thank you very much everyone um I
started civil engineering three years
ago here at Imperial and it's been a
hell of a ride it's really been very
enriching because I have to trust that
you know when I graduate in a year if
there's a graduate out there that's
going to be able to design a bridge
that's going to work and not going to
kill everyone that goes on it and it's
going to be me and the people who
graduate with me and that's a really
exciting prospect it's also a little bit
daunting and the great thing about being
here and learning these things is that
it's a fantastic learning curve and it's
something I truly believe in and so when
I came into the electric theater I've
spent most of my life in it probably
I'll have one like two thirty to one and
I was powered by that by their very
prospect the prospect that every day I
was going to be adding on to this
four-year learning curve and I was going
to be getting all this great new
knowledge and what happened is that I
got so interested in keeping up with
this process that I kind of didn't have
time to look back and so recently I
thought let's look back at what's
happened over three years and see how
I've grown along this really long
engineering learning curve and the
reality is that it's been a lot harder
for me than I thought it would be and
because you know when I when I left home
I put all my stuff in my in the in the
back of my parents car and I drove to
University and and but when I got here
there have been instances where I've
been I felt generally out of place
genuinely unhappy which was really
surprising to me because engineering was
what I thought I was made for and so I
decided I was going to try and
understand why why I was feeling this am
i as you heard I'm Franco Australian I
went to an international school in the
suburbs of Paris and I was being taught
in French in English all the time and I
was surrounded by people who were just
like me people who were interested in
lots of different things and we're
studying lots of different topics and we
were all jumping from all these
different topics and all these things
that we were interested and it's not
because we had you know short attention
spans or we all had ADHD or something
it's just because we had a genuine
interest in all of these wide variety of
topics and we were encouraged to pursue
them and I fitted right into that
environment I found that was home and
when I left high school and I came to
university I brought that model along
with me and so when I got here you
probably only know freshers fayre
to freshers fayre as much as the first
year I was really excited I signed up to
as many things as I could I was getting
emails left and right and I joined lots
of different clubs and I was really busy
first year and I was having a whale of a
time and I was meeting lots of great
people but I was meeting them through
the society so I had common interests
with them and I thought that I was
meeting them because we were all doing
lots of different things I actually
turned out it took me eight months to
realize that not only were nobody else
that I knew of doing this but a lot of
people in my year thought I was a little
bit of a freak
I was I was this this I haven't heard a
guy tell me that I was this weird guy
who you know wasn't in the right course
he wasn't supposed to be an engineer but
you know he Steve was sticking around
probably because his parents were
pushing him to get a degree or something
and so you know as long as he was going
to be here for four years you might as
well focus on doing other things and
work when he could and and that really
resonated with me because I was like
whoa hang on why and I tried you know
talking to them and trying advocating
for cultivating these other interests
and I just kept hitting a wall and it's
not that they were you know boring
people it's just that you know they
wanted to do their work and they were
open to doing maybe one sporting
activity and and then maybe another Club
as long as it wasn't too much of a
hassle not too much involvement not too
much work and but here I was thinking
that you know my mother United Nations
debating platform which is something I'm
still very active in was as important as
my finite element analysis lecture and I
was the only one to think that and so it
started again with me well you know
maybe I'm a little bit wrong maybe
they're all right maybe you know the
role of an engineer is not necessarily
be this open and because we do have a
great responsibility other than jinyu's
when you think about it when a surgeon
makes a mistake he kills the patient
that's in front when an engineer makes a
mistake he can kill a lot of people in
one go and so there is that
responsibility so maybe we should focus
and you know making sure we have a
technical base and we never get it wrong
and so I start detailing a little bit of
a low point and wondering you know what
I had lived so far and what I was living
here and you know it was a little bit of
rock-bottom this guy was a little bit
cloudy but you know how life is life has
a way of you know throwing things at you
from time to time
and so I got a phone call from my dad
and we just heard about this summit it
was taking place in Pittsburgh in the US
was called one young world and it was
lots of really interesting great leaders
of this current generation great
thinkers great speakers who are going to
talk to
1,200 young people and these young
people were selected for the work that
they do all around the world and and
what was going to happen is we were
going to bring them together over a
platform of six different topics and it
was going to be debating and sharing and
that's how you get the new generation to
start doing things and I was like yep
this is for me this is right up my alley
so I took a week off lectures in first
year which is a big big thing to do and
an IRA and and I went to this summit you
know this is actually its beginning of
second year now and I'm giving my
thinking one last chance and I had an
incredible time I'm at 1,300 of the most
creative most hard-working most
innovative people you've ever met also
there were lots of great speakers we had
President Clinton come and give the
opening address no one told me that
Clinton was coming so I just sat in the
opening ceremony there and they say at
some point please you know welcome mr.
Clinton and like oh that's funny and
over president who's called Clinton and
then I look up and the actual guy came
up on stage and at that point I just
kept smiling for half an hour my facial
expression didn't change at all and it
was him speaking and we were all really
really encouraged and inspired that way
for the entire four days of the debate
because these were people who saw the
world in a way that I saw it who
believed in this you know Model UN
coming together anyone from any
background and sharing no matter what
your experience is and coming up coming
up with one resolution and so I came
back from the summit fully engaged and
what I realized after afterwards was
that I didn't meet a single other
engineer there not one and so I went
back to my lecture theater with all my
peers who thought I was a little bit
weird convinced that I belong that that
lecture theater because I came back with
the belief that you're an engineer not
because you have a piece of paper with a
grade on it that says yes you have the
right percentage to be an engineer
you're an engineer because you're
passionate about people and you're
passionate about the environment and
you're passionate about bringing those
together in a sustainable and durable
way and I think that's how we need to
think about engineering a little bit
more we need to make two changes to the
way we think and we incorporate
engineers the first one is society needs
to welcome them a little bit more
because think about it being an engineer
is hard and and there's also the rarely
that the engineers are not putting
themselves out there that much they're
not that passionate about that and the
reasoning behind it is because the the
engineer is always focused on this on
this technical background
and when you think about it a lot of
society thinks of engineering is a
bubble I mean if you have ever had to
work with an engineer you go and talk to
him when you want to build something or
you want to near fix something and then
he comes in he designed something he
builds it and then he moves on to the
next project and there isn't much
sharing there we have a vision of
engineering as this one big silo that's
completely isolated and then the
engineering professionals they're not
very good at communication they're not
used to going out there and talking
about their ideas because they don't
feel that to their role so we need the
professionals to change that and we also
need to stop thinking about all these
silos there isn't one engineer silo and
then a marketing silo and then an
economic silo there's just society with
more need for people talking within one
another and that's the big thing I want
to let you all with today is we need to
get rid of these silos and so the great
news is that I can attest to the fact
that there's change is starting when I
came back from onion world the first
time and I went to see my department I
convinced them to send me back second
time as an official delegate nice big
fancy title and and I went there and I
started seeing in Johannesburg which is
where the summit was held that there was
more people from technical backgrounds
coming more people who and even
engineering companies who were sending
delegates over and and the fact that my
department would be willing now after
I've come back from the summit to send
an entire delegation next year is a sign
that yes they realized that this is the
change that's happening and they want to
incorporate it and the fact that they're
doing so and that they're supporting me
in the process is something I'm really
really grateful for and the the reality
is that these engineers they're they're
not used to this idea they're not open
to this idea and when when you come back
and you think about all these silos it's
it's limiting what we what we need to do
is us as engineers is to be more open
more approachable more willing more
responsible for ideas take
responsibilities because it's not just
the fact of coming up with the idea it's
also the fact of making sure that it's
promoted properly making sure that it
gets out into the world making sure that
that knowledge can reach as many people
as possible because the greatest idea in
an engineer's mind you can have the
smartest guy who's just you know in a
room having his idea and working on it
but if he's all alone in that room and
he's not changing anything he's just a
lonely guy in an empty
there's no way that that information is
getting anywhere and so far engineers
have relied on other people to do that
work for them but we need to change that
dynamic a little bit but there's also
the reality that society needs to accept
them more and so if there's something
you're going to do when you leave today
try and include an engineer and
something you would never have included
an engineer before because they have
incredible input they're very creative
people they're very open they're just in
their world they're in their bubble
still and we need to burst that bubble
open you know the mentality that we all
work in these different silos is an old
mentality but it's taking its sweet time
to die off and we need to help it take
the final breath and and there's another
piece of good news is the fact that
companies are also starting to realize
this change because more and more people
are graduating with degrees and there's
more people out there and it used to be
that you could tell them apart just
based on academic ability and that's
still the belief in most institutions
but companies have all these positions
that are open and they can't fill them
anymore because the graduates want
recognition as well and so companies are
starting to look in profile a little bit
more and all of a sudden that little
society that I was doing on the side
extra goes from being a complete waste
of study time to something that sets you
apart from the rest of the people and
that gives you a really valuable profile
and one of the other things we need to
include in what we're talking about
education of Engineers is is this idea
that we need to train the change the way
we train them as well because when you
think about it who according to
University I'm sorry can all relate to
this who it takes all the boxes who is
the best guy the guy gets hundred
percent right the guy is always there on
time always giving coursework and always
gets an A I like to call these people
professors in the making because that's
what they're going to end up becoming
but universities need to update their
system a little bit to make sure that we
take into account practical
implementation skills when we assess
students because having again the
greatest idea is if you just keep them
to yourself they won't be applied the
these changes I feel are necessary and
the great thing is that engineers are
open to them and so you know a lot of
people have said of engineering that
it's the dental profession it's the one
profession that sustains civilization
why then should we keep on accepting it
living all on its own let's come to
and break down those silos thank you
very much