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.

Fruit pickers face robotic replacement in Australia

March 10, 2016 4:53 pm
Fruit harvesters beware! Robots could be taking your jobs soon. High labour costs are the leading reason given for considering the move to robotics in the horticulture industry. Harvesting with automated, mechanical devices that do the job better than a human hand are becoming the preferred method of harvesting in...Read More

A new hope for preventing marine fouling

March 9, 2016 10:20 pm
The bottom of any vessel that is submerged in seawater is capable of collecting bacteria and marine organisms that have extremely negative effects on the vessels due to corrossion. The process of corrosion on the underbelly of these boats is called 'marine fouling'. It causes costly damages and equals hefty...Read More

LTE hits more than 1 billion connections

March 9, 2016 8:56 pm
The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has said LTE and LTE-Advanced connections skyrocketed by 156 million connections in the fourth quarter of 2015. In the last year, LTE connections went up by 552.2 million.  Alan Hadden, VP of research at GSA said, "A daily average of almost 1.7 million LTE subscriptions...Read More

Russia's new ATV boasts self-inflated tyres and swimming capabilities

March 9, 2016 8:03 pm
Russian automotive engineering company SHERP has shown off its amphibious ATV vehicle in a new video.  According to Top Gear, the ATV has self-inflating tyres that can dominate obstacles of 70cm or more. They also say it has a "Kubota four-pot (so four cylinders) 1.5-litre turbodiesel" inside the beast but only...Read More

Engineering students save their peers money with new money app

March 9, 2016 6:56 pm
Four engineering students at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras have saved their fellow peers some cents here and there. They developed a campus payment app called Paymint. The app can be used to pay for items on campus and then allow students to get their change in full. The students...Read More

Unaccredited engineering degrees and unskilled engineers in Africa

March 9, 2016 4:44 pm
Engineering in Africa, as we have recently reported, is struggling to produce jobs for engineers in industries like the construction industry. A study in 2013 by the Royal Academy of Engineering found that Africa desperately needed engineers with skills and experience. In the study under a heading named 'The scale...Read More

Computers are able to read signs of boredom and excitement

March 9, 2016 3:17 pm
A new study conducted by body-language expert Dr Harry Witchel, Discipline Leader in Physiology at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) believes that computers are able to read a person's body language to tell whether they are bored or interested in what they see on the screen based on the...Read More

The top 5 engineering graduate producing countries

March 8, 2016 8:29 pm
The World Economic Forum has conducted research which details which country produces the most engineering graduates. Unfortunately, the data they collected left China and India out of the equation due to a "lack of data". Due to the perplexing fact that they left the two countries out, InsiderMonkey.com conducted their...Read More

3-D tissue bioengineering in spotlight at Harvard

March 8, 2016 4:20 pm
The latest results in the tissue engineering and biomaterial development field comes from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering team that work out of Harvard University. Working with the Harvard John A. Paulson School for Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the teams have developed a new method of bioprinting...Read More

A Few Tips on Dramatically Improving Your Learning Abilities

March 8, 2016 2:42 pm
Today, as engineering professionals, we are all lifelong learners if we are to prosper. Technology and indeed life is changing fast and we have to continually learn quickly and effectively new approaches, techniques and systems. Bear in mind that most learning is informal – i.e. through your colleagues and on-the-job....Read More

Revolutionary drone can swim, float and dive

March 7, 2016 9:55 pm
An alumnus and a team from Oakland University have won $1 million for the creation of possibly the niftiest drone ever invented. The Loon Copter is an "aerial-surface-underwater reconnaissance drone". It can fly, ski on water and even dive down into water. They built the drone for a competition called Drones...Read More

Engineering students lessen battery drain with new passive Wi-Fi

March 7, 2016 6:56 pm
Students at the University of Washington are focusing on something important, something that affects every person who has ever owned a device that operates on Wi-Fi. Battery drain. Student hardware engineers have developed a new hardware that allegedly uses 10,000 times less power than current Wi-Fi.  According to the students'...Read More

Engineering students lessen battery drain with new passive Wi-Fi

March 7, 2016 6:56 pm
Students at the University of Washington are focusing on something important, something that affects every person who has ever owned a device that operates on Wi-Fi. Battery drain. Student hardware engineers have developed a new hardware that allegedly uses 10,000 times less power than current Wi-Fi.  According to the students'...Read More

Construction industry experiencing global fluctuations

March 7, 2016 4:53 pm
The construction industry is fluctuating globally according to multiple news sources this week. IOL reports that in South Africa, the construction industry has been in a decline since the concluding of the 2010 World Cup. Murray & Roberts and Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon - companies that designed and established Cape Town Stadium -...Read More

MIT's Quantum Computer gives hope for future of information encryption

March 7, 2016 3:31 pm
One small step for quantum technology, one giant leap for MIT. Quantum engineering is always being reupholstered due to newer research that becomes available to the field, it is considered as a relatively new field of engineering. The Massachusetts Institue of Technology (MIT) have been investigating how quantum physics and...Read More

Hyper-elastic light-emitting capacitor shines light on future of robotics

March 4, 2016 8:24 pm
Scientists at Cornell University are putting their engineers to work with one of the most fascinating projects of the year. They have designed a stretchy, flexible skin that might fill out many different roles. The skin emits light like a cellphone displays a screen on a phone, or, at least,...Read More

Chemical engineers in Belfast quickly crack down on legal highs

March 4, 2016 3:46 pm
Chemical engineers in the United Kingdom are researching methods of testing substances at a faster rate than previously conducted to determine whether or not they are regarded psychoactive substances, otherwise known as 'legal highs'. 'Legal highs' (NPS - novel psychoactive substances) refer to substances that stimulate the consumer to the...Read More

Engineering students chase 760MPH Hyperloop

March 3, 2016 8:29 pm
Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, is hosting a competition for engineering students or any engineers that are up to the challenge. Announced in January, Musk wants to see design ideas for 'The Hyperloop', a super-quick public transport alternative that should aim to travel at speeds of up to 760...Read More

Engineer awarded grant to cool Li-Ion batteries down

March 3, 2016 4:58 pm
Lithium ion batteries. Are they as safe as they could be? Ankur Jain, an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Arlington is researching how to make safer lithium ion batteries. He wants to update the technology based on research he has...Read More

Engineer awarded grant to cool Li-Ion batteries down

March 3, 2016 4:58 pm
Lithium ion batteries. Are they as safe as they could be? Ankur Jain, an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Arlington is researching how to make safer lithium ion batteries. He wants to update the technology based on research he has...Read More

Cancer treatment with nanotechnology needs reviewing

March 3, 2016 3:56 pm
In the biomedical engineering field, cancer research is an important faculty of study. But, there are questions about the viability of current nanotechnology, in terms of creating cancer treatments. The concerns have been raised by the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research whose work includes the "advancement of new medicines, early detection,...Read More

Small biological supercomputer takes first breath

March 2, 2016 10:26 pm
A new supercomputer powered by biological components created by a team of engineers from around the globe is being unveiled to the world. Dan Nicolau, a computer scientist from McGill University, Canada, pioneered the idea of creating a supercomputer that operates on biochemical substance, providing energy to the computer with...Read More

Civil engineering students strive to make earthquake-proof buildings

March 2, 2016 8:05 pm
TheEconomist.com estimates that more than a million people have lost their lives due to earthquakes in the last two decades alone. Most of these deaths are caused due to collapsing buildings, which has spurred a fascination amongst civil engineers with earthquake-proofing buildings to ensure less of them fall down during an...Read More

Biological engineering professor makes blue dye with E. Coli

March 2, 2016 6:03 pm
A new breakthrough in biological engineering spells good news for several companies who might have been using synthetic, toxic dyes in their products. A natural alternative for dyeing items indigo has been discovered.  Dr. Jixun Zahn - an associate professor of biological engineering - works at Utah State University in...Read More

Self driving car engineering under scrutiny after accident

March 2, 2016 4:24 pm
It had to happen at some point...right?  Google's self-driving car technology has caused an accident. The company's self-driving Lexus SUV was the first out of the fleet of self-driving vehicles that has CAUSED a crash. The incident occurred on the 14th of February 2016, colliding with the side of a...Read More

NASA knocking on Concorde's door

March 1, 2016 5:58 pm
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced the awarding of a contract that will see the return of a Concorde-like aircraft to the world. Lockheed Martin are the lucky engineers that were given the $20 million order to design an aircraft that utilizes what is called Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST). ...Read More

Cape Town flexes fibre-optic muscle

March 1, 2016 3:36 pm
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA As fibre-optic networks become more prevalent in South African businesses and homes, Cape Town could be boasting one of the fastest connections in the world. A German telecommunications company called ADVA Optical Networking, this week, tested the capabilities of the service which resulted in 400 Gbps. ...Read More

Make a Ferociously Good Presentation with these simple tips

March 1, 2016 2:43 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

Tech companies stand behind Apple in cyber security saga

March 1, 2016 7:47 am
The battle continues between the FBI and tech industry giant, Apple. The FBI are wanting to access the contents of an iPhone belonging to a terrorist known as the San Bernadino shooter who shot 14 people in the United States. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, is warning against allowing such a bypass...Read More

Mercedes-Benz wants robots and 'more capable' humans to work together

March 1, 2016 7:41 am
The anxiety of workers in the world these days is that their jobs are going to be taken by a robot who can do their job more efficiently and better than they can. Some jobs are being replaced by robots but The Guardian reports that car maker Mercedes-Benz is opting...Read More