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Arup engineers recognised among Australia’s Most Innovative

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Trish Sunga Trish Sunga Australasia Press Office,Sydney
9 July 2020

Arup’s Meg Panozzo and Scott Rathie have been listed among Australia’s Most Innovative Engineers for 2020.

Leading industry body Engineers Australia selected Meg in the Community category for her initiative to attract and retain women in engineering, and Scott in the Building & Construction category for his ground-breaking technical work on Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville North Queensland.

The distinctive Stadium roof design was inspired by a local plant, the pandanus. Scott, a senior structural engineer, used origami models to better understand the leaf form, and created a parametric script for the roof framing system to achieve the unique geometry. The final result has an appropriately tropical character, as well as being structurally efficient, elegant and able to withstand cyclonic winds.

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I have taken great pride in collaborating with COX architects to develop a competition-winning concept and then delivering it with a talented team. To be recognised for my contribution is an honour and quite motivating. ”

Scott Rathie Scott Rathie Senior Structural Engineer
Queensland Country Bank Stadium at dusk Queensland Country Bank Stadium at dusk
Scott Rathie used origami models to better understand the leaf form, and created a parametric script for the roof framing system to achieve the unique geometry.

The Award judges complimented Scott for drawing inspiration from nature and origami to come up with a novel concept and then working through the engineering challenges to realise it.

“This is an excellent example of engineering finding technical solutions to support an architectural vision,” they said. 

Meg led the establishment of a group within Arup’s Sydney office to help address the gender imbalance in the engineering industry. After two years, the membership of ConnectSTEM has grown to more than 90 people. Connect STEM uses education, collaborative partnerships and storytelling to build community and celebrate the industry’s role models.

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I want to truly shift the needle so that our next generation of female engineers will not know what it is like to have their gender placed in front of their occupation. ”

Meg Panozzo Meg Panozzo Civil Engineer

The Awards’ judges commented: “The issue of participation of women in STEM is a perennial challenge to our profession, and one that has flow-on consequences for our society at large. The ConnectSTEM framework implemented within Arup is a positive initiative towards diversifying the STEM workforce. This has benefits for the community, the engineering profession and for Arup.”

Australia’s Most Innovative Engineers is an annual program run by create magazine, the publication of Engineers Australia. Now in its fifth year, the Australia’s Most Innovative Engineers list profiles 30 Australian engineers who are finding creative and innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges.

Read more about Scott Rathie and Meg Panozzo.