By 2030, 25% of the female population will be menopausal - the fastest growing demographic in the workplace. If you are female, a leader, colleague, family member or friend of a female, you need to understand what menopause means for you and those around you. Aurecon’s Penny Rush introduces bestselling author Niki Bezzant to share her research. 

Olympic bronze medallist Jane Waldburger speaks with Dr Sarah Kelly OAM about the revolution in women’s sport and the positive social change this new wave of female role models can inspire within business and communities. 

The pandemic has presented the University of Queensland with an opportunity to consider its future. Hear Professor Terry’s thoughts on the future of online learning and how campus facilities will change to enable better engagement with students, academics, researchers, industry and the community. Find us online at aurecongroup.com/podcast or email us at engineeringreimagined@aurecongroup.com. 

In this Season 3 recap, we feature highlights of our most popular interviews, where we discussed the relationship between sleep, consciousness and creativity, Australia's energy transition and what’s ahead for the global space industry. 

Will a post-pandemic roaring 20s happen in the 21st century? Lucinda Hartley, co-founder of global urban tech company Neighbourlytics, and Aurecon Futures Research Leader, Noriko Wynn, discuss using digital data to inform decision-making to create better places for people. Find us online at aurecongroup.com/podcast or email us at engineeringreimagined@aurecongroup.com.

It’s no secret that sleep – or the lack of it – can affect us personally and professionally, but just how big a role does it play in determining our ability to be creative, engage with others and contribute to our organisations and society as a whole? And what if a humble insect could help us unlock the mysteries of human sleep? For this Engineering Reimagined episode, Aurecon’s Managing Director for Queensland, Evelyn Storey, talks to Associate Professor Bruno van Swinderen from the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland about the importance of sleep and how his research, using flies, is helping us to understand the role sleep plays in consciousness, creativity, performance and our overall health and wellbeing. Ultimately, we need sleep to not just survive, but to thrive. Beyond that, his research could help us better understand the role that artificial intelligence could play in the future.

More than 50,000 people from across the world are set to visit Sydney in 2023, as the city becomes the first destination in the Southern Hemisphere to host WorldPride, the marquee international LGBTQI pride event. Aside from all the glitter, floats and dancing, the festival will also host a Human Rights Conference, providing a platform for discussion and change around the many crimes and injustices still prevalent against the LGBTI community, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.  While the movement for LGBTI equal rights has made significant progress in recent years, with same-sex marriage now legalised in many countries, the LGBTI community still faces discrimination and marginalisation. What impact does this have on workplaces and how can we better support this community, understanding the importance of embracing diversity to enable innovation? Chief Operating Officer Andrew Muller talks to Kate Wickett, Interim CEO of Sydney WorldPride 2023, about how organisations can build an inclusive culture and its importance in industries like engineering. Kate also revealed how the team won the bid to host WorldPride and a few insights about what to look forward to at the 2023 event! 

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how much we rely on essential workers. Whether working in a hospital or supermarket, they have been providing services non-stop while putting their own health at risk. It’s become apparent how vital public transport is in enabling our modern-day heroes to travel to and from work, but means operators also face the huge challenge of supporting the safety of employees and passengers and maintaining operation of the network. However, with more people working remotely along with growing fears among the community of catching the infection, passenger numbers have dwindled for many metro systems. Active transport – on the other hand – is on the rise, with cycling surging in densely-populated cities like New York. How can public transport operators rebuild customer confidence in using their services in a post-pandemic world, as cities move further towards integrated, multimodal transport systems? And what can we learn from cities where lockdowns have eased, to improve the public transport passenger experience? To answer these questions, Aurecon’s Managing Director for Transportation in Australia & New Zealand Becky Wood talks to Metro Trains Melbourne’s General Manager for Passenger Experience Tilly Loughborough.

When the COVID-19 pandemic peaked in Australia, Beyond Blue, an independent non-profit organisation working to address issues associated with depression, suicide, anxiety and other related mental disorders, witnessed their online forum activity reach an all-time high in its "coping during the coronavirus outbreak" chatroom. In this episode of Engineering Reimagined, Aurecon’s Scott Powell talks to Beyond Blue Chief Executive Officer Georgie Harman about how we can support our own and each other’s mental health and wellbeing in the coming months.   Find us online at aurecongroup.com/podcast or email us at engineeringreimagined@aurecongroup.com.

In this special episode of Engineering Reimagined, Maria Rampa talks to Stephane Asselin, Aurecon’s Chief Executive for Asia, about his insights on the COVID-19 pandemic and what lies ahead for the region, and Mark Mauerberger, Aurecon’s Electrical Team Leader in Dubai, who shares his experience on what it’s like working on a live construction project during a period of lockdown.   Find us online at aurecongroup.com/podcast or email us at engineeringreimagined@aurecongroup.com.

In this Engineering Reimagined episode, Aurecon’s Kylie Cochrane talks to engineer and award-winning speaker and entrepreneur Felicity Furey about the new breed of engineers leading social change and making a name as a young female professional in a male-dominated industry.   Find us online at aurecongroup.com/podcast or email us at engineeringreimagined@aurecongroup.com.

Universities are ancient institutions and have long been considered the melting pot of society’s ideas, culture, and change. But against the backdrop of new technologies, what role will universities play in the future? Will the advent of digital learning mean that university campuses become a thing of the past? In this episode, Professor Ian Harper, Dean of Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne and Susie Pearn, Client Director for Education and Research at Aurecon, discuss how universities need to reimagine their futures and what role engineers can play to achieve this transformation.

Across the globe, private and public education policies are changing to increase the diversity of students in higher education. Unfortunately, in some institutions, increasing student diversity is hampered especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics – also known as STEM. In this episode, Aurecon Civil Engineer Rebecca Ilunga chats with Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng about what the future curriculum might look like and how we can achieve inclusive excellence.

Many communities today are full of people of different shapes, ages, races and access needs. Yet do our spaces reflect that diversity so that everyone experiences equality of access, comfort, and familiarity? This episode explores the vital role that design can play in creating better communities. Aurecon’s Associate Director and Mechanical Engineer Suds Hettiarachchi talk to two eminent leaders in this field – Australia’s former Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes AM and cross-cultural consultant and anti-racism champion Tasneem Chopra Find us online at aurecongroup.com/podcast or email us at engineeringreimagined@aurecongroup.com.

What’s the role of the engineer in emergency response and disaster recovery? Carl Devereux, Aurecon’s New Zealand Regional Director and one of the first responders during the February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, chats with fellow responder John O’Hagan on the critical role of engineers in the entire earthquake recovery and regeneration process of a city. Find us online at aurecongroup.com/podcast or email us at engineeringreimagined@aurecongroup.com.