Using engineering and technology to make a difference in healthcare

When Mikyla Peters talks about her work in health technology, the impact is never far from her mind.

Today, Mikyla manages the team responsible for migrating clinical data from legacy hospital systems into a new statewide digital solution for NSW Health. The work supports frontline staff to make informed, critical decisions, and for Mikyla, that connection to real people is what makes the technical challenges worthwhile.

“The data we process represents a real person potentially going through one of the best or worst days of their life,” Mikyla said.

“The work we do in my role supports the front-line staff to make informed, critical decisions. If it makes their job even slightly easier in the midst of this massive digital transformation, then the hours spent debugging code and sanity checking use cases is completely worth it.”

It’s a career path she may not have expected, but one that brings together her technical skills, problem-solving mindset and interest in work that genuinely helps people.

Mikyla's journey began at the University of Newcastle, where she graduated in 2024 with a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering/Computer Systems Engineering.

Throughout her degree, she had opportunities to put her learning into practice, build industry connections and discover where her interests could take her.

One of the biggest influences was joining the University’s NUbots robotics team.

“I joined NUbots during the height of COVID, initially as a way to meet other like-minded students outside of coursework,” Mikyla said.

“It ended up being my first taste of what working in the industry is actually like, complete with defined goals, tight timelines, and cross-functional teamwork.”

Through NUbots, Mikyla was able to apply what she was learning to real-world challenges, work with industry-standard tools and explore the intersection of AI, robotics, software and hardware. The connections she made through the team also helped lead to her first industry role.

One of her university highlights was travelling to Thailand with NUbots to compete in RoboCup, an international robotics competition bringing together universities from around the world.

Working on the hardware side meant troubleshooting problems under pressure and finding creative solutions between matches.

“Running the robots through so many games led to some unique hardware issues which we’d have to troubleshoot on-the-fly with limited time and tooling, which really challenged us to think creatively just to get the robots through to the next match.”

Mikyla also gained industry experience while completing her degree, which she credits with helping prepare her for the transition into her career.

“Working in industry in the latter years of my degree helped me get a grasp early on what it’s like to be an Engineer,” she said.

“I found that once I graduated, having these practical experiences helped me to fast track the ‘graduate’ phase of my career and jump into mid-level roles sooner.”

The analytical and problem-solving skills Mikyla developed through engineering continue to shape how she approaches her work today. She uses SQL in her technical work and says the logical thinking developed through her degree also helps her break down complex problems and communicate clearly with others.

As technology continues to evolve, Mikyla says having strong technical foundations has also helped her adapt.

“While tools like AI seem like massive leaps forward, technology has always built sequentially on what came before it,” she said.

“My CompEng degree has given me a deep understanding of the fundamental building blocks. Having that core understanding always gives me a clear starting point when deconstructing and adopting the next ‘latest and greatest’ innovation.”

Her career has also shown her just how broad the opportunities can be for graduates with engineering and computing skills.

“My time in the industry has shown me just how fluid and open technical career paths actually are,” Mikyla said.

“I regularly meet fellow engineering grads in unexpected non-traditional roles, just as I see colleagues from non-technical backgrounds successfully pivot into tech.”

For students considering a future in engineering or technology, her advice is to stay open to opportunities and make the most of the experiences available while studying.

“Doors open simply because people are eager to help those who are eager to learn,” she said.

“Take the chance to embrace those opportunities as you may never get the same chance again.”

My time in the industry has shown me just how fluid and open technical career paths actually are.