National Youth Science Forum a great success
Each January ANU has significant involvement in the National Youth Science Forum where College students who are moving into Year 12, and who are thinking about a career in science, engineering and technology, come onto Campus for two weeks of activities in science and technology.
by Heather McEwen, Marketing Manager
The ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science increased its support for NYSF in 2007 by presenting one of the NICTA Taskforces, modified for a Year 11 audience, in robotics and bee vision. The College also presented a workshop on bioinformatics to students with an interest in biology.
"I am very pleased that our College has made such a great effort to engage the young scientists and engineers of the future," said Professor John Richards, Dean and Director.
The Centre for the Science and Engineering of Materials (CSEM) in the Department of Engineering created workshops to showcase materials science. In another first, a workshop describing the challenges of wireless communications was also presented to NYSF students. All of these activities joined the ever-popular Mechatronics workshop that has been on offer to NYSF participants for several years.
"These activities always call for a great deal of commitment from our staff and students during a time when many of us are taking our summer break, so it is doubly encouraging when they give up their time to do this," said Professor Richards.
"Of course, I hope that our investment eventually turns into an increase in undergraduates who want to study engineering and IT at ANU. The important thing to remember is that our involvement in activities of this nature are not always quantifiable, but they are still priceless in terms of spreading the word about engineering and technology amongst our youth," he said.
Mr Geoff Burchfield who is the Director of the National Youth Science Forum agreed.
"What we really tried hard to do with Forum students this year was to challenge their preconceptions about what engineers and scientists really do, to open their eyes to the amazing range of opportunities open to them. The diverse and fascinating presentations by members of the College this year went a long way towards showing them exciting new frontiers well beyond their previous imagining."
College volunteers for the National Youth Science Forum and the NICTA Taskforces in 2006/2007 included:
