Two engineering students from the University of Technology Sydney are working to bring engineering skills to disadvantaged and girls’ schools in Sydney. Samithy Heng and Intisarul Hoque took part in the UTS Regioneering trip from July 25-29. The Engineers Without Borders (EWB) initiative ran over the course of a week, reaching five schools and 500 students.
The aim of the trip, which was funded by a Google grant to EWB, was to target schools that typically don’t have the capacity to transport their students to UTS for workshops. “In talks with Engineers Without Borders, I found out there was a Google grant if we were able to go to low socio economic schools around the Western Sydney region. This was perfect as all of the schools Inti and I wanted to target were in that region,” Heng said.
The pair also wanted to target female students, with the aim of turning the perception of engineering being a male orientated industry on its head by having female university students talk about their experience as an engineer.
“If they have the options and they can make a decision based off that, I think that’s when you’ll see that we will get more equality. Right now they don’t have all the options. They don't know what all of these things are, and that’s what we’re trying to address,” Hoque said.
A range of High School Outreach (HSO) workshops were held to engage students and stimulate their interest in undertaking STEM studies.
The pair spent months planning the trip and visited Ambarvale, Ashcroft, Liverpool Girls, Burwood Girls and Plumpton high schools, with a total of 12 volunteers, two of them from the University of New South Wales, taking part.
Three humanitarian issues were addressed, including renewable energy in Victoria and sustainable floating housing in Cambodia.
In the floating houses module, the students were given a variety of materials, such as foam cups, balloons and cardboard, as well as $40 to buy more materials.
“Foam cups are a very simple way to create a house, and it’s always very effective, but I think the most exciting ones are always the one that incorporate balloons,” Hoque said.
“Obviously there’s great buoyancy with balloons. It can be disastrous if it’s not balanced properly and all the marbles, which represent humans, fall into the water, but a lot of the time the balloon ones do take the top prize. The things they come up with is pretty amazing.”
The final module looked at prosthetic limbs specific to the Vietnam War and 12 communities in Laos, using materials such as forks, string and rubber bands to perform a variety of functions.
“The stuff they come up with – it’s not what you might expect from high school students, and it really goes to show that if you give them the opportunity, you can create real potential,” Hoque said.
One creation incorporated an antibacterial medical glove. The students blew it up, fit some sponges inside and ran wire from each of the fingers down through a tube. When the wires were pulled, the fingers of the glove curled in.
“It was very effective at not only grabbing a ball but giving a solid high five, which is what I always look for when we’re judging the modules,” Hoque said.
These creative approaches could be put down to the fact that students approached tasks differently because they were new to engineering, according to Heng and Hoque.
“They use the materials very intuitively and in exciting new ways that we might not think of because they have that fresh outlook,” Hoque said.
“I might think, ‘Oh, if I want a pincer then I need this many limbs; I need this many spoons,’ but they just grab things. It’s fun to see – they grab as many items as they can and they stick it together.
“In the end, because they’re working with what they have and they understand the end goal, they create these hands that none of us, I don't think, would be able to accomplish.”
Future workshops
Heng initially became involved in the EWB initiative when he saw other universities running Regioneering trips.
“I’m still a student so I guess the impact that I can make is very, very limited at the moment,” he said.
“The thing that I can do is share my passion for engineering, and if I’m able to go out to these schools and promote how helpful engineering can be, that’s the biggest part I can play at this stage. I'll continue to do that until I can actually contribute more.”
The pair are now looking to run another Regioneering trip in the summer.
“One of the things that really was a take away from the trip was just how much the students got out of it and how excited they were, and how much we felt that we were actually contributing,” Hoque said.
“We were making a difference to the students that we reached, and that was really amazing for me. To be able to do that was a great experience and I hope that we can continue it.”