Graduation 2020: Barrie Titulaer

From a young age Barrie Titulaer was interested in the nature of things; how objects work; how they interact; and the hidden theory behind their construction.

The UNSW Canberra Civil Engineering graduate’s lifetime of wonder has been rewarded with a role in Australia’s largest renewable energy project Snowy 2.0.

“As a graduate engineer with Snowy Hydro in Cooma I get to apply what I learnt from my Civil Engineering Degree at UNSW Canberra,” Barrie said.

“The strength of the program is the emphasis on both the underlying theory and the practical civil design. It provided me with a broad scope across all areas of civil engineering and problem solving.”

Barrie believes that a major strength of the degree is also the application of foundation principles to specific civil engineering projects. 

“The opportunity to work as a team on a capstone civil design project, designing all facets of a construction project just as you would as a consulting engineer, gave me real world experiences that theory alone cannot offer,” Barrie said.

Looking back on his time at UNSW Canberra, Barrie said that the opportunity to learn in the University’s unique defence environment was one of the highlights.

“Studying alongside those in uniform provided me with an excellent insight into the military world and military engineering. It is not an opportunity which most people in a university would have the ability to get. It really rounded out the experience,” Barrie said.

“I’d highly recommend UNSW Canberra due to the personal learning experience and great exposure throughout. Saying that, be prepared to work hard to get what you strive for.”

Barrie joins more than 300 other students graduating from UNSW Canberra across various ceremonies over the next week.