Girls GET Set for a career in Technology

On Tuesday 25 June, over 60 girls in years 7 - 10 flocked to campus to learn about careers in Engineering and Technology.

The Girls in Engineering and Technology program (GET Set) is an outreach event run by the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science to introduce high school girls to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) concepts.

The day is filled with fun and non-competitive activities including design, test and build tasks, lectures, demonstrations and more.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on activities, especially the effort to promote inclusivity, as well as the great details about potential career paths” said participant Pragnya.

The students got to have a full ‘university experience’, including a campus and accommodation tour.

Highlights of the day included a workshop on maternal health with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and a Biomedical Engineering activity with Dr Kiara Bruggeman.

Year 7 student Sarah said that the workshops were her favourite part of the day, “I loved the hands on activities that gave me insight into the field, my personal favourite was making slime in the bioengineering one”.

Annabelle, a year 8 student said that the day opened her eyes to how engineering could help people. “The maternal health workshop was very interesting – it involved actually applying engineering to a life like scenario and showed me how I could help others using engineering”.

The day ended with a panel of women with careers in a variety of STEM fields. The panel included representatives from Questacon, CEA Technologies, Australian Signal Directorate, and a current ANU student.

By Ellen Parsons