National President of Engineers Australia Professor Doug Hargreaves visited Rockhampton this week to present a challenge - how does Australia stretch its capacity to cope with the 35 million people expected in the population by 2050.

The distinguished visitor addressed 60 participants, stressing that a larger population will demand increases in power, water, food and infrastructure, stretching the innovative capacity of the engineering profession.

CQUniversity's Ashfaque Chowdhury and Dr Mohammad Rasul met up with Doug Hargreaves (centre) before the presentation this week. "So the question becomes how do we (Engineers Australia, who have a policy on sustainability) conceptualise, design, implement and operate new ways of life in a sustainable manner?" he asked.

Professor Hargreaves presented his views on how engineers' contribution is vital to the debate on Australia's growing population.

Since becoming Head of  the School of Engineering Systems at Queensland University of Technology, Professor Hargreaves has developed and implemented a model of leadership that is referred to as Values Driven Leadership.

He is a mechanical engineer who has published over 100 refereed papers on tribology (friction, wear and lubrication) and in excess of 30 papers on engineering education.