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Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
UTS Women in Engineering Alumni Event
It’s a rainy afternoon in Sydney, but the inside of the Powerhouse Museum is warm and alive with music and the smell of good food. Guests were welcomed in front of a giant 1920’s steam train and invited to take a look at the museum's Engineering Excellence Awards technology exhibition. Engineers from around Sydney, UTS alumni and staff were treated to canapés and drinks before presentations began. Themed, "Where have the flowers gone?",
the meeting is an invitation to UTS engineering graduates to reflect on where they are now and share perspectives on the
experience for women in the profession today.
The rate of growth of women in the engineering profession in Australia does not reflect even the small increases in university enrolments since the 1990’s. Reasons for leaving engineering uncovered by successive industry surveys include lack of flexible working conditions, workplace culture, lack of career development and pay inequity. At the same time, women are succeeding in engineering by adapting and by innovating and by finding progressive employers. What prospects are there for change that will better sustain and help retain women to succeed and flourish in their chosen fields and how can we collaborate to see it happen?
This topic was discussed by three panelists: Professor Marian Baird, Drenka Andjelic and Fiona Coe.Professor Marian Baird has been a key policy advisor to government in the development of new legislation – Paid Parental Leave, Fair Work and the proposed Workplace Gender Equality Act.
Drenka Andjelic (Alumni) has put her values about work life balance into practice in the establishment of her project management company in the construction industry, and has won recognition for her innovation.
Fiona Coe (Alumni) has been a strong advocate for women in engineering as a student, and she has worked hard to make her professional workplace a more sympathetic environment. Now she is on a quest to find a way to resolve her passions with engineering practice.
After the speakers, there was a lively discussion with many questions from the audience. Some interesting points of contention were raised and different view points discussed. You can view the entire presentation section of the evening by clicking here.
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| From left to right: Bronwyn Holland, Drenka Andjelic, Fiona Coe and Prof. Marian Baird |
WiE&IT second Hands on Day for 2012
On Friday 17 August 2012, UTS played host to almost 300 high school girls from 26 schools across NSW, making this Hands on Day the largest to date. Students from as far as the South Coast to the Hunter-Central Coast attended the Women in Engineering and IT second Hands on Day for Smarter Futures this year. Students participated in a range of activities which are designed to engage them with engineering and IT disciplines. As always, these days hinge on the contributions of activities facilitated by UTS academic staff, as well as industry partners such as Roads and Maritime Services, Commonwealth Bank, Tech Girls are Chic, Engineers without Borders NSW and ThoughtWorks. Student volunteers also played a vital role in the success of the day by helping the girls in their activities as well as telling them what its like to be a UTS female student studying engineering or IT. Whether it is designing computer games, controlling robots or constructing models of Spaghetti Bridges, each student learnt something new and gained an insight into student life at UTS.
Students learning about road construction and drainage
For more information about Hands on Days next year, click on the Hands on Day tab at the top of this page. To see another article about our last Hands on Day you can visit this link http://www.newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/2012/08/hands-on-day-marks-new-high-for-women-in-engineering-it
All our wonderful volunteers!
Engineering & IT Hands on Day for Smarter Futures
If you were around the UTS city campus last Friday 27 April 2012 then you were probably wondering why there were so many students around during Vice Chancellor’s week. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss a memo and class didn’t start back a week early- it was just one of the Women in Engineering and IT's bi-annual ‘Hands on Days’.
The Women in Engineering and IT (WiE&IT) team invite schools from all across New South Wales to participate in a fun and interactive activities day, aimed at encouraging female school leavers to consider engineering and IT as a study option and future career. Students travelled from places as far as Mudgee, the Central Coast and Newcastle to participate. The activities involved many aspects of engineering and IT learnt through studying at UTS, and ranged from making prosthetic legs, creating computer games and apps, controlling robots and even how to make artificial hearts.
These activities couldn’t happen without support from industry partners, who donate their time to talk to the students. Each year, WiE&IT encourage industry partners to run an activity, giving the students an insight into engineering and IT career pathways and an opportunity to speak to women already working in these industries. Companies such as Thales Group, the Roads and Maritime Services, Engineers Without Borders, Thoughtworks Australia and Microsoft Australia all ran activities that taught the girls how engineering and IT are embedded in almost every aspect of our lives. The Engineers Without Borders team did an excellent job of reinforcing this, by proving that the majority of the world's problems can be fixed using engineering solutions.
Nekisa Mostafavi, a 5th year Mechanical Engineering student and a facilitator for the ‘Mousetrap Race Cars’ activity, was delighted by the participant’s enthusiasm.
“I liked that everyone was involved, not just the students but the teachers as well,” Nekisa said.
“I think the ‘Mousetrap’ activity gave them an idea of how engineering [principles] can be incorporated more into high school subjects [such as, science and physics].”
At the end of the day, over 200 hundred students had learnt something new about engineering and IT, and hopefully inspired them to pull us towards the vision of Hands on Day- ‘Engineering and IT for Smarter Futures’.
By Shellee Murphy-Oates
UTS Events Cadet, Faculty of Engineering & IT
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