Civil Engineering September 2021 | Vol 29 No 8

WITS STUDENT CHAPTER WEBINAR ON TRANSPORT ENGINEERING The University of the Witwatersrand SAICE Student Chapter, in collaboration with the SAICE Transport Division, hosted a webinar in June to discuss what a career in the transport industry entails. Presenters included Friedrich Slabbert, former chairperson Madeleen Engelbrecht, and committee member Tshepi Khabo, facilitated by Erin da Silva. The presentations outlined the various facets of the transport industry and highlighted the opportunities available to students should they wish to pursue a career in transport engineering. Positive feedback from the students was received of which just a few are provided below. “Wits SAICE and SAICE Transport hosted one of the most interesting webinars I have attended in a while. Thank you for being a great host and facilitating such an informative discussion.” “This was a very interesting and insightful webinar. I also enjoyed how the panellists’ personalities came through. They seem very much like collaborative problem solvers. All their thinking is geared towards ideas of progress. Their profession is really exciting. It’s a thinking profession which is cool. Just how they think about our environment and how it can work better for people and how we interact with it, travel and more. More impressive is how they managed to hold our attention for the entirety of the webinar. I am seriously considering a career in transport now.” “I didn’t even know there was something called transportation engineering. This session was so eye- opening. It was wonderful to hear that the sector is so diverse in terms of women.” “All the speakers spoke so honestly and openly about their experiences. I enjoyed all the laughs too!” SAICE YOUNG MEMBERS ROADSHOW The SAICE Transport Division attended the annual SAICE Young Members Roadshow on 23 July 2021. Represented by Erin da Silva, the division’s presentation aimed to enlighten students on the Transport Division by discussing who the committee is, the division’s purpose, awards available for young members, events hosted by the division, and the resources available for members, including local and international technical resources, webinars and podcasts from the division’s website (available here: https:// saicetransportation.org.za/resources ) . At the end of the event, SAICE Career Guidance Officer Fridah Mahlangu commented: “The presentation about the transportation division inspired the students who attended and hopefully they will consider becoming civil engineers focusing on transport and explore the opportunities that are there”. UKZN STUDENT CHAPTER WEBINAR The SAICE Transport Division, in association with the University of KwaZulu-Natal SAICE Student Chapter, hosted a webinar that provided an overview of SAICE and the SAICE Transport Division. Presented by Friedrich Slabbert and facilitated by Erin da Silva, the presentations outlined the work of SAICE and the benefits of being a SAICE member. Additionally, traffic and transport engineering was discussed along with what a career in the field might entail. An online survey at the end of the session indicated that students were interested in the following areas of transport engineering: Q Q Traffic engineering Q Q Road design Q Q Public transport planning. Some feedback from the students is provided below: “That was pretty great!” “It was a really interesting webinar, thank you.” “Great webinar!” “I found the webinar really informative.” Civil Engineering September 2021 43