Have you ever chased a banana around the CBD to win cash?💸 Communally chugged Red Bull🥤 before performing for 600 people? Enjoyed bougie Bivacco cocktails and pizza🍕 for free?
Well then, you have truly been missing out on the eNgiNeErinG ExPeriEnCe!💫 This year, I have embraced all the university-exclusive opportunities out there… with NO REGRETS!
Today I plan to share the tea☕ on how I made heaps of engineering friends (and LinkedIn connections😂), by sharing my totally unbiased rundown of the BEST engineering clubs and events at UoA!
The Engineering Revue🎭
This show might be the highlight🌟 of UoA for everyone involved! If you have an artsy background, joining EngRevue is an absolute must! If you’re sick of trying to befriend engineers who would rather talk to VSCode👨💻 than other human beings, revue is the place to meet the most friendly and social engineers🥳 at our university!
EngRevue is a hilarious comedic show created by hundreds of engineering students, across Parts I-IV. It’s a showcase of all the artistic talent🎶 in our cohort, running for a week each year at Sky City Theatre.🎟️ Each show has a theme from an iconic show/movie, but with a creative engineering twist.⚙️ The show centers around a main plot, and between each scene, there are acting and musical skits as well as band and dance performances.💃
If performing in front of hundreds of people is a scene from your worst nightmare,😱 you could join the tech, backstage, or film crew,🎬 help create the set and props,🎨 get involved with costumes and makeup…💄 there are endless BTS roles!
For all roles NO EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY! Just let your personality shine through☀️ and be eager to step out of your comfort zone in a low-stakes, friendly environment. University is all about the social experience, so don’t miss out on sign-ups late semester 1!
Our shows are filled with engineering inside jokes, comedic banter, and talented performers – it is the entertainment hit of the year!🤩
Hackathons💻
What in the world is a hackathon? One of my flatmates thought I would be hacking people.🕵️♂️ My other flatmate thought I was off to a hike-athon,🏞️ and she assumed I’d be walking for hours over the weekend!
I competed in a two-day software hackathon with the theme of nostalgia.🧸 In a hackathon, you aim to solve some kind of problem (for us, it was any childhood issue we experienced) and create a prototype solution to display in your business pitch. The presentations have Shark Tank energy.🦈 We demo our idea, explain the reasons behind our decisions, discuss how we plan to grow the product, and then have a short Q&A with the industry judges.
There were exciting challenges throughout the weekend to keep things interesting (money-prizes). I got roped into a hot sauce noodle-eating contest,🌶️ we played some competitive GeoGuesser,🌍 and this is where chasing the banana came into play… but more on that later!
Although my less experienced team (The Debug Divas 💅)was up against some programming wizards, our positive attitude led us to winning Best Design!🏆 This just goes to show, you never know what you are capable of unless you put yourself out there!
I never thought I could create such an innovative prototype website before this weekend, but I learnt so much from my talented teammates which I never could have learnt on my own! I highly recommend you sign up for a hackathon (they have non-software ones too), alone or with friends – no expectations, just see where the journey takes you!💡
Women in Engineering Network👩🎓
This one’s for the girlies, so the rest of you feel free to jump ahead!
Every engineering woman automatically joins WEN when they enrol. Make the most of this. MAKE THE MOST OF THIS!🚨
We host a variety of events, some are fun and social,🤝 others provide exclusive networking opportunities,🔗 others include health and wellbeing activities…🧘♀️ Don’t miss out on these high-quality, free and affordable events. Ultimately, our aim is to empower each of you with the confidence to navigate your way through this male-dominated industry.
This year, I have integrated myself further within WEN by joining the events committee. There are endless perks to joining the leadership team. We go on a wonderful retreat at the start of the year;🏕️ we get free tickets or early access to some of the most popular events;📅 and we get a say in how to best spend the generous sponsor money WEN receives. (And WEN events and meetings definitely have the BEST food and lots of it!)🍰
Robogals🤖
Robogals is the perfect club to join if you enjoy working with children👧 and are looking to build up those community service hours. As a Robogals volunteer, you would host fun workshops to expose children to the exciting world of STEM,🔬 encouraging them to pursue careers like engineering.
I have to admit, it is extremely amusing to play with the cool equipment you will be teaching the children how to use in workshops such as MBots and Sphero BOLTs. You spend a couple of hours guiding them through interesting challenges using these tools to ultimately get them super excited🔥 about participating in STEM activities.
Robogals is the perfect club to join if you are looking to meet fellow engineers and STEM students, whilst giving back to your community🫂 in an engaging, wholesome way!
Back to Chasing Bananas🍌
For the hackathon challenge, they sent everybody on a hunt🔍 around the city to find a man wearing a banana suit, occasionally sending photo clues hinting to his hiding spot at the top of a playground slide.🛝 I have never sprinted so fast in my life – but it was all worth it as my team secured second place! We won a $20 Woolley’s voucher which was well spent on delicious ice-cream🍨 and lollies for the weekend.
The Red Bull chug is an iconic revue band tradition. Before their feature song, they kneel in a circle and each down a Red Bull⚡ every show night. I, as a vocalist, was honoured to join this sacred (very culty) ritual!
As for bougie pizza and cocktails…🍸 go get involved with WEN! Make the most of your girl-privilege (sorry to all you boys😅). Every WEN event has absolutely unbelievably fabulous food!🍽️ And if you end up flatting next year – having to cook for yourself, you will truly begin to appreciate the joy of receiving a delicious free meal!
You don’t wind up with entertaining stories by studying 24/7 for that perfect GPA – but you will make core memories📸 and life-long friends👯 by chasing these exciting opportunities, which you may never come across after graduating.
So what are you waiting for!?
Join that club now. Sign up for the event. No regrets.
- You’ll befriend older students who can help you survive in this degree
- These activities count as productive ways to distract yourself from studying
- It looks GREAT on the CV
- You’ll get so many perks: networking, new skills, free food…
- You can finally explore those side-hustle hobbies and passions with fellow engineers in the same BE(Hons) boat as you
- It’s just awesome to represent a society you truly care about or a project you are proud to be a part of
So what are you🫵 doing still reading my post?! You should be signing up for something RIGHT NOW…👀 unless the only friend you want to leave this degree with is Chat GPT!
If you’re keen to find out more about any of the wonderful opportunities above, come and chat with me around campus or comment your questions down below! Good luck engineering on… I’ll see you in the next one!🤗