Inaugural Shaping the Future of Railway Event - 21 Sept 2016

The inaugural student - industry engagement event Shaping the Future of Railway was hosted on Wednesday 21st September 2016 by the Institute of Railway Technology with the support of the Faculty of Engineering. The event was a great success.

More than 150 Monash University undergraduate students and over 70 railway industry personnel and Monash University staff attended this event. Senior representatives from Engineers Australia (EA), Australasian Railway Association (ARA), Victorian Government, V-Line, Melbourne Metro Rail Authority (MMRA), Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM), Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA), Bombardier Transportation, John Holland, Yarra Trams, Alstom Transport Australia and Siemens featured as guest speakers.

The main purpose of the event was to enable key industry leaders to highlight for Monash 3rd and final year students the current and future opportunities available within the vibrant railway industry. Each participating organisation outlined their current major railway projects and activities, which provided an overview of career opportunities available within the railway industry. During the networking session the railway industry participants interacted with our young undergraduates, sharing their insights and wealth of experience as well as providing information about their organisations.

Monash University students Matthew Kwong and Dr Jerome Pun were presented with the 2016 RTSA Railway Engineering Student Thesis Award and the 2016 RTSA Post Graduate Thesis Award respectively. It is noteworthy that this is the first time that two students from the same university have received these prestigious national awards for both undergraduate and post graduate levels, and they were both co-supervised by IRT.

Monash University Chancellor, Simon McKeon, opened the event, and welcomed the industry partners and students. The evening's proceedings were moderated by Professor Mohan Krishnamoorthy.

The presentations from each speaker are provided below: