Links between SAGE Automation and Flinders University are providing valuable employment pathways for engineering students, as the two organisations make bold moves to embrace the transport industry of the future.
SAGE, a diverse industrial solutions firm working across defence, transport, resources, utilities and manufacturing in 11 Australian and 3 international locations, is based in Adelaide with its global headquarters at the Tonsley Innovation District. The company makes a commitment to accept an intake of Flinders engineering students each year for 20 weeks of work placement as part of their studies, and is delighted by the talent that this program keeps identifying.
“It is excellent to see the work place students develop in to engineers and achieve job roles in some of the best businesses in industry,” says Paul Johnson, General Manager of SAGE Defence.
The latest group of six Flinders mechanical and electrical engineering students has just completed work placement within SAGE’s Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) division, and Damian Hewitt, National Manager – Transportation, SAGE Automation, notes that they were ranked top of their classes for their final practical assessments, for work on some of the company’s most cutting-edge projects.
“SAGE’s recent ITS placement students have achieved some great results both academically and in their project work,” says Mr Hewitt. “Each of them made very real contributions to some of our best projects in ITS and driverless car technologies.”
Student Keith Man was awarded best presentation across all six engineering streams with his project work on SAGE’s Passenger Detection Program, a ground-breaking technology that will enable road authorities to detect the presence of individuals using Wi-Fi. It will improve understanding how many people are waiting at public transport stops at specific times and assist road authorities to better plan and resource transport services.
Three more recent student successes stemming from SAGE placements include Daniel Pescatore, who has secured employment in the SAGE Automation NSW ITS team from January 2019 and will continue work on the NBBL Tidal Flow project, as well as the various other opportunities that present the Sydney team in the future as a graduate engineer.
Matthew Markiewicz commenced employment in November with Exact Contracting, taking responsibility for the cost-effective planning and administration of civil and mining projects. The fly-in, fly-out position that will cover a broad range of tasks in both engineering and surveying is initially based at Olympic Dam, with potential to include other states and sites.
Mitchell Keough has secured employment from March 2019 at GHD in the mining and energy sector as a Graduate Mechanical Engineer, with Mr Hewitt noting that SAGE has helped all of its student intake to obtain further paid work, either within SAGE or other leading national companies.