The mission of the Study Tour was to enhance our students’ outlook on the engineering profession. Our students were presented with a good opportunity to witness various fields of engineering in action and in their interaction. Due to financial and organizational constraints, the tour group was limited to 20 engineering students who were in their penultimate year of studies. Competition for a place was understandably fierce. All the students selected for the tour are among the top group in their respective engineering disciplines and most of them have received awards, scholarships or prizes for their academic performance.

The tour started off with a visit to the F/A 18 fighter jet production facility of Northrop Grumman Corporation in Los Angeles. This was followed by further visits to the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaeveral, Florida. Our group was privileged to be escorted round the facilities by eminent engineers in NASA. We were even allowed to get under the launch pad where the shuttle Discovery was due to be launched shortly. Visit to the coastal Engineering Department of the University of Florida highlighted the close working relationship of that department with our own Centre for Water Research.

Visits to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. provided another dimension to the tour which relates more to the history and development of sciences and technology as well as all the humanity aspects of our modern society. A tour of Millenium Pharmceuticals in Boston provided our students with another view of the fast growing area of biotechnology.

After visiting Harvard University and M.I.T. in Boston, our group left U.S.A. for London. One of the 1992 Gledden Tour students (I happened to be the tour leader as well), Dr. Eu-Jin Ang, is now an Associate Director in the London Office of Warburg Dillon Read. He gave our students an insight into the important roles the engineers play in the commercial world of finance.

The formal tour in England included visits to Westland Helicopters, Thames Barrier Project and the Engineering Department of Cambridge University.

The tour, though exhausting in many ways, never ceased to be enjoyable. Students also had free time to enjoy and appreciate the contribution of advanced technology in the recreational and entertainment industry such as Disney World and Universal Studio, as well as all different cultural events in various cities where we stayed.

The relevance and significance of the Gledden Study Tour was also recognised by the Agent General of Western Australian Government who gave our group a warm reception in the Australian House in London.

Further details of each site visit are presented in the students’ reports on the web page :

http://w3.mech.uwa.edu.au/kamy

As a concluding remark to the 1999 Gledden Study tour, I would like to quote Peter Munro’s (one of the participating student) comments which reflects the general feeling of the group:

"The Gledden tour is more than a study tour. It is an experience with so many benefits and one that I will never forget. An event such as this builds tradition and camaraderie amongst students. The importance of the Gledden tour cannot be understated."