Another good year for WECA was celebrated at the recent AGM, which highlighted achievements, events, connections and collaborations of the past year.
The success of previous years has been bolstered by an introductory membership drive, bringing in a number of new member companies, along with some new affiliate memberships.
It's great that WECA events continue to be well supported by Wintec, University of Waikato, TENZ teachers and industry, with highlights including the Waikato Careers Expo, Engineering for Educators at the Gallagher Group and a tour of Millennium Plastics.
WECA and Wintec are working closely in a partnership where the association assists Wintec to work with secondary schools to develop contextualised vocational curriculum to help build engineering-centred, project-based learning.
Our members are actively involved in groups and projects including Wintec EEGs, Targeted Review of Qualifications, WorldSkills, Engineering in Action, FutureForce® Waikato magazine and working with secondary and tertiary teachers.
We think it appropriate to sign off the year for WECA by wishing all our members, sponsors and affiliates a very happy Christmas, and with the words of chair Dave Stuart:
"It’s become very clear that we have something very special here in WECA that the other regions around New Zealand would be very pleased to have as their own. We’ll continue to build on what we have, building better relationships between education and industry and developing our young talent into great engineers while promoting engineering as a great career."
New Introductory members: Gallagher Group, BLM Engineering, Hendl and Murray, MRP Engineering, Vertex Engineers, PFS Engineering, Metal Polishing
New affiliate members: TechGym, Workhub Services
New sponsor: Success Personnel
Wintec-WECA Partnership - working together to support the contextualisation of secondary school curriculum
2015 WECA Member Survey - 100% of respondents would recommend joining WECA to others
FutureForce Waikato magazine - thanks to participating members Stafford Engineering, Stainless Design, Mainline Sheetmetals, Tidd Ross Todd, University of Waikato, NDA, Supreme Sheetmetals, Wilkinson Transport Engineers, Millennium Plastics, Thorburn Engineering, Hendl and Murray, Alto and Wintec.
Waikato Careers Expo 2015
High school career events
Wintec Engineering Pathways Programme
Engineering in Action Day - giving Waikato secondary school students and their teachers a unique opportunity to see what engineering looks like in real time, out in industry. Thanks to participating members Active Plastics, Alto Packaging, BECA, Convex Innovative Packaging, Hendl and Murray, JP Marshall, Longveld, Mainline Sheetmetals, Millennium Plastics, PFS Engineering, Progressive Group, Stafford Engineering, Stainless Design and Tidd Ross Todd.
Good Neighbour social event
Millennium Plastics Event & Tour - a great turn out
University of Waikato Engineering Design Show
Wintec Engineering Design Show
Engineering for Educators at the Gallagher Group - high interest from technology teachers and more than 80 attendees.
Input into Ministry of Education (MOE) contract to ‘Review and Refine the NCEA Level 1 and 2 Vocational Pathways documents for Manufacturing and Technology sector
Thanks to the WECA Board: Dave Stuart (chair) – Stafford Engineering; Trisha King – Mainline Sheetmetals; Steve McNae – Stainless Design; Mike Welten – NDA Engineering; Roland Spirig – Wintec; Bart Engelsman – Active Plastics; Keith Fraser – Alto Packaging; Shelley Wilson – Wintec
Looking forward to 2016:
Develop social media presence
Create electronic logo for members’ use
Develop Waikato engineering pathways flow-chart
Engineering cadetship collaboration with Wintec and Smart Waikato Trust
Work with Wintec to contextualise school curriculum & cadetship promotion
Develop/promote video offering for members
Waikato engineering pathways on website (member input) & Work in Waikato
Possible workforce mapping
Continue to encourage higher calibre students into Waikato engineering sector
Continue to represent WECA and careers expos and promote sector to schools
Continue membership drive with introductory memberships
Continue sponsorship drive
Continue input into high level economic development work, including workforce planning
Continued event management, public relations, website, enquiry management and newsletter production
WECA AGM - were you spotted?
Captions (clockwise, from top left): Peter Pooran and Steve McNae (Stainless Design) and Roger Evans (Stafford Engineering); Mike Welten (NDA) and Louis Ewington (Mighty River Power); Dean Howie (University of Waikato) and Johnny Gordon (Wintec); Shelley Wilson (Wintec) and Ray Pryor (Millennium Plastics); Nigel Connor (BLM Engineering) and Bart Engelsman (Active Plastics); Peter Drube (Convex) and Levinia Paku (WECA).
Wintec students impress at Engineering Design Show
Wintec engineering students showed off their work at a recent Engineering Design Show.
Third year BEng Tech students presented an impressive range of projects, from flood gate designs and a study of road accidents involving overseas drivers to reservoir site investigations and a study on the effects of UV light on 3D printed polymers.
Diploma students presented their solutions to a water heating challenge for use in developing countries, with WECA co-ordinator Sally Birch representing WECA as a judge.
At the presentation awards BEng Tech first and second place students Athir Jappie and Juan Martinez were presented with WECA individual affiliate memberships and Juan received an additional membership for his project poster presentation.
See below for photos...
Captions: 1st Place BEngTech Presentation recipient Athir Jappie receiving his WECA membership with Peter Vautier (IPENZ); 1st Place NZDE Presentation (Civil) recipient Nic Lake; 2nd Place BEngTech Presentation and 1st place poster recipient Juan Martinez receiving his WECA membership; 1st Place NZDE Presentation (Elec) recipient Jerome Buadromo.
Captions (clockwise from top): Wintec diploma student teams Breaking Bad, from left, Ginga Bothwell, Bashi Hirsi, Ragan Sharma, Cohen Pietersen and Abdulrahman Alzahrani; Renewable Energy Solutions, from left, Sam Hawken, Kapil Pawar, Freddy Travieso and Dean Fletcher; JHEA Engineering, from left, Aden Te Kiri, Jack Williamson, Ethan Litchfield and Huzaifa Mohsinally.
Affiliate WECA memberships for students, grads and young employees
Engineering students, young employees and recent graduates can join WECA as part of a bid to better connect them with industry.
Membership benefits include networking with engineering employers, receiving WECA updates, access to the membership database and invitations to all WECA events. WECA student membership is available to students or recent graduates for $50 per annum. Some conditions apply.
Click here to download the individual affiliate membership form.
How to make yourself appear smart in meetings
One of the best things we came across on the internet in 2015 was a list of 10 ways to make yourself appear smarter in meetings. We think you'll agree, number five is the best of all...
Engineering design at its best
Collecting aluminium cylinders is about to get a whole lot easier thanks to a class of engineering students from the University of Waikato.
As part of a third-year mechanical engineering design paper, teams of students were each asked to design and create a prototype that could autonomously collect and eject five cylinders, each weighing roughly 53 grams.
The winning team’s prototype collected and ejected the most cylinders in the fastest time. The inventions were tested at the Carter Holt Harvey Pulp & Paper Engineering Design Show last month.
Winning team from left: Josh Parkin, Hamish Carter, Tyler Kleinfelter and Nathan Senior.
A word from ...
At Hamilton’s newest gym you’ll find members meticulously shaping steel into scooter parts, building outdoor pizza ovens, creating steel sculptures, learning to weld and working on a vast array of creative and practical projects. TechGym is a new kind of gym. Located in Wintec’s award-winning Engineering and Trades facility, TechGym gives members access to its state-of-art trades workshop including specialist tools, equipment and instructors. Read more here.
A new learning project which aims to prepare engineering students for the real world is being trialled at Wintec. The project, which makes up part of the Bachelor of Engineering Technology, sees students from both the electrical and mechanical engineering disciplines work together on a project to develop their version of the mathematical game, Tower of Hanoi. Those specialising in mechanical engineering design the parts and the automated manufacturing process, while the electrical engineering students design the control system and assemble the parts into the final product. Read more here.
Won an award? Moving premises? Want to pick other members' brains? Don't forget to tell us about it! You just might see yourself in the next WECA Update. Email sally@weca.org.nz or click the big purple button.
