NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013
Young Professionals Exchange Programme (YPEP) 2013
-Everlasting Friendship of CA and AJCEKeiichi KANAI
Chair, Professional Development Promotion Sub-Committee, AJCECTI Engineering Co., Ltd

Last October, seven young engineers selected from
AJCE member firms flew to Australia to participate
in Young Professionals Exchange Programme(YPEP), which has a long history of exchanging
young talented consulting engineers between
Australia and Japan.
YPEP was established in 1996 according to theMemorandum of Understanding by AJCE and
ACEA (present Consult Australia) to promote good
relationship and friendship between Japanese andAustralian young consulting engineers, in view ofpossible future collaboration among participating
firms. In the past 18 years, more than 130 young
engineers from Australia, New Zealand and Japanattended this programme, and it has been
attracting attention of other organizations like
FIDIC, as a good example of successful overseas
training program.
In 2013, 7 Japanese young engineers from 7 AJCE
member firms visited 7 Australian consulting firms in
4 cities. They stayed and worked for three weeks at
the host firms which were assigned to themaccording to their technical background andinterest. Although the on-site training in Australia isonly for 3 weeks, the entire program is designed fora 6 months period, including "Pre-visit Dialogue",
which requires trainees to communicate with hostfirms' personnel for several months beforehand on avariety of issues; technical, cultural or personal. The"Pre-visit Dialogue" helps the participants tounderstand each other well in advance and thus
enables them to start the on-site training muchsmoother.
In the post-training conference, which was held forthe 7 trainees to share their experiences with AJCE's
other young engineers, they reported that they had
had very stimulating and fruitful 3weeks, full oftechnical exchanges, discussions, site-visits,
seminars and entertainments after work, of course.
They also reported that they were really impressedby the dissimilar work environment and excellent
work-life balance.
I hope that all 7 young engineers will continue todevelop their capacities further, capitalizing on the

precious experiences, and maintain the network
built with the Australian engineers, which will betheir valuable asset in the future. I also expect themto return their home companies' investment with
their future contribution to the companies in any
possible way.
This year AJCE and its member firms will be hosting
Australian young professionals in October. I haveno doubt that this year's program will be anotherbig success and add a new page to YPEP's long
outstanding history. In order to maintain a solid
friendship between CA and AJCE, I ask member
firms, especially those which sent trainees last year,
to participate in YPEP again as a host firm.

21NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Report - Opening my eyes Masashi FUKAYAYPEP2013 Trainee
Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

4. Life in Brisbane"Don't waste your sunshine!" That is the words mycolleague expressed when I was working till late in
the evening. The words hit my heart and made myeyes open to recognize the difference of life-value
between Australia and Japan.

This is the report of YPEP 2013, which has held from14th Oct. to 1st Nov. mainly at URS Brisbane office.
It has given me a great opportunity andexperience after which it opened my eyes widely
and touched my heart deeply.
1. Overview
I have stayed at Brisbane for 18 days and had
training at URS Brisbane. URS is one of the leading
firms of engineering consultants, which has 56
thousand employees over 50 countries.
Brisbane has 200million population and is very
comfortable for living. It has good weather,beautiful close-by beach, compact urban function,
useful public transportation, and environmental
friendliness.
2. Office WorkAt URS Brisbane office, I have learned railway
engineering and structural engineering such as 1)
railway alignment planning, 2) railway standards
and guidelines in Queensland, and 3) making
spread sheet of structural calculation. I foundQueensland has some unique standards andguidelines like existing of cant committee.
3. Site Visit
I visited five sites; Brisbane Port, Ipswich Motorway,
Roma Street Station, Legacy Way, and Gold Coast
LRT.

With friends @ Consult Australia Event

In weekdays, besides working in the office, I had
fun chatting and drinking with friends. In weekends,
I enjoyed many activities with them such as Surfing,
Trapeze, Football, Dolphin feeding, and whale
watching. Those activities have surely helped meunderstand the value of life in Australia.
5. The Fruits
Everything carried out in this program became
valuable experience and will be reflected in my life
in future. Especially, the social network with friends
and colleagues was most precious time. I feel that
we could establish sound trust through deep
communication in spite of short training period.

Construction Site of Gold Coast LRTGold Coast LRT was challenging project which will
be first LRT /Tram project in Queens land. It has 16
stations and 52 intersections in 13km length ofalignment. I think demand management andsafety operation would become key factors for
success in this project.

With Zisis (My mentor) @ Sydney

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to AJCE,
Consult Australia, URS Brisbane, and Nippon Koei for
helping my participation in this valuable program.

22

NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Report
Shuji IMURAYPEP2013 Trainee
P.T.MORIMURA & ASSOCIATES, LTD.

1. Introduction
I often think about how we can let people knowwhat engineers do. As the basis for responding tothis challenge, young engineers need soundexperience in capacity building. YPEP provided mea precious chance to meet with overseas
engineers through which I tried to get some tips on
the challenge mentioned above
2. Pre-visit Training
I started from studying the basic concept of "Green
Building" in various countries. By definition, it means
the building that is sustainable in environmental,social and economical standpoint including
resource efficiency throughout its life-cycle. I
noticed that there are some other interesting
definitions besides this, relating to workplace
productivity and health (UK), or designed toharmonize with the local climate, traditions, culture
and the surrounding environment (JP).
3. Host Company
My host firm, Norman Disney & Young (NDY) is a
global company based in Australia which has
branch offices in 5 countries around the world. As
the business contents of NDY resemble with mycompany, I was confident in pursuing training
program.
At beginning, I was invited to the award ceremonythat commends the best engineers of the year. I
felt it enhances communication between branch
offices around the world and greatly motivates
engineers.

4. Training
I had training in Sydney branch office and the
Melbourne head office.
The Barangaroo Project, the largest in Australia isprogressing. I had a chance to discuss about the
project with the mechanical engineers and otherengineers in charge and saw many design
drawings.

Picture2 Architectural visualization of Barangaroo Project

I had chances of presenting Green Buildings inJapan. It was beneficial as we could discuss various
related subjects. It was interesting to know thatmost of the questions were on the systems for thesurrounding environment.

Picture3 Presentation at Melbourne office

5. Conclusion
Many young engineers in NDY lively discuss withmanagers who are similar to my age. It seems thatthey work efficiently in good teamwork based ontechnical knowledge and competence in eachsection.
I would like to enhance working environment by
sharing my experiences with my colleagues.

Picture1 Ian Hopkins CEO giving a speech

23NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Report
Riota ADACHIYPEP2013 Trainee
Nihon Suido Consultants Co., Ltd.

I'm going to introduce this unforgettable andwonderful three weeks I had in Costin Roe
Consulting Pty., Ltd., Sydney.

The biggest difference from Japan in regards todesign concept was seemingly how to incorporate
the impact of earthquakes into structural design. As
you can imagine, the regulation on that factor is
not vey strict in many parts of Australia. Apart fromplanned training program, I started learning thebasics of structural design by myself with atextbook. It was, I thought, a good way to learnsomething if you could combine "on the desk" and"reality."

1. Program details
Costin Roe Consulting Pty.,Ltd. is a consulting andengineering company which has been engaged invarious projects on structural, civil and remedialengineering since 1989.
For I'd been working in planning division for watersupply systems back in Japan, there was a bit ofuncertainty about what I could take from different
discipline. However, my experience in Sydneyturned out pretty meaningful and broadened theperspective of my own job in Japan, too.

3. Weekend activities
Let me put it that I had amazing weekends thanks
to my mentor, Mark. We, his family, his schoolmates
and their families all came to a summerhouse near
the Boomerang beach, spending laid-back timewith surfing, eating and of course, drinking. I'd say,that was the most relaxing weekend I'd ever had
since I started working. Mark and his family kindly letme stay at their home on the last day of theweekend. In both situations Australian friendlinessand hospitality really made me feel that I was apart of them, which was just a great feeling.

2. Training contents
What they offered were a bit of deskwork and aplenty of site visits. Costin Roe's projects really varyin terms of their scale and contents, ranging fromsmall inspection to designing of a huge warehouse,
which was a bit surprising to me. I wanted to findout a trick to manage a couple of hundreds ofprojects with 30 something people. My guess is that
it is partly due to the work efficiency (in Japan
many times we are demanded to make somethingwhich really does not seem necessary),
appropriate allocation of workforces and proper
project management.
Getting back to site
visit topic, inspection
and remedial works
were interesting inthe sense that I
could see how close
the works were topeople's life. On theother hand, visiting
Rooftop inspection
huge buildings wasjust astonishing and I was overwhelmed by its scale,as well as it was intellectually interesting to see how
the structures were set up to make the building
strong enough towards internal and external forces.

I have a lot more to express and transfer, but I'mgoing to wrap up showing my sincere gratitude toMark, Maria, everyone in Costin Roe, CA, AJCE andmy bosses and co-workers in my company formaking my stay wonderful and memorable one.

With a great "company"

24NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Report
Hirofumi KANEKOYPEP 2013 Trainee
CTI Engineering Co., Ltd.

1. Introduction
I visited Brisbane and Sydney in Australia as YPEP(Young Professionals Exchange Program) trainee
from 13th OCT to 3rd NOV 2013. In this report, I will
present about my training, life in Australia,difference between Australia and Japan.

3. Site Visit
I went to Helidon and Withcott to examine flood
damage. It was so impressive for me because I
didn't have the image about Australiancountryside. There are many creeks which are all
too small for floods to flow downstream. I thought itwould be possible to prevent flood damage byintroducing measures used in Japan. But it will not
be simple as it costs more and people in thesubject area are not many. Despite of large land inAustralia, population is not sufficient, countryside inparticular. So it's difficult to make countryside safety
due to budgetary constraint.

2. Work in Brisbane
My host firm was AECOM, and my mentors were
Samantha and Claire, YPEP 2012 trainee. I was
assigned to Water Infrastructure group as mydiscipline is mainly in river engineering.
(1) Safety induction
On the first day in Brisbane office, I learned
safety at construction site such as BLUDOG
TRAINING.
(2) River Engineering
I read reports about flood in Australia and feltthat the difference between Australia andJapan is only software and visual aspect ofreport. (Report looks very nice in Australia.)(3) Coastal Engineering
I calculated new beach line angle by using
CERC formula to prevent from beach fromflowing out of sand and changing beachalignment.

3. Life in Brisbane
I had many activities in Brisbane such as puddle
boarding, BBQ, leaser skirmish, surfing at Gold
Coast, etc. I was surprised to see their vitality andability to enjoy life. I think we Japanese are still in
the path of reaching similar life-style. It may takesome time before we really enjoy.
4. Summary
I had great experience both in work and activity.
Thanks to AECOM, CTIE, CA, AJCE and Samantha
and mentor for providing me with an excellent
opportunity.

Fig1. Site Visit

Fig2. Puddle Boarding on Brisbane Riv

25

NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Report
Hirotsune FUKUZUMIYPEP2013 Trainee
CHODAI CO.,LTD.

1. Introduction
I had the opportunity of training at MLEI in Adelaidecity for about 3 weeks in October 2013.This is a reporton the pre-training and visit-training.
2. Pre-training
During three months before visiting Australia, I
exchanged dialogue with my mentor, Nic, MLEI
through e-mail on self-introduction, hotel
accommodation, training schedule and training
program, etc.
3. Visit-Training
3.1 Host Company
My host company, MLEI is a consulting engineering
firm that specializes in civil and structural design. It
was established 4 years ago in Adelaide. Despite ofrather a small number of staffs, many of them arecompetent and experienced.
Major projects locate in South Australia.
3.2 Working Style
Though standard working hours are from 9:00 to
17:00, it is not fixed and can be changed according
to own working style.
They consider time to spend with a family andfriends is important, therefore they do not workovertime unless it is unavoidable.
They were very friendly as if I was their family
member. At tea time, they enjoy talking andexchange opinions in office's kitchen, so they werevery relaxed.

construction in a city. In the process of calculationand drawing check, I referred to the drawings ofroad plan, drainage plan, and pavement
specifications of an industrial complex. Further, I
visited some construction sites and participated inmeeting with client. In addition, I visited South Road
Super Way which is one of the biggest projects inSouth Australia. That client is government of South
Australia.

Photo2 - Project of MLEI , Liebherr Para Hills

4. Life in Adelaide
In the first weekend, I had sightseeing to Adelaidezoo, national parks, etc. in Adelaide. In the second
weekend, I enjoyed drinking wine at famous winery
in Barossa Valley and BBQ with Mentor's family.
I felt as if the time in Adelaide was progressing slowly.

Photo3 - Team MLEI
Photo1- kitchen in the office

5. Acknowledgement
I would like to extend my thanks to Nic, Thomas,
MLEI, CA , AJCE, Chodai and my family for giving me
a precious opportunity.

3.3 Work Experience
In the training, I conducted design calculation anddrawing check of the floor of a hotel under

26

NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Report
Saori TAKAGIYPEP2013 Trainee
KOKUSAI KOGYO CO., LTD.

1. Introduction
I had one of the most unforgettable and amazing
experience in my career through 3 weeks of YPEP
2013. It was the first time for us, Kokusai Kogyo to join
this program; however I could bring back excellent
outcome and share those experiences withcolleagues.

contract and specification documents.
② Second week-Civil
I learned about how the cycleways planned in
Sydney city and went to site inspection.
③ Third week-Sustainability and Mechanical
I had a chance to exchange a view ofsustainable policy making between Australia andJapan. Also I learned about sustainability rating
tools; Infrastructure Sustainability, and Green Star.

2. My experience in training
2.1 Host Company
My host company was Northrop Consulting
Engineers Pty Ltd, Sydney office. Northrop is one of a
reputable engineering consultancy in structural andcivil engineering and has a few local offices along
the east coast of Australia. Sydney office has around70 professional engineers (many are CEng) in many
areas.

3. Differences in working environment
Working experience at Northrop helped me tounderstand there are many different perspectives todeal working life as well as private life. There is adiversity of nationalities which encourage people tocommunicate more. And also the management
systems are functioning effectively that makes
everyone's role clear and standardizes skills. I reallyenjoyed and the optimistic atmosphere at office
and impressed with work-life balance which
reasonably blended in their life style.
4. Acknowledgement
I would like to thank everyone at Northrop, CA and
AJCE who provided and supported me to gain thiswonderful experience. Also special thanks to mycolleagues at Kokusai Kogyo who kindly let me join
this program. I hope this program will continue andmany young professionals would have opportunity inthe future.

Northrop main entrance

2.2 Pre-visit Training
Rodney Pratt was my training mentor who is a seniorstructural engineer and one of the group managersof the section. For pre-visit training, we discuss what I
am intending to learn during the training. And Rodplanned for me to rotate several sections andhaving few interviews with people who are all in
different positions and sections.
2.3 Training at Northrop
I had training at structural, civil, sustainability andmechanical sections and had two presentations on
my area of expertise.
① First week-Structural
I followed few inspections at site, and learned
about how the projects work through reading

My mentor and colleagues at Northrop

27

NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Report
Atsushi MASUDAYPEP2013 Trainee
Oriental Consultants Co., Ltd.

1. INTRODUCTION
I was pleased to join as a trainee for YPEP2013 inwhich my 3 weeks training in Australia covered theperiod from 14th Oct. to 2nd Nov., 2013.
2. OUTLINE OF AURECON
I had training at AURECON Brisbane office.
AURECON has offices around the world having a
total number of 7,000 or more employees. Its
business contents cover technology related
discipline in architecture and civil engineering. For
example, AURECON provides technologies in lowcarbon energy generation, power, and homeland
security. Though I could not see their business
contents when I started training, I was impressed byhomeland security department as it does not exist
in consulting firms in Japan.

Photo 3-1 Checking the construction site

4. DIFFERENCE IN THE WAY OF THINKING BETWEENJAPAN AND AUSTRALIA
There are many projects that span for several years
most of which are selected basically by technicalproposals. In addition, it was noted that consulting
fee is very high which reflects high standing of
consulting engineers in Australia.
Good work-life balance has been practiced inAustralia. This may be attributable to the fact that
culture of considering private life as the prime
importance is widespread. I could not findsomeone who worked overtime till late at night.
In addition, career change has been widelypracticed. Many engineers change jobs between
consulting firms and government or among
consulting firms for improving their career. It wasobserved that employers are seeking engineers
having high competence and experiences.

Photo 2-1 Office

5. LIFE IN AUSTRALIA
I commuted to the office from apartment nearby.
Staffs in AURECON took me drinks almost everyday.
My mentor Rob took me to various places including
holidays. As such, I was able to spend fruitfulweekends.

3. TRAINING AT AURECONAt the beginning of training, AURECON's in-housesystem was explained. I could visit various projectsites in QLD, studied reports and standards, andconducted traffic simulation by the model
developed by AURECON. Traffic simulation is my
specialty.

6. IN CONCLUSION
I would like to thank AJCE, CA, AURECON, Oriental
Consultants for their kind support.

28

NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP 2013 Activities in Sydney
Riota ADACHIAtsuhi MASUDA

1. Welcome ceremony
On 14th Oct., Welcome ceremony for YPEP 2013trainees took place at the AECOM office (with agreat view of Sydney!). After a short time for ice
breaking, the ceremony was kick-started withwelcome greeting by Ms. Megan from Consult
Australia, followed by the statement of"commitment" by all the mentors and trainees.
It seemed like everyone had his/her own
expectation and ambition toward the program. As
the ceremony proceeded, a little nervous faces ofJapanese engineers were gradually being melted
in the casual and relaxing atmosphere, which I
think was derived from Australian friendliness.
After lunch, we departed for Sydney tour.

3. Final summit & farewell party
After three weeks, we gathered again. In the final
summit, we were at first asked to give a briefsummary of our experience. All of us, of course,
had different outcomes from the program anddifferent perspectives about what should be donein the future. However, there certainly was one
thing we had in common, such that we all had
been having great and meaningful moments inAustralia.
The summit went on and we discussed several
topics on Australia and Japan (as shown in theother article).
After deepening mutual understanding a bit morethrough the discussion, we headed to again,
exploring the rest part of Sydney must-sees.
The view from Sydney Tower-Eye was astonishing(that's because, we didn't expect a giant koala
would climb it!). The architecture of Sydney Opera
House has been anyway so interesting if you're anengineer. The choice of the steakhouse as the lastdinner place seemed to be also nice and wellorganized. By that time, partly thanks to "social
grease," the talks between us were getting more
and more active.
The finishing place of our "summit" was the bar in
downtown. As for this sort of matter, I didn't find any
significant difference between Australian andJapanese engineers.
Lastly, thank you very much for your hospitality &organizing enjoyable events in Australia.
(Dear CA, from YPEP 2013 trainees)

Sydney Wildlife Zoo

2. Darling harbor, Sydney Wildlife Zoo and Departure
Enjoying a pleasant walk through Darling harbor,
we entered the "Zoo in downtown," where we saw
various reptiles, mammals and bugs squeezed into
small but efficient display. The most featured onewas "the world largest crocodile," being actually
pretty huge, but apparently it preferred sunbathing
to any customer-services (It didn't move even aninch as long as I reckoned). Anyway on the very
first day, we've done pretty much of Australian stuff
such as seeing kangaroos, wombats and koalas,
thanks to this wildlife zoo!
Then the time for departure had come, splitting us
to each location to be mentored in.

Huge Koala! and Sydney Tower-Eye

29NEWS LETTER 2014

AJCE Activity 2013

YPEP2013 Farewell Summit REPORT
Masashi Fukaya
Shuji Imura

1. Outline of Farewell Summit
All trainees and mentors talked for 2-3 minutes
about YPEP2013 in general, their favorite
experience and something to take back to Japan
from Australia.
We had a group discussion about values of YPEP,
and each group presented the outcomes out ofthe discussion.
2. Free conversation
Mentors talked about their impression about
trainees. Trainees conveyed their gratitude to
mentors, host firms and Consultant Australia who
took care of them.
Mentors talked directly about trainees' engineeringskills and this was very helpful.

Picture2 Group discussion[Values of YPEP]- Networks development meant professionals canshare IP / experiences.
- Motivational and rewarding experience for thewhole office.
- Learning about other workplaces can make you
aspire to adopt practices and methods which
benefit productivity and staff happiness.
4. Finally
We presented a picture frame made of cypress by
Japanese craftsman and a collection photographsof Mount Fuji, as souvenirs from Association ofJapanese Consulting Engineers to the Consultant
Australia.

Picture1 Wayne Costin CEO (Costin Roe Consulting) giving
comment on free conversation

3. Group discussion
We mainly covered our thoughts on YPEP. It is
important not only for trainees and mentors but
also for each company.
[Difference between firms- Office space- Working hours and mindset- Sharing of responsibility (or lack thereof)- Importance of age vs. merit[Similarities between firms]- Professionalism- Environmentally friendly- Organizations project management- Business ethics

Picture3 Takagi-san (KOKUSAI KOGYO) was handing Gillian(Consultant Australia) a Japanese souvenir.

Thanks to everyone, especially mentors who spentso much time with each trainee. We had very
happy times dining and drinking after work, as wellas sightseeing on days off.

30