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.

Opportunity for philanthropic engineering in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico

October 16, 2017 11:46 am
Puerto Rico’s aging infrastructure has been suffering under an inefficient government that has not been organizing the appropriate level of maintenance for quite some time.   In September of 2016, a fire broke out at the Central Aguirre Power Plant rendering electricity transmission lines useless. 1.5 million people were plunged...Read More

The moral authority of engineers

October 5, 2017 12:01 pm
Marc Edwards is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.  He is not only an engineer he is also a whistleblower. Along with citizen scientists, and concerned residents, Edwards exposed the Flint Water Crisis which began in 2014 and persists today. Edwards...Read More

Spend a Semester in Western Australia

October 4, 2017 4:00 pm
Are you studying with the Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) online for a Bachelors Degree or Masters of Industrial Automation? A Visitor Visa or a Working Holiday Visa would allow you to spend 3 – 4 months studying on-campus with the EIT in Perth, Western Australia.    For 3 or...Read More

Surfin’ in the energy

October 3, 2017 8:37 am
Over the last five years renewable energy technologies have seen more investment than ever before. Many governments have made plans to phase out energy generating technologies that harm the planet, hoping to achieve a world powered by fully renewable energy generating technologies by 2030. Solar and wind are two industries...Read More

Paige Kassalen

October 2, 2017 9:32 am
Paige Kassalen is a 24 year old electrical engineering graduate from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is making waves in the engineering industry.  By the age of 22, Kassalen had been involved in a world-first solar plane project, and by 23, had been awarded a spot on the prestigious Forbes 30 Under...Read More

Questions surround Mexico City’s collapsed buildings

October 2, 2017 9:04 am
360 to 500 buildings and homes are in danger of collapsing days after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked Mexico City. The earthquake rattled the city on Tuesday, the 19th of September 2017. As many as 38 structures suffered catastrophic failure when the earthquake hit, but the concern for civil engineers...Read More

Smartphone wars continue

September 26, 2017 10:44 am
War. What is it good for? Competition. Smartphone companies have released their latest devices, all vying for a space in your pocket.   Smartphones bring together a plethora of engineering and design disciplines to create incredibly multifaceted devices that have no doubt changed the way humans interact with technology. And...Read More

Interesting job opening: Actura

September 26, 2017 9:52 am
Are you after an exciting job that takes you around the world? Actura is looking for a Tour Group Manager who will be trained to facilitate guided tours around the NASA space grounds in the United States! About Actura Actura Australia offers a world-class learning environment as the exclusive Australian...Read More

Difficult but rewarding 2 years of study - An EIT Master Degree Graduate

September 18, 2017 5:08 pm
Content retrieved from: https://www.eit.edu.au/cms/about-eit/engineering-student-stories/difficult-but-rewarding-2-years-of-study.Read More

Are cars becoming more like smartphones?

September 18, 2017 9:27 am
Cars are becoming more like smartphones every day. But is that necessarily a good thing? And what does it mean for the engineers who want to make a career out of automotive engineering? The days of the combustion engine seem to be coming to an end. The desire of tech...Read More

New hope for internal combustion engines

September 12, 2017 9:13 am
Mazda has reinvented the wheel. Or rather, they claim they have reinvented the engine which drives that wheel. They have engineered a ‘SkyActiv-X’ series of engines which purportedly use game-changing technologies which they believe will save the combustion engine from its seemingly inevitable demise. The new engines use ‘Homogenous Charge...Read More

The critical thinking engineer

September 11, 2017 2:10 pm
Old-timers, let alone prospective engineers, can sometimes get lost in the buzzwords that the industry throws at them. And then there are those skills that are hugely useful, but not adequately covered within an engineering curriculum. Critical thinking is both a buzzword and an intangible, soft, but incredibly handy skill....Read More

Top 10 Interview Tips for Engineering Jobs

September 11, 2017 11:13 am
    Be prepared.  Think carefully about what questions you might be asked and prepare well-constructed answers. Practice with a friend or family member. There are plenty of resources on the internet for interview preparation including potential questions. Do your research. Familiarise yourself with the company. Visit the website, research...Read More

How to get a promotion in an engineering company

September 11, 2017 11:10 am
Advancing from technician, to engineer, to senior engineer, to management, to the 30-years-of- service gold watch at retirement. Is this the picture of an ideal career trajectory? Is it realistic? To bolster CVs or resumes engineers look to work for major companies and then hope for promotions within them. In...Read More

Are Engineering Careers the Way to Go ?

September 11, 2017 11:00 am
Dear Colleagues, Last night at a Careers Expo attended by happy throngs of kids and parents, one dad (a practising engineer) indicated to me that he had advised his two kids who were shortly finishing high school to avoid an engineering career and to focus on more lucrative jobs such...Read More

The mathematics conundrum inside engineering education

September 5, 2017 8:56 am
Were you born to be an engineer? Were you supernaturally gifted with the skills necessary to become an engineer? Or can engineering be taught? If you have an innate skill for taking things apart and putting them back together again, you might have an engineer living inside of you. However,...Read More

Hurricane Harvey: Engineering industries confront the flooding and infrastructure needs for the future

September 5, 2017 8:41 am
Friday night (the 25th of August) a tropical storm hit Texas in the United States of America. 60cm of rain fell overnight (23 inches) with a total of 50 inches expected before the week was out. Whether or not Texas’ drainage system is able to deal with the volume of...Read More

In memoriam: Roy Lunn - Automotive Engineering Extraordinaire

August 29, 2017 12:59 pm
In memoriam: Roy Lunn - Automotive Engineering Extraordinaire It must be one of the most rewarding industries in engineering. Many aspiring engineers in their youth dream of achieving a career in the industry. It entails an amalgamation of engineering disciplines coming together in the design and manufacture of a roaring,...Read More

Fixed Price versus Variable (time and materials) Contracts

August 29, 2017 11:02 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

The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) exhibits at the Perth SkillsWest Expo

August 28, 2017 9:08 am
Members of our EIT team attended the SkillsWest Expo this last weekend to show off our course offerings. Our EIT stand showcased a clever robotic arm which visitors were invited to test and drive. We then put everyone’s names into a draw to win one of these mechanical arms -...Read More

The solar eclipse and engineering

August 24, 2017 1:40 pm
The United States has just witnessed the first total solar eclipse in 38 years. For some US states people would have observed a partial eclipse, but for 14 other states, the moon would have blotted out the sun completely. 2 minutes and 38 seconds of darkness was experienced in Madras,...Read More

How to Get Noticed in the Engineering Job Market

August 22, 2017 3:43 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

A portrait of an EIT lecturer: Hadi Harb

August 21, 2017 10:01 am
Hadi Harb is a qualified Engineer, research scientist, consultant, and business owner. He lends his invaluable knowledge to the Engineering Institute of Technology as a lecturer too. His typical subjects are Programming (C++), Process Control, and sometimes he covers modules relating to data communication, and to anything involving data analysis...Read More

Are you an emotionally intelligent engineer?

August 21, 2017 9:38 am
Engineers have IQ mastered, but do they have emotional intelligence (EQ)? An engineer takes to a popular engineering online forum and writes: “I can’t get a job because I’m too awkward. Has anybody else been turned down for a job because they lack people skills and/or emotional intelligence?” The big...Read More

Some spectacular engineering failures with simple solutions

August 15, 2017 10:42 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
Stand out from the crowd in Engineering

Study a Bachelor of Science degree with EIT - On-Campus in Australia!

August 14, 2017 10:32 am
We are happy to announce that our 4 Bachelor of Science programs have been approved for on-campus delivery.  Students are now able to apply for an International Student Visa to study at our Perth, Western Australian campus. The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) is the only college dedicated to the...Read More

Engineers investigate South African bridge collapse mystery

August 14, 2017 10:05 am
A pedestrian bridge on the N3 road in Bedfordview, in Johannesburg collapsed in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday the 8th of August 2017. The bridge collapsed onto four vehicles, resulting in five injuries with zero fatalities.   The highway has been re-opened since the collapse. Transport Minister...Read More

As Engineers We Need to Work Across Countries and Cultures

August 8, 2017 10:38 am
Dear Colleagues   As you all know, the global workforce is rapidly growing. And it is rapidly becoming more multicultural and multinational. We all have our own cultures, skills, behaviours and attitudes about life and work which are generally focussed on our local environment or town. However companies are increasingly...Read More

Re-purposing the past

August 7, 2017 10:24 am
There are more than enough photographs of abandoned buildings on the internet to fill tome, but the history behind them is often overlooked. Oftentimes abandoned buildings speak of a troublesome past - a past where engineers, among others, were involved in constructing the next great thing which did not stand...Read More

Some of the coolest engineering jobs around

August 1, 2017 10:02 am
We have all heard of the common engineering jobs such as Electrical Engineer, Civil Engineer, Mechanical Engineer and Software Engineer; let’s take a look at some of the uncommon and perhaps ‘cool’ engineering jobs that actually do exist.   Chocolate Engineer - No heavy equipment with this job; the task...Read More