Collabor8 is a new WiE&IT program funded by the Federal Government. The program is targeted towards girls in Years 8 and 9 and involves engaging a cohort of female students from this target group in four activities across the year. These activities are made up of two in-school visits, a day of hands on activities at UTS, and a full day industry tour at Engineering and IT workplaces around Sydney.
The second touch point was recently held at UTS. It involved approximately 360 high school girls from the seven partner schools coming to UTS for a day of hands on engineering and IT activities.
The day began with inspiring speeches about engineering and IT and a welcome from Women in Engineering and IT Program Director, Bronwyn Holland. The feature speaker from the event was Jordan Nguyen, who studied engineering at UTS and has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He currently works on a range of amazing biomedical projects at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which he explained to the students. He’s a keynote speaker at a range of events including TedX and Wired for Wonder.
The student speakers for the event were Ashwini Ranjithabalan, currently completing a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), and Janeda Ong, a Bachelor of IT Student. They both spoke passionately about how they ended up in their respective fields and their experience completing a degree at UTS.
After the speeches, the girls were divided into approximately 15 groups, with each group participating in two engineering activities and two IT activities.
Each activity was run by a trained FEIT Sprout whilst teams of amazing volunteers led around groups of students and helped them with each activity.
The activities ranged from coding their own online games to racing small robots and trying out the UTS Motorsports’ Simulator.
The day was modelled on previous Hands On Days held be UTS Women in Engineering and IT but was one of the biggest such events held to date. The next major Women in
Engineering and IT event will be Hands On Day on the 11th of September.
Schools wanting to be involved with Hands On Day can register here: http://goo.gl/forms/XOm7MXxN3a
To be involved in other outreach activities, email Women in Engineering and IT at wie.it@uts.edu.au