Engineers Australia

Australian engineers are set to add their weight to the global energy challenge, announcing the exciting new idea that will be ‘made so' by Engineers Australia, as part of the ‘Make it so' public awareness campaign.

More than 100,000 members of the Australian public were engaged in the first phase of the ‘Make it so' campaign, submitting almost 7,000 ideas since it first launched in February this year.

The selected idea is:

‘Make it so' developing communities can reuse their agricultural waste to create energy for cooking and heating.

The idea was contributed by an undergraduate student in South Australia and was selected by Engineers Australia to demonstrate the pivotal role engineers and engineering teams can play in improving people's quality of life around the world.

The announcement of the ‘Make it so' idea comes during Australian Engineering Week, and coincides with the news
that 2011 is set to become the Year of Humanitarian Engineering.

Peter Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Engineers Australia says, "Communities, both globally and in Australia, are
facing significant sustainability challenges. The engineering profession, with its know-how and creativity, has the
right people to assist in tackling some of these difficult issues. We plan to engage our 90,000+ members to assist in
making the worthwhile selected idea so."

The purpose of the ‘Make it so' campaign is to raise awareness of the contribution the engineering team makes to
the community by engaging both the engineering profession and the Australian public in an ‘ideas' generation
discussion.

"The 7,000 ideas submitted show a clear indication that the Australian public are concerned about the big issues
challenging all of us - issues such as renewable, accessible energy, climate change and water. Importantly, it would
seem that the Australian public sees the engineering profession as playing a pivotal role in addressing these
challenges."

Engineers Australia will partner with Engineers Without Borders to bring this project to fruition. Engineers Without
Borders is an organisation dedicated to assisting developing countries gain the knowledge, resources and
appropriate technologies needed to improve livelihoods.

To follow the progress of the ‘Make it so' project visit www.makeitso.org.au.