The three winners of Engineers Australia Victoria Division's Celebrating Engineering Leadership Competition have shared their winning entries.

The young engineer winners won the exclusive, invitation-only to the Fellow and Engineering Executive Recognition Ceremony.

The competition is a unique opportunity for the winners to interact and build networks with the leaders of the Victorian engineering industry.

The winners had to tell us in 100 words or less, who or what inspired you to become an engineer along with their CV. 

Here are the winners' entries below:

Emily Harris:

‘As a young child, I was a Master Builder and Urban Planner, designing and constructing Lego buildings, roads, bridges and tunnels with my younger brother. We would weave the wooden train set through the ‘city’, and hoon around the roads with Matchbox cars. Our city came alive with miniature Fisher Price animals and people.  In the following years as we lived in and travelled to many diverse places and my interest in designing, constructing and solving problems continued to grow, along with my increased awareness of diversity. The desire to positively impact diverse communities influenced me to become an engineer.’

Acushla Burden:

“It happened in my last semester of university. It happened while reading a book. I was reading the introduction to Making Urban Transport Sustainable by Nicholas Low. Nicholas urged the professional shapers of the city to challenge their belief systems while working in transport in order to form a sustainable world. The challenge felt personal; could I think critically about the working world I was about to enter into as a consulting engineer? I was already going to be an engineer, but this challenge inspired me to be the best engineer I could be. Curious, critical and brave”

Jason Chan:

‘My engineering fire was kindled while growing up in and around my dad’s smash repair workshop. We loved working together and getting our hands dirty. During university, I had the most inspirational orbital mechanics lecturer. She sparked my interest in aerospace and space engineering. In our final lecture she showed us the ‘pale blue dot’ image and she had begun to tear up while speaking about it. I haven’t forgotten that moment’

Image:(L-R) Emily Harris, Acushla Burden, Jason Chan