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.

The answer to congestion is boring, says Musk

May 17, 2017 2:12 pm
Elon Musk owns many companies that are on the cutting edge of engineering and business endeavor. Most recently he has been working on Mars missions and relaunching used rockets with his company SpaceX. He also designs, manufactures and sells electric cars and solar storage options through Tesla. But now he...Read More

Changes in immigration send universities into cold sweat

May 17, 2017 1:59 pm
“It is focused relentlessly on the national interest and assuring that temporary migration visas are not a passport for foreigners to take up jobs that could and should be filled by Australians. Australian jobs for Australian’s first - that’s the focus.” - Malcolm Turnbull In an unexpected move, Malcolm Turnbull,...Read More

Engineering in the circular economy

May 17, 2017 12:45 pm
In our modern world engineers are tasked with finding and designing solutions to the key challenges that population growth poses. Building vital infrastructure, which does not harm the planet, for an ever-growing global population is one of the most important challenges engineers face today. There is one thorny problem to...Read More

Does a standardized smart city start with an electricity meeting?

May 17, 2017 12:31 pm
The United Nations’ State of World Cities report in 2013 estimated that the number of urban residents around the world would grow by 60 million yearly. They also predicted that more than 60% of the world’s population would be living in smart cities by 2050. To accommodate this large influx...Read More

Why we Love Engineers (and you should too)

May 17, 2017 10:51 am
Content retrieved from: https://www.eit.edu.au/cms/news/industry/why-we-love-engineers-and-you-should-too.Read More

Don’t let your competitors distract you from dedicating yourself to your customers

May 16, 2017 10:16 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

Achieving Permanent Residence in Australia – Discussions with Engineers Australia

May 10, 2017 2:28 pm
Dr Steve Mackay and Ms Edwina Ross met with Engineers Australia on the morning of the 28th March. Emmanuelle Wintergerst, their National Manager for Skills Assessment, outlined the process for those wishing to work and reside in Australia. It is summarised here: To have your qualifications assessed by Engineers Australia,...Read More

Before you Take on a New Engineering Task or Job ask Yourself 4 Questions

May 9, 2017 9:52 am
Dear Colleagues I believe there are many of you – in common with me - who have accepted a new job or task and then regretted it afterwards. In my case, I recall a particularly well paying engineering job giving me huge opportunities in a growing area of engineering (industrial...Read More

The future of engineering training and design

May 8, 2017 3:26 pm
Virtual labs   Remote engineering, also referred to as online engineering, is a fairly recent development in engineering and science. Its aim is to facilitate the shared use of equipment, resources, and specialized software such as simulators.   The expansion of the internet as a tool for training and actual...Read More

Is the university degree still an employment prerequisite?

May 8, 2017 3:09 pm
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) state that 66% of Australians are university graduates or have completed an apprenticeship.   In Australia, getting a job without a degree in certain industries was once commonplace, however, employers are now requiring that all important piece of paper; the degree. Joshua Krook, a...Read More

14 Myths About Online Education

April 28, 2017 12:33 pm
14 Myths About Online Education with EIT The world has become inundated with various myths regarding online learning, mostly due to the infancy of the phenomenon. EIT has become a major proponent in rectifying the detrimental rumours that still plague many undecided prospective engineers. Below is a collated list of...Read More

Top Six Engineering Resources

April 28, 2017 10:06 am
A compilation of effective internet utensils available to all prospective and current engineers     /* body { background: linear-gradient(to bottom right, lightgray, whitesmoke); } */ a:hover { text-decoration: none !important; } .topEng { font-family: Josefin Sans; margin: 0 26% 0 26%; transition: .3s ease-in-out; border-radius: initial; } @media only...Read More

Mr Trash Wheel: The solar-powered, trash-eating wonder of the world

April 28, 2017 9:39 am
Proof that adding ‘googly eyes’ to your next engineering design will improve customer satisfaction is here. In Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, engineers have added eyes to a solar powered, trash-eating water wheel. They have subsequently given it a name as well: Mr Trash Wheel.   Image Credit: CBS...Read More

Drive your Engineering Team to Greater Experimentation and Failure

April 25, 2017 9:49 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

Drones Buzzing into Engineering Work

April 18, 2017 9:43 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

Engineering the high life: Casino engineering

April 13, 2017 2:57 pm
“It’s a big problem this place. I’ve lost a lot of money. I lost about a million five years ago. So, I stopped for five years. I learned a lesson. Why did they build this place here? To give money away? They’re here to make money. It’s not to give...Read More

The ups and downs of blended learning

April 12, 2017 2:19 pm
The world continues to deliver education and training via age old methods, despite innovation in almost every other sector. The tide is however turning, and it is gathering speed.   Instead of being reinvented it is merely being reshaped by a number of resourceful technologies which allow education to reach...Read More

Higher education reaching far and wide

April 12, 2017 10:50 am
Tertiary education is under threat in a world where uncertain political climates threaten the graduation and employment prospects of students. However, there is a silver lining in the sector which could in fact lead to more students studying towards a prosperous future. The internet.     The trigger that triggered...Read More

Change is the One Constant in our Engineering Lives

April 11, 2017 9:39 am
Dear Colleagues Most attempts at change fail - some pundits estimate up to 70% of change attempts fail (Harvard Business Review). Change is particularly hard as it involves people. This is the greatest challenge in effecting change – equipment and hardware changes are relatively easy by comparison. With people there...Read More

The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) farewells a long serving and beloved Governance Board Member - Professor Darrell Fisher

April 10, 2017 2:57 pm
After eight years of invaluable service Professor Darrell Fisher attended his final EIT Governance Board meeting on the 28th February 2017.   The Board Chairman, Colin Aitken, presenting Professor Darrell Fisher with a farewell gift.   He has built up an enviable reputation in science and engineering education throughout the...Read More

Refurbished, Reused, Recycled: The future of reusability in aerospace and automotive industries

April 10, 2017 2:19 pm
Space travel is heating up again. The tongue-in-cheek way people are choosing to treat this new boom in space pioneering, is by calling it the second space race. Except this time it’s billionaire versus billionaire. Business giants like Virgin’s Richard Branson and Amazon and Blue Origin’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, are...Read More

Do they hold water? Ocean cleaning engineering technologies

April 10, 2017 1:51 pm
  A grim reality the world has had to face in the modern age is the fact that the planet’s waterways are overwhelmingly polluted. Much of it is unfortunately thanks to the technologies and products engineered in the past.   Humans need to put their waste somewhere; most of the...Read More

Biomedical Engineering: Software and the precocious Bots

April 10, 2017 1:28 pm
The breakthroughs in the biomedical engineering industry are staggering. For instance, the world has moved closer to a system of wearable diagnostic tools that are designed to continually monitor human health – consider the Fitbit for instance.  And ideas that had previously been designated to the realm of science fiction...Read More

Engineering Failures: Chernobyl Disaster

April 10, 2017 11:29 am
 It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster.   (The Chernobyl Disaster 2015).   The catastrophic Chernobyl disaster occurred on 26 April, 1986. Chernobyl, the nuclear power plant in Ukraine, is responsible for thousands of deaths, including large numbers of people suffering from premature cancers linked to exposure to the deadly...Read More

Employment in renewables down amid social positivity

April 5, 2017 1:03 pm
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has announced that all construction projects for new coal power plants will be cancelled, effective immediately. Instead, the NEA is investing $361 billion into expanding renewable energy technologies in an effort to reduce the crippling smog levels in many cities in China. The number of...Read More

Does it hold water? Los Angeles’ water conservation balls

April 5, 2017 10:29 am
 “The future wars will be fought over water.”   Are we heading for a future where those who have the cleanest and most abundant water will be the most prosperous? As it stands, to discern which countries are first world and which are third the cleanliness of drinking water is...Read More

Are you About to Take the Right Engineering Job?

April 4, 2017 9:21 am
Dear Colleagues   Great work! You have been offered a tremendous new engineering job and are poised to accept. Subject to a final negotiation session to finalise the details, of course. When you are offered a job – this is normally a signal that you are near end of a...Read More

Accurate data-diagnoses, smartphones & surgery

April 3, 2017 3:17 pm
The breakthroughs in the biomedical engineering industry were staggering in 2016. The world moved closer toward wearable systems that could continually monitor human health, and even produced studies for ingestible robots, designed to be powered by human stomach acid.     With biomedical engineering technologies becoming more apt at generating...Read More

Micro-credentials

April 2, 2017 3:18 pm
What are they and can they provide the solution to the ‘skill gap’ conundrum? One can earn a micro-credential in a specific, targeted skill or acquire a number of them – part of a broader, inclusive skill set. Udacity, one of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers refer to...Read More

As a True Engineering Professional Feel Free to Disagree with your Boss

March 28, 2017 5:14 pm
Dear Colleagues   You would often be confronted with the situation where you have to disagree with your boss or even worse – a client. Is it worth going through the pain of disagreement and the agony afterwards? My  belief is that if you want to stay true to yourself...Read More