Keynote speaker
Keynote speaker
Professor Julien Epps
Dean, UNSW Engineering
Professor Julien Epps received his BE (Hons I) and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales. Following appointments as a Senior Research Engineer at Motorola Labs and then as a Senior Researcher and Project Leader at National ICT Australia, he was appointed as a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from 2007, Associate Professor from 2014, and Professor and Head of School from 2019. In 2023 he was appointed Dean of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering. He is also a Co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN), and has held roles as a Contributed Principal Researcher at Data61, CSIRO, and Scientific Advisor for Boston-based startup Sonde Health.
Julien's presentation is titled: Future Engineering skills
Synopsis: Globally, and in most countries, projections show that we are headed for a significant shortage in engineering skills, and this is certainly true for the mining industry. This presentation takes a holistic view of engineering skills, considering the visibility of engineering, the pre-university skills pipeline, outreach, women in engineering, university pathways, the university experience including attrition, and learning beyond graduation. The presentation considers the wider engineering context as well as mining industry examples, and includes case studies from UNSW. Finally, some possible ways forward are suggested.
Engineering skills for mining's future
Ahead of his upcoming keynote presentation at the International Future Mining Conference 2024 titled Future Engineering Skills, we spoke with Professor Julien Epps, the Dean of Engineering at UNSW to understand more about the current challenges impacting engineering skills and the critical role engineering will continue to play in mining’s future.