Bachelor of Engineering with Honours

Nyssa Skilton graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Engineering Degree with Honours majoring in mechanical engineering, whilst at the same time completing a Bachelor of Arts. The latter degree was taken to fulfill her enjoyment for her natural flair of writing. Whilst doing her Engineering Degree, Nyssa carried out her industrial placement with a company where she was given the assignment of designing a scissor lift apparatus to help workers lift heavy and awkward sheets of plasterboard. This apparatus was later built and is now in use at the company.

Her honours thesis was on Public Perceptions of Engineers. She felt that Engineers and the profession were not portrayed as “attractive” in the public spotlight, so causing less numbers of students to consider this as a career path. So when invited to become part of the School of Engineering’s marketing team, she was very happy to participate by talking to school and college students around Tasmania, not only advising on the degree course and career pathways, but also on her status of being “one of the few” females within Engineering.

With her two degrees under her belt, Nyssa has applied her writing skills to venture into the world of journalism. She is now working at The Advocate Newspaper on Tasmania’s North West Coast. Next year will be heading further north to work for the Canberra Times.

Nyssa said “doing engineering at uni pushed me beyond what I thought I, especially my brain, was capable of”, and so has taken from engineering, the mindset that she can handle anything her work has to throw at her.