Dr. Steve Mackay is the founder of the Engineering Institute of Technology. He firmly believes in Nelson Mandela’s mantra that, “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.” His leadership has inspired EIT’s unique and distinctive approach to engineering education.

Since 2008 three core objectives define the essence of the institute:

Collaborating comprehensively with industry to ensure graduates are job-ready.
Employing platforms of learning to facilitate student accessibility and engagement.
Keeping the business of education student-centric.

Dr. Mackay has enjoyed a varied career in engineering, having worked in automation, data acquisition, instrumentation, data communications, and process control throughout Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America over the past 35 years. He has successfully pioneered the application of new technologies in Australia and overseas, installing industrial data communication systems and implementing live online education, (including remote laboratories), for engineering students worldwide. Dr. Mackay has been involved in a range of industries, including power stations, mining, mineral processing, oil/gas/petrochemical plants, and platforms. He has presented courses on industrial data communications, data acquisition, instrumentation, and process control to over 30,000 engineers and technicians worldwide for clients such as NASA, Rolls Royce, and BP. He has also co-authored and edited 25 engineering books that have been published across the world. Dr. Mackay is a Fellow of Engineers Australia with a license to practice as a Chemical, Mechanical, and Electrical Chartered Professional Engineer. As Dean of the Engineering Institute of Technology, Dr. Mackay leads the institute in providing microcredentials and engineering qualifications to over 2000 students per year from 140 countries. He has an unswerving focus on student outcomes and on excellence in education.

Low-cost C02 water treatment tech developed

March 5, 2019 1:47 pm
Universal access to clean drinking water is a challenge our world continues to face. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water at home. That equates to 3 in 10 people worldwide.  Moreover, twice as many people don't have access to basic sanitation. The...Read More

Reviewing Engineering Projects with a Meticulous Pre-Assessment or Pre-Mortem

March 1, 2019 4:05 pm
The Art of Support: EIT’s Learning Support Officers InformationCategory Education10 September 2020Written by: Quintus Potgieter The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) is a unique global institute, delivering online engineering short courses, diplomas, and degrees. Students around the world log into EIT’s synchronous online virtual campus to network with other... Read...Read More

A giant leap for AI and machine learning

February 25, 2019 10:56 am
Making computers think like humans is undeniably the next frontier that scientists and engineers are to trying to reach. However, machine learning, a field of computer science that programs computers with the ability to learn from data and make informed, adaptive, dynamic predictions, is currently reinventing the wheel in engineering...Read More

As Engineers Always Stick to Simple English

February 19, 2019 12:33 pm
Dear Colleagues, Surely, the KISS principle is one of the most useful engineering tools we have in our armory (KISS means Keep it Simple Stupid, for those who have forgotten). This should be applied to our writing so that it is simple and easy to understand. But this principle is...Read More

Aviation engineering changing shape

February 14, 2019 1:49 pm
The prototype of the world's longest aircraft is being retired, with new aircraft innovation promised to hit the market soon. The aircraft in question was the Airlander 10: a weirdly shaped plane-airship/blimp that showed what the future of air travel could look like. Needless to say, it does not look...Read More

The social value of civil engineering

February 14, 2019 1:39 pm
India's most famous civil engineer, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, once said: ‘Work is worship.' Gustave Eiffel, the French civil engineer responsible for the Eiffel Tower, said: “Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as...Read More

Mechanical engineering, AI, and software driving the future

February 14, 2019 1:26 pm
In January 2019, the Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada. And it seems mechanical engineering, propped up by artificial intelligence, is the talk of the town. Mercedes-Benz rolled their latest marvel of mechanical engineering out on the floor, touting some impressive artificially intelligent add-ons. The car’s name...Read More

Making bridges and buildings safer with lessons from steel

February 13, 2019 1:38 pm
Pearlitic steel, or pearlite, is one of the most durable materials in the world. This microstructure occurs in steel and can be made into steel wire. You might have seen these wires bundled together into ropes for suspension bridges or steel cords for tire reinforcement. They are also prevalent in...Read More

The oncoming battery revolution

February 13, 2019 10:14 am
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been working on nano-electrofuel (NEF) flow batteries for electric aviation. This means they could eventually power aircraft with non-explosive liquid rechargeable batteries. The development of these flow batteries is being done by the Armstrong Flight Research Center's Aqueous Quick-Charging Battery Integration for Flight...Read More

5G smart factories on the industrial automation horizon

February 7, 2019 4:07 pm
The World Economic Forum is inviting other industrial companies to study nine world-leading smart factories they have identified as having the latest in automation technology. Not surprisingly, these ‘manufacturing lighthouses' as the WEF call them, utilize the Industrial Internet of Things, and in their opinion show the most promise in...Read More