Women in Technology Summit

On the 28th of May St Aloysius College hosted teachers and students from various Colleges at our first Women in Technology Summit. The day featured workshops and presentations that included:

• An opening keynote from Dr Dong

Yang Wu, Chief Aerospace Division, from the Department of Defence. • STEM Careers Design Thinking

Workshop • Hands-on VR experience facilitated by

Smart Stone Technology • Presentations from 3D artists and

VR designers • An industry panel presentation with members from engineering, mathematics and business analyst backgrounds

The day ran from 9:30am through to 1:30pm and had all the participants moving through different locations throughout the College and interacting with each other.

The keynote was delivered by Dr Dong Yang Wu, Chief Aerospace Division, from the Department of Defence who shared her personal story that led to her being the Chief of the Aerospace Division for the Ministry of Defence. The audience was inspired and amazed by the passion and intelligence of a world class thought leader.

Students moved throughout the following sessions: Session One: STEM Careers Design Thinking Workshop Irith and her team of facilitators took groups of 8-10 students through a 35-minute classic ‘double diamond’ Design Thinking process to explore ideas around STEM careers and to identify the goals and support students need to navigate their career pathway.

Session Two: Panel Discussion with Industry Dr Maia Sauren lead a panel discussion along with Fiona Milne, Stefanie Kechayas and Zoe Lu. This panel allowed students to ask questions of each panelist and gain a deeper understanding into their industry.

Dr. Maia Sauren works as a Project Manager and Business Analyst at ThoughtWorks, an international software consultancy. Maia took the scenic route here via teaching, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, a stint as a script writer, and a lot of knitting.

Stefanie is a Senior Business Analyst at Australian software company MYOB. She has worked in IT and Software for about 10 years, but if you had told her that when she was 22 right out of her Masters of Communications degree, she would have laughed at you. Zoe is an Infrastructure Engineer at Catalyst IT, an international IT consultancy. Zoe is quite inquisitive and enjoys making things, such as origami, crochet and customer’s website infrastructure. Session Three: Hands on with VR Ye Yan and his team from Smart Stone technology demonstrated the power of Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality while showcasing resources that have been built around the Australian Curriculum. VR Headsets were available for students to try a truly immersive experience.

Session Four: Professional Passion Yvette Wouters and Stephanie Kelso took students through how their love of cosplay and video games extended into their careers as 3D Artists who design virtual reality resources. These two young women demonstrated how they followed their dreams in the emerging field of VR and game design.

At the end of the day several students presented in front of the entire co-hort. It was great to see a mix of students from different schools across Melbourne come together and share their ideas. St Aloysius College looks forward to coordinating and providing more of these opportunities going forward.

Andrew Delmastro

Design Thinking & Innovation Leader