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It was probably a bit of both
nature and nurture that led
Katrina Browne to graduate
with a Bachelor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering (with
honours), the third generation of
civil engineers in the family to graduate
from the University of Auckland.
It has become something of a
family tradition. Katrina’s father Allen
graduated in the 1990s, her grandfather
Murray in the 1950s (when the school
was based at Ardmore), her uncle
Graham graduated in the 1980s. Her
younger brother, Nathan, is currently in
his third year of his BE, also studying
civil engineering.
“I do wonder about it,” says Katrina,
of the nature versus nature question.
“There are so many career options
and my brother and I are very different
personalities. But with five of us all
in the same family – and we’re not a
huge family - you do wonder what the
likelihood is of us all ending up in the
same area of expertise.”
“I do wonder if I subconsciously picked
up on some of the things my Dad was
often talking about, even if I wasn’t
particularly interested in those things at
the time.”
She recalls a family holiday to the
US, and her father raising a “super
complicated question” about how
deep the piles had been dug into the
bedrock, which suggests that “once
you start thinking about things the way
an engineer does you never really stop,
even on holiday".
She’s following in her father’s conversational
footsteps. “Now I drive past cuts
in the side of the road where you can
see the earth and I tend to ‘nerd out’,
and think about what geological class
the material is, or note down areas on
long windy drives where the slope faces
aren’t looking very stable.”
It took Katrina a while to decide what
she would do for a career, having taken
a range of papers at school, including
agriculture, history and geography as
well as the maths and the sciences.
“But after talking to my father and
grandfather and doing more research
on career options, as well as several
holiday stints at the civil engineering
company my dad worked for, I decided
on engineering.”
She initially took papers in construction
management, environmental
engineering, geomechanics and
transport, then had an interview for an
internship with consultants, WSP Opus.
She was booked for an interview with
the transport, geotechnical and environmental
teams but as it turned out
only the geotechnical team leader was
available.
"This led me to work with the geotechnical
team for my first summer
internship and I absolutely loved it,
there’s just something about being able
to combine design work with getting
out on site and getting your hands
dirty!”
What makes the role of the civil
engineer today different to that of her
grandfather’s day? Lots more women,
she says.
“My grandfather didn’t have any
females in his class and my Dad had
around 10-15%.” (Her father’s 1995
class photo confirms that only seven
out of a class of 71 were women.)
A lot of the basic theory has been
consistent between what she, her father
and grandfather learned at university,
she says, although the priorities have
shifted.
“While technology and software developments
are coming along quickly
to make our lives easier, we’re now
facing the issue of sustainable designs
that will last longer and are able to
withstand natural disasters. Adapting
the engineering we know to meet the
changes in technology and urbanisation,
especially here in Auckland, is a
priority for the industry.”
Allen Browne says why both children
have gone into Engineering is a mystery.
“But it’s cool to have both the kids
working through the buildings where
I’ve spent a lot of time.”
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