NEWSROOM

Secondary school students unleash their creativity during Women in Engineering camp

Fifty secondary school students recently had the opportunity to participate in a Creative Inspiration and Design workshop at Unleash Space, the innovation hub and maker space run by the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). The event was part of a 3 day Women in Engineering holiday camp held for Year 11 students from Auckland, Waikato and Whangarei.

Maker Space Coordinator Hayden Moore says “The Creative Inspiration and Design workshop is designed to give participants confidence in their ability to generate creative thought and action. The workshop includes a series of short interactive exercises like imitation, idea generation, divergent thinking, convergent thinking and working with limitations to name a few. We strive to empower students to be able to come up with ideas and bring them to life. The best reaction to one of the exercises was getting a portrait of us facilitators!”

Unleash Space Manager Sean Kelly says “It was great to witness such playful curiosity and laughter during the workshop. The cohort interacted with each other in an unguarded way and the students were always willing to pick up the mic and share without fear of judgement. This level of enthusiasm and energy is what we aim to achieve in all of our programme offerings. Our impression was that their experience on this camp has left a great impression of what the University of Auckland has to offer.”

The Engineering faculty’s Women in Engineering Network launched in 1993 to support more young women into careers as engineers. The University of Auckland now has one of the highest participation rates of women in tertiary-level engineering in Australia and New Zealand.

Women in Engineering Project Manager Ashleigh Fox says “While this is great progress, we cannot be complacent and there is more work to be done in so that the engineering industry reflects the diversity we have in New Zealand communities. This is why the Faculty of Engineering puts such great effort into encouraging young women into Engineering careers through outreach and academic support programmes at secondary schools, open days at the University of Auckland, our Women in Engineering network, mentoring and other support once on campus. We look forward to welcoming the students who participated in our Holiday Camp back to campus as university students.”