Mechanical Engineer
Name: Vanessa Luvio
Career stage: Early career - less than 5 years' experience
Working: On site, Office, Remote working
High School Subjects: Physics, Mathematics Advanced & Extension 1, English Advanced, Visual Arts, Modern History, Studies of Religion 2
Favourite: Physics - it made me question the world around me and how everything works, I liked the problem-solving and calculations
Further study: University
where and what: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Mechanical Engineering) at UNSW
"Every design, whether a large new hospital, school, stadium or home, is an opportunity to have a positive impact on people's lives and contribute to improving the environment around us."
the inside scoop…
What does a Mechanical Engineer actually do? I provide the design for the air-conditioning and ventilation of a building. Basically, I will come up with a system that keeps each room in a building comfortable. I design and oversee systems that control the temperature, humidity, and air quality in places like homes, offices, and hospitals. This involves modelling the heat load within each space, calculating the quantity of fresh air airflow required in each room, providing different methods for heating and cooling to the client considering cost and sustainability, selecting the equipment and providing drawings and reports detailing where and how this equipment is to be installed in the building. As an example, I might be given a job which is a brand new school. For one classroom, I will provide a system to cool and heat the room as well as provide fresh outside air. This system considers the number of students in the room, what the classroom walls, floor, and ceiling is to be made of, the school's location in Australia, the number of windows in the room, sustainability targets and so much more. On top of heating, cooling and ventilation, mechanical engineers also get to design medical gas systems in hospitals. Here we provide the pipework & equipment design to get oxygen, suction, nitrous oxide, medical air and more medical gasses to the rooms that need it in a hospital.
What does a day in your life at work look like? A typical day will involve both visiting site and design time in the office. In the office, I sit down and go through floor plans and design requirements for a new building considering the Australian Standards and what the client wants. This could involve a client meeting with architects where we go through the new building and what the expectations are for comfort, cost and sustainability in the new space. On a drawing (on my laptop), I will mark-up a few concept designs to highlight areas I will need for large equipment, and will highlight what the different equipment options are for cooling and heating to the architect. After the meeting, I would start modelling the building to get an understanding of the heat load within each space using software called Camel. If I was on a project that involved an existing building, I would go to site in the afternoon to investigate what cooling, heating and ventilation system was installed as well as its condition to know if it could be reused. This involves taking a lot of photos, videos and chatting with the person on site to find out a bit more on the history of the building and its current equipment. It can also involve bringing a special camera and scanning the space (similar to Google maps) so that you can have a 3D scanned model of the site. Site visits are also extremely valuable in giving you a better understanding of the space which will help when you are coming up with a new design for the building.
What's the best part of your job? My favorite part of being a mechanical engineer is getting the chance to be creative and problem solve when coming up with designs for a new building and then actually getting to see your solution be constructed. It is incredibly rewarding when you finish a design and know that your work has helped in creating a new building. What I find particularly fulfilling is working on hospital projects. These types of jobs are technically challenging and I know that my contributions directly impact the healthcare infrastructure and, by extension, the well-being of the community.
What made you realise construction could be for you? As a kid, I always loved playing with Lego, and I liked fixing and building things. In high school, I really enjoyed Physics and found myself to be good at maths. I wanted to be in a job that would challenge me and allow me to problem solve to help others. This made me realize that a career in construction and engineering could be the perfect blend of my interests and skills. From starting my job in building services design, it was incredibly satisfying to work on a design, actually see it be constructed and know that you helped in creating that building. In particular, I've enjoyed working on HVAC designs for hospitals that are often complex and challenging. Knowing that my contributions played a role in creating spaces that directly benefit communities, especially in healthcare, has been incredibly rewarding. Every design, whether a large new hospital, school, stadium or home, is an opportunity to have a positive impact on people's lives and contribute to improving the environment around us.
What would you tell your high school self about working in construction? A degree is great to have to develop your technical knowledge however you will get a chance to learn lots and lots at work so you don't need to and won't be able to learn everything you need to know before you get into construction / engineering work. Through working on different projects as part of a team at work, you will be mentored and get to learn job specific information and skills from experienced coworkers.
Tell us about balancing work with your other interests, or family. Balancing work and life outside of work is very achievable when you set boundaries with yourself and work. Personally, I like to do a lot of sport so I will often have sport after work such as netball, Oztag and rock climbing that I've made a commitment to. By having these after work commitments, it makes me more efficient with my time during the work day so I don't stay late. I find it really important that I go to these commitments after work to properly refresh my mind so that I'm excited to go to work the next day. Sometimes this can be challenging with tight project deadlines, but it all comes down to time management and setting expectations with your team and clients so everyone is on the same page about when it is actually achievable to get the work done by.
Tell us about a favourite project you're working on. My favourite project that I'm working on at the moment is a new hospital. I've found it a challenge to design and incredibly interesting how involved the mechanical systems are for hospitals. I have had to learn a lot about medical gasses, liquid oxygen tanks, where each gas needs to be delivered to in a hospital and the equipment needed to get it there. In terms of air-conditioning and ventilation, each room has specific requirements that require a high attention to detail and understanding of mechanical equipment. For the mechanical design, we had to ensure each room was pressurised correctly so that the air flows in the correct direction for infection control within the hospital. For example, a room containing a highly infectious patient cannot leak air into the corridor next to it in order to protect the other patients in the corridor and staff. Moreover, each room in a hospital will have varying temperature requirements depending on the purpose for the room (e.g. operating theatres with critical equipment and birthing suites with newborns). Overall, a complex and challenging project that was very rewarding to deliver.
Vanessa is open to engaging further via: Taking a student for work experience, Speaking at a high school, Mentoring a student
If you'd like to enquire more, please fill out the form below with the subject name: "Vanessa Luvio" and we'll pass your message on.