Successful Graduates

Susan Jackman - TXU, Texas
Alain Momedi Alberta Infrastructure/Transportation, Canada

Susan Jackman: it is Swinburne's well structured Engineering program that helped prepare me for the fast pace and high demands of the US energy industry

I graduated from Swinburne in 1997 with a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering. I was interested in construction so I went to work for Streamline Australia, who at the time was Melbourne Water's construction company. I had completed my second industrial placement with Streamline Australia, so that placed me in a great position to be offered a full time job upon graduation.

I went to work on the North Western Sewer tunneling project in Essendon, Victoria. That was an amazing construction project to be involved with. I was teamed with five others to assist with the project management of the final 18 months of design and construction of the AUD$253 million sewer tunnel, which now services the North Western area of Melbourne. The project ran over 10 years and commissioning was achieved in August1998, 7 months ahead of schedule.

Like most young Australians I had itchy feet to work and travel, so in November 1998 I went on leave without pay from Streamline Australia, Which had now become a part of TXU Australia. I packed my bags and headed to London, England. I took a position with WS Atkins Water Group as a Quality Assurance Coordinator where I assisted to administer the company Quality System to ensure their compliance with ISO 9000. My 8 months in London produced many crazy stories and took me on some amazing adventures including the UK, continental Europe and Egypt.

In March 1999, I was contacted by a man with a very strong Texas drawl who invited me to move to Dallas and work at TXU's head office. I was ready to continue my world adventures, so off to the USA I went. I left London on a cold cloudy day in the middle of June and landed on Texas soil to be greeted by sunny skies and 42 degrees Celsius temperatures. It stayed that hot for the next 29 days straight and I decided this was a place I liked.

Nearly five years later, I am still here and loving every minute. I have had 3 significant career changes since arriving here, but thankfully all within the same company, which as most expatriates would appreciate, is great for visa reasons! I spent the past 2 years on the road every week in the utility consulting company that TXU owns. My advice to all engineers is that you have to be a consultant at some point in your career. I spent 8 months in Hartford, Connecticut, 8 months in San Diego, California and the last 6 months of 2003 in Ontario, Canada. Apart from accumulating great frequent flyer points, I learnt so much in that short time frame that it was like being back at university!

I now manage a group of employees who do all of the forecasting, scheduling and resource management for TXU's 220 electric design engineers and the 700+ internal and contract electric construction crews who work in north Texas. At any one point in time, we have 15,000 projects that we are managing, so it certainly keeps us busy. I enjoy the challenges, but I have to say that it is Swinburne's well structured Engineering program that helped prepare me for the fast pace and high demands of the US energy industry. The 2 segments of industrial placement during the course made me a better all-round engineer and have allowed me to progress much more quickly with my career. Even though I plan to be in Texas for a few more years, I still call Australia home!

Thanks for the opportunity to share my story. I am attaching a photo.The first one is myself and my best friend from my Swinburne Civil Eng days, Lisa Porter. We graduated together in 1997 and she is now running her own company in London, England, so we met up 18 months ago in New York City.

Alain Momedi: I enjoyed my time at Swinburne and am very proud of the standard of education in Australia

I have been working in Canada since February 2000 for Alberta Infrastructure/Transportation. My wife is Canadian and we thought it would be nice to give the civil engineering caper a go in a diverse country like Canada; where everything is designed and built for extreme temperatures (Winters as low as -35 Celsius and summers 30+).

I'm directly involved with the planning/programming and implementation of highway and related infrastructure in the Province of Alberta. We are also involved with regional water and sewer related treatment plants/pipelines. I enjoy living in Canada, although the winters are a tad colder than what we are used to in Australia!

Anyway, I enjoyed my time at Swinburne and am very proud of the standard of education in Australia.