Undergraduate engineers Maron Al Abbo Kasha, Bart Dickman and Justin Gleeson have been working for CS Energy over the summer period, gaining practical experience and a better understanding of career pathways in their chosen fields.
Each year CS Energy hosts undergraduates as part of our commitment to develop the next generation of the energy industry.
We source undergraduates from a number of places including our scholarship program, advertising, partnerships with universities and our partnership with CareerSeekers, a not for profit organisation that works with companies to provide work for refugees and asylum seekers.
Learn more about the students below.
Maron Al Abbo Kasha
Maron is studying a Bachelor of Information Technology (Computer Science) and a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer and Software System) at QUT. He is working in CS Energy’s ICT team in the Brisbane office.
Why did you decide to apply for a summer undergraduate role at CS Energy?
I was introduced to CS Energy by the CareerSeekers program which help students from a refugee background to kick-start their career.
I am originally from Iraq and arrived in Australia in 2016. When I first arrived, I faced a lot of challenges. My dream was to study in university and I knew I needed to learn English and repeat year 11 and 12 (even though I had completed them in Iraq) in order to achieve this.
What sort of things have you been working on during your placement?
I started about a month after the ransomware attack on CS Energy in November 2021. It was really interesting to learn first-hand about business cyber security and get involved in the systems restoration process.
It’s been useful learning how to work in a professional office environment – seeing how meetings are run and how people interact.
How was it been working remotely during the Omicron wave?
It was fine as I received plenty of help and support from the team. There are regular chat times as a team to ensure we stay connected.
What are your career aspirations?
In the next five years my aim is to graduate from university and then start my career as a development engineer. Gaining work experience is essential to achieve this goal so this placement with CS Energy has been very helpful.
Bart dickman
Bart is studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) and a Bachelor of Business Management (Business Economics) at UQ.
This is his third summer working at CS Energy over the university holidays. Originally from Chinchilla, Bart is one of our engineering scholarship recipients.
The scholarship program is targeted at school leavers in the local communities near our power stations and provides four weeks work experience each year and financial assistance.
After working at Callide and Kogan Creek power stations during his previous placements, this summer Bart is working at CS Energy’s Brisbane Office.
What have you worked on so far during your summer placement?
A wide range of things. I started the placement trying to a get a better understanding of plant fundamentals at Callide and Kogan power stations. Since then I’ve been given various tasks to work on within engineering and process safety.
For example, I analysed Callide C fabric filter bag data, updated plant feasibility requests and chased some materials quotes for a cooling tower temporary modification. Justin and I also worked together to model deflection in the yoke tables of coal mills to predict the potential failure of some major internal components.
I’m currently helping build an Excel worksheet that registers various plant categories across our sites. It’s been valuable putting my theoretical knowledge into practice on real-life situations and being exposed to the workplace environment for an engineer at CS Energy.
What are your career aspirations?
Initially, I’d like to find a job in a company like CS Energy so that I can expose myself to the many pieces of equipment that energy producing companies have to work with and from this upskill myself for later in my career. Further down the track, I’d like to start my own business and support regional communities with engineering services.
Justin Gleeson
Justin is studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) at UQ. Like Bart, Justin is also from Chinchilla and is one of our engineering scholarship recipients.
Tell us about your experience in CS Energy’s summer undergraduate program?
This is my third year doing a summer internship with CS Energy. Each placement has provided me with something different, which has been great. In the first year I worked with the maintenance team, in the second I was placed with the engineering team and worked on the design and CAD drawings of a turbine platform.
This summer I am in the Brisbane Office and have worked on multiple jobs. Bart and I worked together on a deflection analysis of a yoke table in one of the Callide B coal mills. It has been very interesting yet challenging at the same time.
What are your career aspirations?
To graduate as soon as possible, hopefully travelling sometime in the near future and working overseas as an engineer.