The University of Sydney has once again hosted the annual Indigenous Australian Engineering Summer School, which gives aspiring engineers a head-start.
Engineering Aid Australia established the program in 1998, and the Indigenous Australian Engineering Summer School is conducted by Australian universities with engineering faculties. It is fully sponsored, with all activities, accommodation, flights and meals covered by Engineering Aid Australia and the host university.
The IAESS is designed to introduce Indigenous high school students to engineering, encourage them to think about engineering as a possible career, and address the under-representation of Indigenous graduates in the profession.
Previous attendees have stayed in touch with their peers, and also made use of the opportunity to try out what university life would be like.
The universities share the hosting of the program, and the University of Sydney has been taking the helm for the past five years.
The 2016 iteration of the Summer School, which spanned 10 to 16 January 2016, was attended by 20 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students entering Years 11 and 12.
As part of the program, the Indigenous Australian engineering students can take the opportunity to experience different types of engineering careers available, meet Indigenous students from other parts of Australia, and visit private and public engineering companies.
This year's Summer School students includes Zephy Martin, a student at Cape York’s Djarragun College. The 15-year-old is completing a Certificate II Engineering Pathways at his high school in northern Queensland, and has expressed a love for the progressive logic of maths. The Summer School also represents the first time he has left Cairns.
"When I was a small boy I was more interested in how a toy worked than actually just playing with it. Taking it apart and putting it back together," Martin said. "Having an opportunity to visit engineering labs and talk with engineers is fantastic."
Another participant is 16-year-old Gladys Hughes, who attends St Monica's College, also from the Cape York region.
"I love maths and I love solving problems. Engineering is a career that requires you to solve problems of real life situations and improve the world we live in," she said.
The annual IAESS program provides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high school students from across the country with an insight into the extensive career choices available to engineering graduates. This year's program will also be full of practical activities, including one where students create synthetic skull bone using 3D printers in the University of Sydney's Faculty of Engineering’s Implant Design and Manufacture laboratory.
Student attendees will take part in hands-on activities including biomedical 3D printing and robotics programming and coding.
[Image: David Lawrey]