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.

Transitioning into Industry 4.0 with Micro-credentials

July 16, 2019 11:05 am
By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard plenty about the fourth industrial revolution  (i4.0) and how technology has the potential to create jobs we previously never dreamed about. Some commentators have taken a pessimistic view on its potential impact on jobs, with the Australian governments’ productivity commission  estimating 40% of...Read More

Autonomous solutions coming soon to offshore wind turbines

July 16, 2019 10:50 am
Offshore wind turbines have continued to face a glaring problem ever since their conception: their maintenance being a dangerous endeavor any engineer involved. A number of occupational health and safety measures must be put in place to protect these engineers, which ultimately means more money needs to be spent by...Read More

Engineers betting all their chips on AI

July 16, 2019 10:25 am
Engineers are no strangers to technological advancement. The advent of the computer has rapidly transformed the world, and engineers are constantly driving the growth of technology. Development of computers has now reached levels once thought impossible; the automation of virtually every industry perceivable. The breakaway success of computers was observed...Read More

Bikes from declining bicycle-sharing business put to new incredible use

July 16, 2019 10:10 am
Bicycle-sharing companies are rapidly seeing a drop-off in customer interest. At least three bike-sharing businesses have recently stopped operating in the United Kingdom. The companies themselves, some of them from China, are starting to cease operations in their home countries as well. oBike was a Singaporean bicycle-sharing company that kicked...Read More

Australia’s apartment building cracks show corner-cutting in civil engineering

July 16, 2019 8:54 am
Troublesome civil engineering anomalies in Australia’s New South Wales are generating some bad press for the region. The news is that some recently constructed residential skyscrapers may not have been constructed according to national standards. The figurative alarm bells began ringing for Australians on Christmas Eve in 2018. Sydney Olympic...Read More

Engineering students power fish with battery ‘blood’

July 11, 2019 1:03 pm
Researchers at Cornell University have taken engineering inspired by nature to a whole new level. In a newly published study in the Nature Journal, the researchers detail how they engineered a silicone fish-like robot with a circulation system powered by a liquid battery — or as they like to call...Read More

Kenyan engineer bridging communication barrier

July 10, 2019 8:24 am
Kenya is becoming a hotspot for engineering innovation. Keen future engineers have been busy inventing, whilst simultaneously trying to get qualified in their country. They are doing this in the hope of benefitting Kenya’s future and working to solve its societal problems. Roy Allela, a Kenyan software engineer, was inspired...Read More

Chernobyl TV show produces real engineering discussion

July 10, 2019 8:14 am
HBO’s latest drama, Chernobyl, recently concluded its short 5 episode run, drawing global attention to one of the biggest engineering failures of human history. Before the finale of the TV show aired, the show was enjoying the number one spot on the IMBD television show rating list, making it one...Read More

The American inventor who was also a President

July 8, 2019 12:02 pm
Abraham Lincoln was a politician, statesman and a lawyer — most well-known for being President of the United States. But did you know he also had a knack for engineering? He lived a momentous life between 1809 and 1865. During his tenure as President, Lincoln led the nation through the...Read More

Integrating automation into airport ground equipment

July 8, 2019 10:37 am
Industrial automation technologies have been commonplace in the aerospace industry for some time. This innovation is now starting to be seen inside aircraft, and within the aircraft manufacturing industry, airports, and ground support equipment. Aurrigo is a UK-based company developing the world’s first automated dolly. A dolly is used at...Read More

10 fun things to do in Perth this winter

June 28, 2019 2:01 pm
Whilst it can be tempting to rush home and into bed as fast as possible on Perth’s gloomy wintry days, the cooler months are the perfect time of year to explore our bustling city, just without the bustle! Perth comes alive in winter, from film and art festivals to pop-up...Read More

Engineering education for solving problems of disabled and elderly

June 24, 2019 9:53 am
The traditional engineering qualification is going through changes. Universities and technical vocational educational institutions are coming to grips with the changing nature of engineering. The world’s problems need solving, and they cannot be solved with one engineer from one discipline from one university anymore. Some universities and institutions understand that,...Read More

An offshore oil rig diver’s incredible tale of survival

June 24, 2019 9:49 am
The offshore oil and gas industry is an industry well known for its high risk nature. Not only are the employees who work on the rigs putting their lives in danger, but so are the employees who work under it. These employees are the oil rigs’ deep sea saturation divers....Read More

An engineering cold war

June 24, 2019 9:37 am
Huawei. You have probably heard of them - you may even own one of their smartphones. They are the second largest multinational technology company in the world, coming second only to Samsung. With the enormous size of the company, and tremendous force of national pride in China, there are thousands...Read More

The politics of climate in Australia murkier with election result

June 24, 2019 8:51 am
Engineering and politics are intricately linked. The prioritization of certain engineering disciplines and technologies may depend on where leading political parties lie on the political spectrum. In the United States, the Democrats were not supportive of the construction of a new phase of the Keystone Pipeline (an oil pipeline system...Read More

Harvesting the African sun with Kenya’s first utility-scale IPP project

June 21, 2019 3:31 pm
Temperatures in Nairobi, Kenya, reach 35 degrees centigrade in the summer months. Over five hundred kilometers away is the town of Malindi, where a brand new photovoltaic solar project is kicking off. If Kenyan engineers are looking to work in renewable energy, their chance has arrived. The Malindi project will...Read More

Tornadoes thrust engineers into action

June 18, 2019 9:04 am
We are only five months into 2019 and America has already seen 693 tornadoes tear across their sky. Just over the last couple of weeks, the American Midwest has been battered by over 100 tornadoes that have left several states with billions of dollars of damage to recover from.  And...Read More

3D printing proving helpful in Kenya

June 17, 2019 2:29 pm
Engineering is transforming Kenya into an innovative hub of new technologies that are both helping the poorest of the poor and assisting the growth of the business sector. A startup from the Penn State College of Engineering, Kijenzi, has been training Kenyans in the art of 3D printing. The startup...Read More

A tale of two above-water railroads

June 17, 2019 2:05 pm
In the 1800s the United States was industrializing to the point where New York and San Francisco, states that were quite literally on opposite sides of the country, needed to figure out a central point at which they could trade with each other. They would, via their respective railroads, meet...Read More

Google’s augmented reality search could help propel engineering education

June 17, 2019 1:41 pm
Google I/O has kicked off in Mountain View, California. A keynote speech opened the conference, which will see software and hardware developers from all over the world descend on Silicon Valley to watch and learn how Google do what they do. Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked the proceedings off by...Read More

Electricity in the air: The oncoming electric taxi jet revolution

June 17, 2019 1:30 pm
In 2017, the world got its first taste of the future of electric mobility and looked like something straight out of a science fiction film. An unmanned remote-controlled electric ‘jet’ prototype that took to the skies and experts were more than impressed. The engineers at Lilium, a Munich based startup,...Read More

Wireless charging gaining momentum in industries

May 9, 2019 3:10 pm
Wireless charging technology has had a serious hit or miss relationship with the mobile industry. With some standards being cleared, some technology being engineered and some being still stuck in pre-production, it’s hard to know what’s going on sometimes. However new developments might mean we are closer than we think....Read More

Nokia’s 5G-ready factory of the future

May 8, 2019 2:57 pm
Nokia wants to show the world what is possible with 5G networks and automated factories. Not only is the company now manufacturing mobile technologies with 5G embedded within their architecture, but they are also using it to automate their factories. Based in the Finnish city of Oulu, Nokia has built...Read More

How to rebuild a spillway

May 8, 2019 2:53 pm
It was a story of ineptitude, willful ignorance, and oncoming catastrophe. But that didn’t stop civil engineers in the state of California from bouncing back and rectifying what had been neglected. In February 2017, Oroville Dam’s main and emergency spillways were damaged due to heavy rains which exposed the ill...Read More

As an Engineering Professional or Company You Need a Deep Abiding Sense of Purpose

May 6, 2019 2:22 pm
Dear Colleagues I would respectfully suggest that most people and their companies go about their day-to-day work without a strong sense of purpose. However, in achieving success and fulfillment it is absolutely critical for both you and the business you work for to seek an overriding purpose.   Research Shows...Read More

Is there a civil engineering crisis in South Africa?

May 1, 2019 3:24 pm
Roads are something we use every day. Whether it’s for going to work, school or anything in-between, the quality infrastructure of roads are detrimental to our safety. So what do you do when they start to fall apart? Road infrastructure in Johannesburg, South Africa, is currently under threat. 94% of...Read More

A back flipping robot 'Cheetah' is the latest mechanical marvel

May 1, 2019 2:50 pm
There are two schools of thought when people see a back flipping robot. Some - and they’re probably engineers - find it absolutely awe inspiring. And some have overtly negative reactions and feel a little creeped out by it. Nonetheless, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Biomimetic Robotics...Read More

Electric vehicle fires spark concerns

May 1, 2019 11:36 am
The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, has been left questioning media bias after fallout coverage of a Tesla Model S electric vehicle that caught fire in a Shanghai car park. The released CCTV footage shows a white Tesla sedan emitting smoke from either side of the car, and then suddenly...Read More

Making carbon-neutral cheese thanks to Engineering

May 1, 2019 10:17 am
As the world begins to demand increasingly sustainable and renewable methods of power, engineers are having to rise to the challenge to change the routines of established industries that have been operating the same way for hundreds of years. Some of the oldest trades in the world which have constantly...Read More

Chinese engineering companies found guilty of copycat engineering

April 29, 2019 9:40 am
Plagiarism is any creative industry is an incessant problem, allowing people to get away with ideas that are not rightfully theirs. This is particularly evident in China, who is notorious for their knockoffs of products from around the world. However a landmark victory in a recent court case might be...Read More