autonomous and electric vehicles

March 29, 2018 9:21 am
March 2018 will go down in history as a tough month for autonomous and electric vehicle engineers. Self-driving cars and the engineering technologies that power them are being heavily criticized due to a spate of high profile failures and the dangers of introducing job-threatening ideologies into the modern world. A...Read More

Engineering a water war

March 29, 2018 8:41 am
Modern dam engineers in Africa could inadvertently trigger a water war in Africa. It all started when Egypt was distracted by a governmental crisis - the Arab Spring Uprising was consuming most of the attention of the tenuously positioned Egyptian Government. At this juncture the Ethiopian government mobilized its dam...Read More

Troubled bridges back in the headlines

March 28, 2018 3:37 pm
Source: Getty Images The Sweetwater University City Pedestrian Bridge collapse at Florida International University is the latest civil engineering failure making headlines around the world. Figg Bridge Engineers discussed a crack that had formed on the new bridge hours before its demise, but “concluded there were no safety concerns and...Read More

Part One: Unbelievable Civil Engineering Stories

March 27, 2018 3:49 pm
Palm Island Source: Daily Mail In 2001, there was nothing off the coast of Dubai except for shallow gulf water. However, the city was becoming overpopulated quickly. To solve this problem, local real estate conglomerate Nakheel Properties used GPS precision to shape 94 million cubic metres of sand into a...Read More

Li-ion batteries could charge five times quicker say researchers

March 20, 2018 11:15 am
The speed at which a lithium-ion battery charges, remains a unique scientific and engineering challenge. Historically, slow charging has been responsible for limiting the development of vehicles and technologies that need to constantly recharge. This is, however, changing as technology advances. The safety of lithium-ion batteries has also been a...Read More

Stephen Hawking: Science meets biomedical engineering

March 20, 2018 9:27 am
The scientific world has lost one of its modern day pioneers. Stephen Hawking, a modern cosmologist, passed away at age 76, on the 14th of March 2018. Hawking’s most notable work, “A Brief History of Time”, sold over ten million copies and he is remembered for his work on general...Read More

How to grow a cruise liner

March 20, 2018 9:24 am
Cruise ship holidays are growing in popularity. What’s not to like? Breakfast buffets. All-you-can-eat pizza and burgers around the clock. Restaurant dinners. Drinks. Great sea views. As the appetite for cruise holidays intensifies, the cruise companies are lengthening their pre-existing liners. Instead of building new ships they are slicing the...Read More

AIRhub: The path of most resistance

March 20, 2018 9:21 am
It is difficult to train for outdoor sports indoors. We can try to replicate naturally occurring factors such as hills, valleys, wind and rain; but nothing can adequately imitate what the outdoors is capable of producing (even when training outdoors). Cycling is no exception. Training is regularly conducted indoors, to...Read More

As a trade war approaches engineering industries are wincing

March 20, 2018 8:57 am
If you don’t have steel you don’t have a country - so says the President of the United States Donald Trump. And, based on an investigation conducted by the American government, their country had drawn the short straw when it came to steel imports and exports. To ensure it did...Read More

The rise of 3D printing businesses

March 20, 2018 8:51 am
The 3D printing industry is a special one. A 3D printer has several necessary components: heat beds, bed surfaces, the printing materials (resins or filaments), extruders, hobbed gear, and more. Depending on the kind of printing materials engineers use, different printers are necessary. These several technological parts that make up...Read More

Will cardboard help keep children in STEM?

March 15, 2018 2:13 pm
There is a toy revolution occurring. A renewed, concerted effort is underway to make toys for children and young adults, to condition their minds in preparation for the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Schools are implementing STEM programs which involve classroom renovations that are stimulating, but fun....Read More

Experienced Engineering Professionals – We Need You

March 15, 2018 12:21 pm
Are you interested in expanding your professional network globally and speaking to outstanding engineering students and graduates about your incredible engineering career? By joining our Distinguished Industry Guest Speaker Program you will have the unique opportunity to share your technical insights and engineering experiences with our engineering bachelor and master...Read More

EIT - A glimpse into the future

March 7, 2018 2:23 pm
I have seen it; the future of engineering education and training. I have seen how it will equip engineering professionals globally and enable them to continue contributing to the turning of our world. Acquiring professional development in engineering is changing; this process can be tracked by looking at the adaptations...Read More

March Moodle Upgrade

February 28, 2018 10:41 am
A Moodle Upgrade is Inbound... The Engineering Institute of Technology has been in the works of implementing a new and improved Moodle LMS. Here at EIT, we work diligently to ensure that we comply with the latest web standards available on the market. We’re dedicated to providing anonymity for all...Read More

Putting the A in STEM largely ignored in universities

February 23, 2018 11:55 am
The United Kingdom is between a rock and a hard place in the lead up to exiting the European Union. One of the concerns is that with a hard Brexit, EU students may not form part of the makeup of engineering professionals in the country’s future. Thus, more British-born students...Read More

Snow removal, an engineering challenge in Japan

February 22, 2018 2:37 pm
One of the islands in the Japanese archipelago is Hokkaido. Sapporo, a city on the island, is burdened by snow; it costs 20.4 billion yen (US$190 million) on snow removal every winter. Local government removes snow on state owned properties and streets, but private property owners are on their own....Read More

A solar wind and hydrogen-powered boat faces years at sea

February 22, 2018 2:04 pm
Victorien Erussard, an offshore racer and Merchant Navy officer has taken to the seas aboard the latest marvel of engineering. He has set aside six years of his life to travel around the world in a boat that will not generate any carbon. Source: http://www.energy-observer.org 50 engineers, designers and naval...Read More

A new dawn for South African engineering?

February 21, 2018 3:25 pm
More engineering industry jobs are coming to South Africa. That is, if the country’s brand new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is to be believed. Much like in the United States, the new sitting president is promising the renewed strengthening of manufacturing and mining jobs - whilst promising that the Fourth Industrial...Read More

Online and Uber-like: The clear future for universities and institutions

February 19, 2018 2:32 pm
The world is still looking for the most effective way of educating and training people. Privately owned universities and institutions are keeping their eyes on initiatives in the business sector. Source: Foter.com Universities are looking towards the most efficiently built organizations of the last decade, noticing how they have construed...Read More

Global increase in privatization in engineering industries

February 15, 2018 8:01 am
Governments may be responsible for the slowing down of technological progress around the world. Government shutdowns and Presidents who refuse to leave their seats despite alarming corruption scandals impact negatively on the advancement of technology in their countries. Puerto Rico, devastated by a hurricane in 2017, only now, over 140...Read More

De-icing. Would this have saved the Russian airline that went down on Sunday?

February 13, 2018 1:16 pm
Chances are, if you live in the colder countries of the world, you’ve had to de-ice something in your life. De-icing is critical - the safety and usability of an engineered product often depends on it. Engineering in the aviation industry is a point in case. Airports are an interdisciplinary...Read More

Pyeongchang Winter Olympics: An engineering event

February 13, 2018 8:39 am
From the 9th to the 25th February this year the world will have access to a visual buffet of snow sports; the Winter Olympics is to be hosted by South Korea’s PyeongChang. Fans around the world will be cheering on their respective countries’ athletes. Also to be lauded, however, are...Read More