SGHS Engineering & IT Outreach Day

Last Monday 13th December, the Women in Engineering and Information Technology Program and the Faculty hosted the final outreach event of 2010. 120 students from Sydney Girls High School attended the day to learn more about engineering and information technology (IT) and gain an insight into what these non-traditional fields have to offer.

It was overall a fantastic and positive day! The program included a brief introductory session, in which current students shared their personal motivations behind their pursuit of a degree and career in engineering and IT, and they also talked about some of the projects and activities that they have been involved with.

The girls also participated in a variety of interactive activities:

• IntelliPaper, developed by the UTS Programmers’ Society – they learnt basic java programming skills to manipulate a game of tic-tac-toe.
• Sustainability Activity, developed by Engineers Without Borders (EWB) – they learnt about the issue of sustainability and sustainable development and its implications in our world today.
• Soil Moisture Probe (SMP), developed by Dr Peter McLean – they each constructed an electronic soil moisture probe, which detects the absence of moisture in the soil.

Special thanks to all the UTS students who volunteered their time and energy to help facilitate the day! Presenters – Alexandra Hipolito, Santi Botross, Louella Yu; IntelliPaper - Tina Ng, Livia Lam, Isabelle Wong; EWB volunteers – Daisy Yuan, Hiep Mai, Janelle Herrera, Krisha Joshi, Oasika Faiz, Andrea Certeza, Brittney Watiwat, Jenny Lui, Jonalhie Domingo, Timothy Howard and Jordan Nguyen; SMP volunteers – Daniel Sachs, Chantal Farrelly, Heather Lowes, Olga Malyugina, Dylan Simmer, Steven Lam, Jean Alvarez, Jashua Ho, William Cruz and Martin Trainer; and also, the WiE&IT Team (Laura Waibel, Theresa Dinh and Karen Belista).

UTS Motorsports

Over the course of four days, from the 9th to the 12th December, UTS Motorsports participated in the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) Competition. It is a competition held in Werribee, an area just outside of the suburban areas of Melbourne. Twenty-five teams competed in four dynamic events, as well as two static events for the title of best overall petrol vehicle. The team from UTS amazed the other competitors as well as the judges this year with the car, nicknamed Alissa, that we produced for the competition. Many team members consistently worked on the car well into the night leading up to the event to ensure that the car was able to run in all the dynamics events. At the same time, the rest of the team spent those days and nights ensuring that everything was prepared for the static events. This combined team effort from everyone allowed us to effectively compete in all the dynamic and static events which earned UTS a final place of 9th. This was a marked improvement on last year and meant that the UTS Motorsports team achieved their goal of a top ten finish.

This result would not have been possible without the strong support of the Vice-Chancellor, Ross Milbourne, the faculty advisors, Terry Brown and Peter Tawadros, as well as the many long hours that every team member has spent completely committed to the car throughout the year.

Lucy Alumnae Networking Event

The Lucy Alumnae Committee recently held an end of year networking event on 6 Dec 2010 from 5:30-7:00pm in the beautiful Governor Macquarie Tower, level 41 with stunning views overlooking Sydney Harbour. All past and present Lucy students and their mentors were invited to attend this panelist event 'Beyond Lucy: Where are you now?' with the Minister for Women, the Hon. Jodi McKay MP addressing the audience as well as previous Lucy participants. Ironically enough, Jodi McKay MP is also the NSW Minister for Science and Medical Research, highly fitting given UTS being the Program Partner for solely female engineering and IT students. Lucy Panelists reflected upon their own journey in the workforce since completing the Lucy Program over the past 5 years at one of the participating Program Partner universities. 

Many thanks to the Alumnae Committee for organising this event and the NSW Government for providing the venue. 

 

SWIEIT Speakers visit - Narara Valley High School 6 Dec

On Monday 6 December Sydney Women in Engineering & IT Speakers, Andrea Certeza, Santi Botross, Amanda Hanna and Tina Ng along with WiE&IT staff member Laura Waibel, headed up to the beautiful Narara Valley on the Central Coast. Thanks to enthusiastic Careers Adviser, Mr Howard Siepen, we were able to speak to all female student in years 9, 10 and 11 about the benefits of engineering and IT and what influenced us into choosing these fields. Here is one of the videos that Civil/Enviromental Engineering student Santi played to the girls to grab their attention. 

 Amanda dazzled the audience with her hi-tech prezi.com presentation, putting Microsoft Powerpoint to shame, as well as using terrific images of Burj Khalifa in Dubai and clips of the infamous Tacoma Bridge collapsing. Andrea used clips of geeky Howard Wolowitz (Big Bang Theory) to demonstrate to the schoolgirls her perception of Engineers prior to enrolling in a degree program. Tina stunned the audience by explaining the links between everyday social media in our lives; Twitter, Faccebook, MSN Messenger, iPhone Apps and how all of this is created by programming and code. 

Many thanks to our terrific SWIEIT Speakers and to Narara Valley High for hosting us! This was our final visit for 2010 and we are looking forward to visiting NSW schools again from February 2011 onwards.  

 

RTA NSW Transport Management Centre

On 30 November 2010, 26 UTS students, 1 lecturer and 4 

 WiE&IT staff members all headed off to a site-visit at the Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW Transport Management Centre in Redfern. This terrific opportunity allowed UTS students and staff an insight into the workings of a world-class road management system which remains in operation 24 hrs a day. In fact as it was expressed to us, SCATS -the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System originally developed by the RTA NSW, is such an innovative hi-tech computerised system, that it has been sold to over 100 cities around the world to manage their traffic flow. Countries where SCATS has been introduced include Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, China, Ecuador, Fiji, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, USA and Vietnam.

Many thanks to the RTA NSW for opening up their workplace to the University of Technology, Sydney! We hope to come again in 2011. 

UTS: Alumni Tower Magazine

The most recent edition of the UTS:Alumni Magazine 'Tower', features a terrific four-page spread of 3 successful female engineering graduates and their achievements both in the workplace and in life. All three women are truly inspirational to anyone considering a career in engineering. They highlight the constant need for sustainable practice to move forward within engineering as well as innovative practice. UTS is truly proud of all their achievements and what they will continue to achieve throughout their careers. You may read their individual stories below by clicking on the image. 

Alicia Maynard, Mirvac, Sustainability Manager 

Natasha Connolly, Arup, Senior Sustainability Consultant

Emily Mudge, Bovis Lend Lease, Design Manager