This year, to celebrate INWED, we hosted the Buzzly Eco Brick Challenge! The challenge invited young changemakers to design a sustainable structure using ecobricks for a real-world application in a community garden. The goal: create a functional and creative ecobrick installation for the University of Auckland Bee Sanctuary, using no more than 100 ecobricks and incorporating sustainable building practices.

We were thrilled by the creativity and innovation in the 50 entries from 10 different schools! Our judges selected standout winners from both the senior and junior divisions to collaborate and design the final structure – congratulations to Josephine (senior division) and team Ecothrone (junior division)!

We celebrated the success and creativity of all participants in a prizegiving and visit to the Bee Sanctuary, where the final design will be built.

Thank you to Engineering for Sustainable Development (ESD), The Bee Sanctuary and Buzzly for your support and collboration in bringing this altogether!

Our INWED event this year was hosted with Aurecon, and The Diversity Agenda on 22 June 2024. The event was aimed at promoting engineering careers to young girls and women.

This dynamic half-day event combined educational talks with a hands-on challenge where students worked in teams to design their future city, with guidance from industry professionals and university mentors.

With over 60 attendees, there was a balance of learning, teamwork and difficulty, which attendees all enjoyed!

In 2023, we hosted an evening of guest speakers, workshops and food, so that students, teachers, tertiary educators and industry professionals from Aurecon could meet and network.

Attendees met potential future mentors, made connections to industries that have a range of job opportunities and saw women celebrating and supporting each other in the engineering industry.

Our workshops gave everyone a chance to have their say about diversity in future workplaces, and added a new perspective to issues that industries are currently grappling with.

Thank you to Aurecon for making this possible!

Thursday 23rd June marked International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) for 2022. This year’s theme was around innovators and inventors, a fundamental part of engineering.

In celebration of INWED, Women in Engineering hosted a breakfast and speaker event for high school students, teachers, industry professionals and current University of Auckland students.

We opened the day with a karakia, followed by a range of delicious savouries, muffins, juice, tea and coffee. We were then treated to a panel of three engaging speakers – Dr. Jesin James, Lysea Haggie, Dr. Emily Tosio, and Paige Chong, moderated by Engineering student Tessa Brunton.

This INWED, we celebrated the trailblazers before us, and we celebrate the learners of tomorrow. WiE can truly build a better world!