2019 Michelle Tan
RTSA Rail Scholarship Award 2019
THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2019 RTSA RAIL SCHOLARSHIP IS MS. MICHELLE TAN
RTSA is pleased to announce that the 2019 Annual Rail Scholarship has been awarded to Ms. Michelle Tan, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with the Public Transport Authority (PTA)of Western Australia. The Scholarship will assist Michelle with her studies for a Masters degree in Applied Data Analytics at the Australian National University, .
Michelle graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelors Double Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Commerce in 2010, and subsequently spent 8 years in engineering consultancy AECOM working on passenger and freight rail projects in WA, New South Wales and Hong Kong, before moving to the PTA in 2018 to develop her operational railway experience.
As a result of her experience to date, Michelle has recognised the increasing digitisation of the rail sector as well as the value of accurate and timely information for good decision making, and the key role data analytics can play in this. The ANU Masters Degree in Applied Data Analytics aims to provide working professionals with skill sets and knowledge in the fields of data computation, statistics, and social science, which Michelle plans use to develop scientific data driven prioritized actions for rolling stock design, component procurement, and in-house maintenance improvements. Michelle has a long term aspiration to grow PTA’s in-house capability in data analytics across all rail disciplines.
Michelle was a member of both the RTSA WA and National Executive committees for a 6 year period and organised a number of young rail professional events and an undergraduate railway challenge for the Western Australia and New South Wales chapters. She won the RTSA Graduate Engineer Award in 2011 and in addition presented papers at both CORE 2014 and CORE 2016.