Program to engage more Indigenous Australians in STEM shortlisted for Eureka
Featuring opportunities such as 3D printing, flight simulator experiences, involvement in a Formula SAE team, a robotics-based Olympics competition or a high-powered rocket challenge, a pioneering initiative to engage more Indigenous Australians with STEM subjects has been shortlisted for Australia’s premier science awards – the Australian Museum’s 2022 Eureka Awards.
The Eureka Prizes are the nation’s most comprehensive awards, offering $140,000 in prize money across a broad spectrum of research, from environmental to innovative technologies, citizen science, leadership and mentoring.
The Victorian Indigenous Engineering Winter School (VIEWS) is a unique tertiary collaboration that is boosting opportunity for Indigenous Australians to be better represented in engineering and information technology. VIEWS is one of three shortlisted projects in the Department of Industry, Science and Resources Eureka Prize for STEM Inclusion category.
The University of Melbourne, Monash, RMIT and Swinburne Universities work together to provide the program, along with support from Indigenous community Elders, industry partners and the community.
Indigenous Australians are dramatically under-represented in engineering and information technology. The VIEWS initiative arose out of the 2015 National Indigenous Engineering Summit. Since 2016, the annual, week-long VIEWS program has fired the ambitions of over 100 Year 10-12 students from around Australia, introducing them to university life, STEM mentors and career possibilities, while also connecting these pathways to their culture.
Melbourne University’s VIEWS Academic Lead, Professor Elaine Wong, Associate Dean (Diversity and Inclusion) in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT), said VIEWS was formed through the pursuit of shared values of increasing parity in STEM and its unique feature is that the providers don’t compete, but collaborate with the mutual goal of increasing parity in STEM.
“This ensures the focus remains squarely on fostering positive student outcomes and achieving parity for Indigenous students in STEM in engineering and technology study and in the profession,” Professor Wong said.
Ms Hope Perkins, the University’s Senior Development Manager (Indigenous), who helped establish the VIEWS program, said an important element of the program is to provide a connection to Indigenous culture in parallel to the discipline-specific technical considerations of engineering and IT.
“It really is an experiential comprehensive approach to learning,” Ms Perkins said.
“There was also a workshop delivered by a current Indigenous Science student titled ‘Caring for Country’. This was great as it showcased the parallels with Chemical Engineering and ancient systems of knowledge related to water management. The students really loved this.”
Michelle Bellino, VIEWS Program Manager and FEIT’s Manager, Student Experience, said that immersive workshops and engineering activities are the backbone of the program, providing participants with experiential, hands on, learning opportunities.
“The program is designed and delivered by engineering academics, Indigenous engineers, postgraduate engineering students, and industry partner representatives,” Ms Bellino said.
“Highlights have included engineering design challenges such as bridge building and hands-on 3D printing, flight simulator experiences, a Formula SAE team, a robotics-based Olympics competition, caring for Country and a high-power rocket challenge, amongst many others.”
The winners of the 2022 AM Eureka Prizes will be announced on Wednesday 31 August at an awards ceremony at the Australian Museum.
For more information: australian.museum/eurekaprizes
Learn more about the VIEWS program here.