I had to pre-write this week's blog on Wednesday because I have a full week of work with the ‘Girls (GIS) and Boys (BIS) in STEM’ programs starting this week at the Tech School. On Monday and Tuesday we had nearly 60 girls from 15 different schools across the region spend two full days getting to know their Tech school. On Thursday and Friday we’ll be doing the same with 60 boys.
The GIS and BIS program is a highly sought after, opt-in program that is normally the first step for students who are interested in STEM to do something outside of the traditional schooling system. Each term we spend two days with students looking at a different theme. Term 1 involves spending one day getting to know each other and the Tech school and the second we have a team of Engineers from Mars Wrigley come in and set a challenge of sorting the good Malteasers from the bad. We also have a welcome evening for each group where students can bring their parents into the Tech School and show them around.
Half of my role at the Tech School is co-ordinating this program so these two days are HUGE and I have to do it all again tomorrow. This is one of my favourite things about working at the Tech School, we’re able to iterate quickly and the BIS are going to get a more refined experience after troubleshooting things that could be improved after having the GIS for two days. We swap who goes first each term so that both groups get the slightly upgraded version.
You don’t know what you don’t know and this has been my first foray into event management on a large scale. The moving parts behind the scenes to create two days of fully comprehensive, meaningful and engaging content has been a steep learning curve and is a full team effort. It’s all hands on deck at the Tech School and everyone helps out.
It’s incredibly rewarding to be part of an event like this. This was evident when students brought their parents back for the welcome event. Students were proudly showing off their projects and giving their guests tours of the Tech School. The vibes were super high and we ended up hosting way more people than we’d planned for. Not having put enough seats out is such a great problem to have.
If it wasn’t a busy enough day yesterday with GIS day and the Welcome Evening I finished the day by attending the Committee for Ballarat’s, Vision 2050 presentation. They had a guest speaker zoom in from The City of Sunderland to talk about their ‘Smart City’.
Sunderland city council has teamed up with Boldyn Networks for a 20-year partnership to equip Sunderland with world-class infrastructure that is centred around a connected, inclusive and digitally enabled future. It is one of the world leading ‘Smart cities’ and it has happened quickly. Really quickly. They’re only 5 years into this partnership and already the results are pretty extraordinary.
Their mantra has been ‘No where or one left behind’ and with a huge portion of the 200K+ population with no to low digital literacy there has been a huge focus on digital inclusion. There has been huge investment on making sure that everyone gets involved with free classes and support for all residents. They have city wide wifi and have Databanks - like Foodbanks where you can pick up things like sims cards making digital access accessible no matter where you sit in the food chain. There are device donation centres where you can send old tech or get it refurbished.
The town is literally full of sensors recording all sorts of data. You can even go to their website and check out how many people have travelled via bike, car or bus this week. How many people have used the free wifi and if they were students or not. Emergency services are all linked through the network so fire, police and ambulance can all see what is happening where, making response times quicker and allocation of resources more efficient.
There has been huge investment in “Createch” which is where technology and creativity meet. Massive public art projects and digital billboards are used to inform and bring the community together. I was stoked to see a huge investment has been made in Tech Start up’s with over 28 businesses taking advantage of grants and eventually settling in Sunderland. Encouraging and supporting innovation and innovative businesses is lacking in this country.
Smart cities don’t run themselves so there has been a huge push on getting people into STEM careers. We didn’t get to ask how they're doing that in regards to pathways in education which would have been interesting but the push happening here as well. Our ‘sell out’ welcome evening for GIS is evidence of that.
Vision 2050 is about imaging what the next 25 years will look like for Ballarat. It's inevitable that we’ll all be living in ‘Smart Cities’ if we’re not already doing so. What that looks like and how it works needs to include ALL of the community. Sunderland’s mantra of ‘No where or one left behind’ has been crucial for the success of their Smart City. I was also curious about how the community has welcomed to being so monitored...
When I reflect on what my impact will be over the next 25 years I feel pretty stoked. Having spent the last two days with 60 young people, encouraging and supporting their STEM journey, it’s given me a new sense of responsibility. These students will be my age in 2050. They’ll have families like mine. What kind of place will we live in then?
Right now, my mission is to make STEM awesome. Every student that walks out of the Tech school feeling empowered and capable of making a difference is my contribution to the Vision for 2025. Now we just have to hope that our current leaders are brave enough to make it happen.
