Nick Byrne

My current position is across Engineers Without Borders and Engineers Australia. In 2011, I am working closely with Engineers Australia assisting in the delivery of humanitarian engineering content for the Summit, Conference and Technical Workshop Series.

I am the Knowledge Manager at EWB, which means I am responsible for the coordination of our technical centres of excellence - or what we call our Knowledge Hubs. These are technical humanitarian engineering clusters of EWB volunteers who are focussing on local appropriate technology training events, through to some limited EWB project support.

Outside of EA and EWB, I have played leading roles in the formation of the Australian Development Circle, SoLabs and Gold Coast Hackerspace. Each initiative generally focussing on collaboration for positive social outcomes, and the latter a strong focus on technology and innovation.

At the time of completing my studies, engineering was a very lucrative career path - so long as you got the grades! But so was law, or business!

But engineering offered a real pathway to generate tangible social value to communities - whether in Australia, Africa - anywhere. So my choice was set! Engineering offers individuals the opportunity to be challenged daily in situations which you can go home knowing that you are contributing to the positive growth of society.

I studied a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil and Environmental) with Honors at the University of Adelaide. Upon graduation I moved to Queensland to work in a consulting firm, all the while volunteering with Engineers Without Borders.

While I was in Queensland, I started my Masters in Social Science (International Development) by distance through RMIT University. A couple of years into my professional career and about half way through a part-time masters, a position came up within EWB that I could not ignore - so I applied for this successfully.

There are two stand out decisions for me along my career path. The first was the decision to volunteer with EWB. The second was to be proactive - both in leading new ventures and in taking up post-graduate studies. This demonstrates to people that you are serious about what you are doing.

For people out there looking to extend themselves, volunteering and post-graduate study are extremely accessible today and can really set you apart.