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.

Complimentary Overview of HV switching & Only the paranoid survive in engineering business

May 24, 2010 12:14 pm
Dear colleagues Andy Grove, the innovative and hard driving ex-CEO of the business behemoth Intel, and a famous chemical engineer, made the remark ‘Only the paranoid survive in business’ many years ago when referring to how he grew Intel so vigorously (and profitably) over many decades; despite dealing with enormous...Read More

Troubleshooting industrial data communications and working with fiber

May 19, 2010 12:10 pm
We Need Your Help: We are looking for a range of solutions for troubleshooting industrial data communications and networking systems and some critical safety hints for working with fiber. A slight wrinkle to my normal newsletter: We are in the throes of constructing a list of troubleshooting tips and tricks...Read More

The Engineering Travelling Circus on Ethernet, Smart Instruments, VSDs, Wireless & SILs

May 14, 2010 12:09 pm
Dear Colleagues, It seems, on reflection, that over time I have had the dubious honour of travelling to ‘out of the way’ places. Two weeks ago, I participated in an Engineering Roadshow where we presented short lectures to engineering professionals in various out-of-city locations. A range of exhibitors promoted their...Read More

Solving Engineering Problems are akin to the Phoenix Rising

May 6, 2010 12:08 pm
Dear Colleagues As we all know there is a burgeoning environmental catastrophe occurring in the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s CEO has announced that a massive containment dome (also known as a cofferdam) will be dropped through 5000 feet of water to cover the oil leak and funnel the oil to...Read More

Your complimentary Arc Flash Chapter download

May 2, 2010 12:10 pm
Dear Colleagues The main reason, for writing this newsletter is to inform and educate (both you and me, I might add) and hopefully to ensure that you get value from our newsletters (and naturally open them !). The one topic, which is still very “hot” is of course Arc Flash...Read More

Eight ways for Engineering Professionals to Build their Personal Career Value

April 15, 2010 12:07 pm
Dear Colleagues At the end of this note, there are three complimentary chapters for you to download. They are from our forthcoming bridging course on Engineering Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry. We all know that no one is indispensable – companies and people come and go. Even the owner or ‘boss’...Read More

Eight Hard Steps to becoming a Star Engineering Troubleshooter

April 7, 2010 12:05 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

Stalking Engineering Professionals and E-Resumes

March 31, 2010 12:04 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

Engineering Education for Engineers, Actors and Sports (wo)men

March 24, 2010 12:03 pm
Dear Colleagues One of my good colleagues, Ric Harrison (our e-learning systems consultant), has written about the futility of this mad rush for certification and accreditation in everything we do…….read on… If you were promised a starring role in a movie and were given the chance of coaching by Johnny...Read More

Engineering Cynics and Climate Change

March 24, 2010 12:02 pm
Dear Colleagues Theories should be treated with a degree of suspicion until proven beyond all reasonable doubt. You only need to remember the Y2K fiasco where Armageddon was predicted with the change-over from 1999 to 2000 on computer clocks - calamitous crashes and dreadful fallouts were forecast. Needless to say,...Read More

Top Engineering Jobs for the Decade

March 9, 2010 12:01 pm
Dear Colleagues Although it will vary from region to region and from country to country, times are still a little uncertain in engineering. The traditional disciplines within electrical engineering, for example, no longer have the growth rates they had in the past. An interesting prediction of top engineering jobs has...Read More

Engineering Learning Heroes

February 23, 2010 12:00 pm
Dear Colleagues A useful chapter on Training with Impact Get your advance copy of a chapter on Training with Impact from our forthcoming book on Presentation and Instructing Skills for Engineering Professionals – refer to the end of this newsletter. Engineering Learning Heroes I am always amazed by the incredible...Read More

Nothing is for ever in an Engineering Job

February 16, 2010 11:59 am
Dear Colleagues How many times have you changed jobs? Sadly, in today’s world, nothing goes on for ever, including your ‘spot’ in a company. Apparently, in the course of his/her career, the average employee can change jobs up to ten times. I would argue that currently this understates the situation....Read More

Plain Engineering Copyright versus Hardened Patent

February 9, 2010 11:58 am
Dear Colleagues As engineering professionals we should all be passionate about protecting our hard won designs and intellectual property from the pirates and less than scrupulous commercial denizens. There are many disturbing examples of ‘rip-offs’ occurring regularly around the globe – with some countries more guilty than others. Despite what...Read More

Consider becoming an Engineering Entrepreneur

January 27, 2010 11:57 am
Dear Colleagues I like to think I am one - an engineering entrepreneur that is. And vaguely successful. Although, I must confess that when I see the salaries earned by those uber successful engineers in oil and gas, for example, I know that it is arguable in terms of financial...Read More

Wanted: Green Engineers and Technicians

January 19, 2010 11:56 am
Dear Colleagues Thanks for the flood of responses to the engineering quiz. Full answers are below and we would like to congratulate our winners: Mr Patrick RichardsMr Brett DixonMr Mike Jones (Drawn from all the correct submissions). All others with correct answers will be offered an e-book of their choice....Read More

Engineering career flexibility is the name of the game

January 13, 2010 11:55 am
Dear Colleagues Although there is the inevitable hype about what an incredible economic year beckons us as we farewell the great recession, I have my reservations. I reckon things are going to remain challenging and that we are currently experiencing a paradigm shift which will effect how we work as...Read More

Energize to Trip – not such a bad idea?

December 21, 2009 11:53 am
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

The Barefoot Engineer

December 16, 2009 11:52 am
Dear Colleagues As the festive end of the year approaches – the season for giving, it is a great time to examine how we can use our engineering skills to do something for our fellow world citizens living in poverty. A billion people do not have safe drinking water, for...Read More

Engineering Change is the Constant, the Signal for Rebirth, the Egg of the Phoenix

December 9, 2009 11:52 am
Dear Colleagues Whilst on a ship a woman enquired of Herbert Hoover (who later became US president in 1929) what he did for a living. His reply; “I am an engineer”, to which she responded; “But I thought you were a gentleman”. Attitudes to this profession and the practice of...Read More

Value your Engineering Abilities

December 2, 2009 11:50 am
Dear colleagues In these rather challenging times, it is especially important to value yourself and to extract as much value from your engineering expertise as you can. It is also imperative, however, to continually assess yourself in terms of your ability to indeed deliver true value and improve your expertise....Read More

Avoid Self-Sabotaging your Engineering Career

November 25, 2009 11:49 am
Dear colleagues, In 1902 CY O’Connor, one of Australia’s greatest engineers, constructed the longest pipeline in the world. It was designed to carry water from Perth to the desperately dry goldfields. During the final stages of its commissioning the project faced some problems. CY O’Connor suffered some vicious criticism before...Read More

Working Together Successfully as an Engineering Team

November 18, 2009 11:48 am
Dear Colleagues You’ve just won a great contract but have to work in a team. Great, a technical challenge, but in groups! As engineering professionals this is not our best scenario. You may be outgoing and extroverted, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that you have good team interaction skills. Engineering...Read More

Engineers, Technicians and Murphy’s Law

November 11, 2009 11:47 am
Dear Colleagues Murphy’s Law is especially quoted in engineering and as most of you would well know the gist of it is: ‘If anything can go wrong, it will’. Often, we add: ‘And at the most inopportune moment and in the most damnable way.’ (A little unfair - the assumption:...Read More

Driving your engineering into the stratosphere with 3-d

November 4, 2009 11:46 am
Dear colleagues Thanks to all +120,000 readers for your suggestions - please keep them coming. As you know with your CAD design work, working in 3-d is almost upon us. You would have noticed the upsurge in 3-d movies recently. High definition images have already become established as a standard...Read More

Keeping your engineering career fresh and competitive – know your market, brand and legacy

October 28, 2009 11:45 am
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

Engineering Augmented Reality

October 21, 2009 11:44 am
Dear Colleagues Over the past few years we have heard a lot about virtual reality – computer generated worlds in which one can be completely immersed. Interestingly it has never quite fired up the engineering world. Virtual reality is obviously very prevalent in video games, but has not become overly...Read More

Lightning Strike in the Air

October 14, 2009 11:43 am
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

Is Windows 7 all it is cracked out to be for engineering professionals ?

October 7, 2009 11:41 am
Dear Colleagues My good sparring partner, Luke Hancock, who is our IT guru, has kindly made some comments on the new Windows 7 due to hit you shortly (thanks Luke). I initially thought Windows 7 was a wondrous new environment fixing the Vista problems, but his take (below) is somewhat...Read More

Engineering Networking 101 Bootcamp

September 30, 2009 11:40 am
Dear Colleagues, Networking is now a critical part of your career. And it shouldn’t be when you are urgently looking for a job before the “work” roof caves in. Networking is also not just about career development. It is about building successful companies and making your engineering career even more...Read More

Fixed Price versus Your Time and Materials Contracts

September 24, 2009 11:39 am
Dear Colleagues When you have a permanent job in a company, your income is pretty certain. In the real, but cruel world of consultant, contractor and contract, however, life can be considerably more complex and fraught with danger. If the contracts are not handled correctly you could end up considerably...Read More

Only the Paranoid Survive in Engineering and Business

September 16, 2009 11:35 am
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

How to Take Advantage of the Engineering Careers with Five Flavours

September 11, 2009 11:34 am
Dear Colleagues Since the early seventies, I have watched as engineering careers have morphed into five distinct types: ‘corporate’, ‘learning’, ‘contract’, ‘skilled global’ and ‘manager’. I would be most interested to know what your type is and naturally, make suggestions on what you think of my categorisation. I will conclude...Read More

Is there anything left for us to do ?

September 7, 2009 2:55 pm
I am currently travelling with a roadshow, presenting short information sessions in various mining towns in the Australian outback. It has been quite fascinating to learn what is happening in these rural towns, particularly with the massive growth in China in mind. What was especially striking, here in outback Australia,...Read More

Leading Edge – Bleeding Edge and Feeding Edge

September 7, 2009 11:33 am
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

Is Picking Engineering Winners Important?

September 2, 2009 11:32 am
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 picture is worth a thousand words, provided it\’s the right picture

September 2, 2009 11:30 am
Some really great suggestions from the inimitable Ian McMillan on the 1st September 2009 Driving a good Engineering Presentation, but with or without Graphics? Hi Steve Me and my 2c-worth again.  Good one, I quite agree.  A picture is worth a thousand words, provided it's the right picture. I use...Read More

Driving a good Engineering Presentation, but with or without

August 27, 2009 11:30 am
Dear Colleagues We have all sat through interminably boring power point presentations, often riddled with the poor use of graphics. As engineering professionals we tend to stick to the technical side of things and avoid presentations full stop. However, there are times when they are unavoidable. Here are some really...Read More

Sure – Innovate – but it’s really about your Engineering and Business Networks

August 19, 2009 11:29 am
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

As an engineering professional, make sure you get paid for your efforts

August 12, 2009 11:28 am
Dear Colleagues We have created a few more short videos (in 5 min segments) and associated book chapters on PLC installation and Programming. It is clear that we are not in a boom time at present. Many of the more entrepreneurial engineers amongst us have either been moved out or...Read More

As an engineering professional is a MBA worth it?

August 6, 2009 11:27 am
Let’s face it; if you haven’t got one; at least one of your colleagues has. As an engineer or technician, is it a worthwhile endeavour? - A year or two involving a potentially jaded professor providing you with potentially questionable concepts? There is no doubt that currently, MBAs have an...Read More

The Seven Habits of very successful engineers and technicians

July 29, 2009 11:23 am
Dear Colleagues Through my observation of engineers and technicians over the past 30 years I have discovered that certain traits or habits make them successful - very successful, in some cases. I believe that we can all become extraordinarily able through the adoption of these practices. Thanks to Buckbee and...Read More

Father and Son Choose High-tech Electrical Engineering Study & Say

July 23, 2009 11:22 am
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

Engineering for quality not longevity

July 16, 2009 11:21 am
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

Engineering software and videos

July 10, 2009 11:20 am
Dear Colleagues A brief note today, as I have "crocodiles snapping at me" whilst working with the team here on finalising our accreditation application to present a Masters degree in Industrial Automation.   Engineering software and videos We now have a two short videos (<5 mins) prepared by Terry Cousins...Read More

Engineering out Systematic Errors

July 2, 2009 11:19 am
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

As engineering professionals, we are surely closer to the driverless car than the paperless toilet

June 24, 2009 11:18 am
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

Buy or Roll thy own Engineering Software Tools

June 17, 2009 11:16 am
Dear Colleagues I receive comments now and again querying why I spend an hour or two, per week, writing these musings. Well; apart from the PR for our engineering training, they keep me on my toes and interestingly I learn even more on the various topics from your responses. At...Read More

As engineering professionals, do we save enough energy?

June 10, 2009 11:16 am
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

Engineering the Industrial USB Connection – definitely not plug and pray these days

June 3, 2009 11:14 am
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