Student Spotlight | April 2020
Caitlin has career aspirations to work in the waste management industry, focussing on either sewage treatment, contaminated land rehabilitation or large-scale manufacturing waste disposal. Within this field, she is particularly fascinated by the concept of resource recovery, where materials are recovered from waste products and then undergo beneficial re-use. Examples of this include biogas and electricity production from sewage treatment plants, bioethanol generation from agricultural by-products including sugar cane waste, and fertiliser recovery from phosphorous and nitrogen waste streams.
Recently, she completed a 3-month vacation research program working at Queensland Urban Utilities where she had exposure to the project management side of Engineering within Brisbane’s water treatment processes. Caitlin’s role was centred around asset management which is a fundamental platform for operating, maintaining and disposing of large-scale assets in the most cost-effective manner.
Caitlin had plans to study abroad in Semester 2 of this year, at Denmark Technical University in Copenhagen – a city at the frontline of renewable technology. She was hoping to gain insight into Copenhagen’s environmental engineering processes so she can apply it to her research at UQ. Caitlin’s plans have been adjusted, and she is hoping to go in 2021 then returning to commence her Masters of Engineering.