An Engineering Holiday

"The program allowed me to spend a week in residency with other like-minded students, to visit university campuses across Sydney, and to connect with university students and graduates who are working in industry. Over the course of the week we visited five universities. At Western Sydney University, we were introduced to the field of engineering and given a tour of their brand new industrial design facilities;  at Sydney University we participated in interactive workshops in electrical engineering, tracking planes overhead and building our own antenna systems, and we also toured the brand new engineering building including chemical and biomedical facilities; at UNSW we explored food science and chemical product engineering and made our own motorised houses powered by a solar cell whilst learning about scholarship opportunities; UTS gave us a tour of the engineering campus including the robotics lab where we were able to experiment with the robots they had constructed, and explored the vast 3D printing facilities accessible to all students; and finally, at Macquarie University, we were given the opportunity to experiment with catapults and bridge building from an engineer’s perspective. The underrepresentation of women stood out across all the universities, and many female engineers I spoke to urged more women to pursue this career option. 

"In addition to visiting universities, we were also granted access to the RAAF base at Richmond where we learnt about the role of engineering in the defence force. We explored the equipment they use from engines on aircraft to water filtration systems, and connected with the engineers working on the air base. We also spent an afternoon at ANSTO, Australia’s only nuclear facility, and saw the nuclear reactor and the facility where scientists run experiments on the particles produced to create new medicines and other technologies. Here, we were able to talk with university students completing internships at ANSTO as well as engineers who worked on the reactor daily."

Imogen
Year 12 Student