‘Anything is possible when you follow your passion…’ That’s the message from the new campaign from the South Australian Government designed to encourage students to study maths and science and look to future careers in the field.

The campaign includes an interactive website, career ambassadors and a competition to win an ultimate worksite visit.

SA Deputy Premier, Kevin Foley announced, “We need more students thinking about careers in science, engineering and technology, as well as the mechanical, electrical and construction trades.” Adding, “Choosing the right subjects in the final years of high school is a vital prerequisite to working in these dynamic sectors.”

South Australia has a high demand for these industries, particularly due to defence, research, information technology and mining sectors.

This is an excellent resource for anyone considering their future. This campaign has the same core goals as EngVibe, so we’re big fans. Check it out, the main site is here:

 www.TheresMoreToIt.com.au

Overall, this is an outstanding initiative by the SA Government.

(Source: SouthAustralia.biz | Image: TheresMoreToIt)

Queenslander Rhys Parry has been awarded a TJ Ryan Memorial Medal and a $2000-a-year scholarship - one of the highest awards for secondary students.

The award, which was selected on academics, leadership, community and cultural participation, will assist Rhys as he heads to Griffith Uni to study a Bachelor of Engineering.

“I’m very maths-science orientated,” said Rhys who chose engineering ahead of other options including medicine or humanities.

A high-achiever, Rhys already has his next major goal in mind - a university medal. We have no doubts he’ll get there.

(Source: Ipswich News)

EngVibe is all about the positive – cool engineering jobs, fun projects and Pong. Today though I thought I’d present a humorous, but somewhat accurate, piece about the less fun side of studying engineering – this article is from Aaron Rowe (Wired Blog Network):

For many students, earning a degree in engineering is less than enjoyable and far from what they expected. Here are our biggest complaints about the educational rite of passage. Of course, they are sweeping generalizations. Feel free to disagree. 

5. Awful Textbooks
Thick, dry, black and white manuscripts are rarely a source of inspiration and sometimes can cause loads of confusion. Often, the text is poorly written and interrupted by lengthy equations with symbols that are different from those used by the professor during lectures.

4. Professors are Rarely Encouraging
During each class, a professor that would rather be tending to his research will waltz up to a blackboard or overhead projector and scribble out equations for an hour without uttering a single sentence to create some excitement.  

3. Dearth of Quality Counseling
College students may not have a sense for how to build their resume and they might be clueless about the variety of career opportunities that await them. Unfortunately, some academic advisers do little more than post fliers about internships and hand out a checklist of classes to take. They should make some projections about the future job market, learn about the interests of each young scholar, and offer them tailored advice for how to best prepare themselves.

2. Other Disciplines Have Inflated Grades
Brilliant engineering students may earn surprisingly low grades while slackers in other departments score straight As for writing book reports and throwing together papers about their favorite zombie films.

Some professors view undergraduate education as a type of natural selection, but their analogy is flawed. Many of the brightest students may struggle while mediocre scholars can earn top scores because they have a larger group of supportive friends to or more time to dedicate to studying.  

1. Every Assignment Feels the Same
Nearly every homework assignment and test question is a math problem. Only a few courses require creativity or offer hands-on experience.

Two fourth-year University of Queensland students have made PNG their place of work as part of the university’s Professional Engineering Placement Scholarship program. 

David Shaw and Adam Brown will work at New Britain Palm Oil Limited where they will apply work conducted as part of their research projects related to the company.

The projects involves optimising the operation of a screw press that extracts oil from the palm fruit and improving the efficiency of steam emissions, reducing costs. 

‘Things are so different to Australia, so we had to adapt to a totally different way of working,’ David said. 

The UQ press page is here.

The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) has opened the Outstanding Paper Award for Young Engineers/Researchers for 2008. The international paper competition is in its third year and aims to provide a platform for Hong Kong and international young engineers to share and exhibit their successes in a range of engineering fields.

Papers from sole authored or the first author of co-authored papers who are aged 35 years and below at the submission date is eligible. That deadline is Friday, 11 April 2008. Up to three Awards may be given and will be presented at the HKIE Presidential Dinner in Sep 08.

For more info, visit the HKIE website at www.hkie.org.hk/paper_award2008. And good luck.

Australia’s high demand for tradies has been cited as the reason why the number of male school leavers has fallen for the 10^th consecutive year. 

Figures show that just 38 per cent of university applicants are male, down from 42 per cent ten years ago.

The strong demand for qualified tradespeople has led to salaries of $100,000 by the age of just 21. Kane Anderson, 18 – pictured, decided in Year 11 to undertake a carpentry apprenticeship and has other friends undertaking trades. 

Demand in Queensland for uni courses this year has been in natural and physical sciences (up 16 per cent), engineering (14 per cent) and architecture and building (8 per cent). Education took the hardest knock down 18 per cent. 

Read more from the Courier Mail.

Year 12 students who are considering a career in science, engineering and technology are getting a taste at the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF).

The NYSF is a two week program held at the Australian National Uni in Canberra where approximately 140 students get the opportunity to visit leading research institutions, meet scientists and engineers and gain a greater understanding on what options are available to them. 

The program covers pure research, applied research and engineering in both physical and biological sciences in equal doses. The focus for human biology is on biomedical research and biotech, so students come away with a broad appreciation of the profession.

After the intensive fortnight in January, students participate in uni seminars and industry site visits in March and April and remain in contact with the network of professionals and other students met throughout the program. 

These summer programs are a great chance to see firsthand the opportunities available. This forum looks similar to the Honeywell Engineering Summer School another great initiative. Good luck to everyone, coordinators and students – I’m sure everyone involved can look forward to a great couple of weeks of science ahead.

For more information about the program and for information about applying for next year (‘The people that go the NYSF aren’t your stereotypical science geek at all! – NYSF site) visit the official website. Fore more, read a detailed Wikipedia article and an article about one of the participants, Sophie Dawson (pictured), on the AdelaideNow website.

Undergrad students from QUT have developed a new hands-free computer system which makes computer use more accessible for the disabled.

The system utilises a camera to detect small movements, which are translated into the movement of a pointer on the screen. Voice commands such as ‘click’ and ‘open internet browser’ are also used.

The system differentiates itself from others hands-free systems (including systems which utilise eyeball tracking) by keeping the size of the unit and cost down, the whole system comes in at $200-$300.

Interactive media student, Herman Ngo and Deb Betts (pictured) are two students working on the project.

Herman said the refining the device and making it available for commercial release would be the next stage for the project. ‘Right now the project is completed and it works, probably a next stop would be removing the camera and putting in a gyroscope or something,’ he said, ‘we haven’t discussed distributing it, but we are open to offers.’

So get your offers in, or read more at an article by the Brisbane Times.

A survey by Graduate Careers Australia has shown that Australian grads are being employed at the highest levels since 1990 and engineering grads doing particularly well.

Across all disciplines 84.5% of grads found full time employment within four months, up 2 percentage points from the previous year. 

Engineering remained the fourth highest paying graduate profession, $50k across all professions; after the health services (dentistry, optometry and medicine).

Rates of employment with in the engineering industry were high notably mining engineering (98.7 per cent) and civil engineering (97.8 per cent). 

For more data download the survey from Graduate Careers Australia, their website is at www.graduatecareers.com.au . An interesting read.

The nationwide interest in the drought and global warming has been reflected in students selecting subjects related to the environment.

First preference applications for agriculture, environment and related studies are up a huge 108 per cent this year, according to figures from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre.

This major increase has had a side effect to other science subjects including chemistry and physics.

Melbourne Uni Dean of Science Prof Peter Rathjen says applications for their Bachelor of Science degrees are up 98 per cent this year. ‘That’s unbelievable. If you look around the country, there is a swing in demand back to science.’

For the first time next year, Melbourne Uni is offering a Bachelor of Environments degree, which is a combined effort between the Architecture, Building and Planning, Engineering, Science and Land Food Resources faculties and form part of the uni’s new Melbourne Model approach. With so many faculties, I’m sure you would gain an appreciation for the environment spending so much time walking around the various parts of the campus.

Those figures really are impressive, so congrats to Al Gore and everyone else who made these issues so important, looks like that Peace Prize might have been justified. Read more from the Herald Sun.