It was an incredible experience for Mannat and Salma, who were able to explore various areas of engineering and IT through interactive workshops. They are excited to share their experience with us.

During the Term 2 holidays, we attended the Girl Power in Engineering and IT Program at the University of Melbourne. Engineering and Information Technology are two employment and education disciplines dominated primarily by men. However, the goal of this program was to have a group of females participate in a variety of Engineering and IT-related activities to pique their interest and encourage them to pursue it in the future. Many activities were held, including the application of constructing and thinking skills.

Sustainable Housing was one of the activities in which we participated. Civil Engineering was one of the four categories studied in this activity. This assignment taught us a lot about planning, designing, building, and budgeting. We only had $40 to work with and were limited to a particular number of balloons, tape, popsicle sticks, and straws. We had a lot of fun with this endeavour since we competed with other groups to see which floating house could store the most marbles. This was an excellent opportunity to learn new skills and interact with students studying Civil Engineering at the University of Melbourne. 

We had the opportunity to visit the Telstra Creator Space during our stay at the camp. During our visit, we learned about various LED scanners that they use to scan small undeveloped areas. We also tested the scanners by scanning the region and its environments. Moreover, we also learned about the various sorts of drones that are used to search large amounts of land. It was a fun way to touch the IT side of the program and get to know the various types of jobs under that field. 

Another activity in which we participated was working with micro bits. This was held by one of the program's mentors, who was currently studying System Engineering. We learned how to connect the micro bit to the computer as well as a different form of coding in this session. We used Python Coding, which required us to input a series of formulas to have the micro bit perform various tasks. 

In addition, we returned to the Telstra Creator Space to construct hydraulic arms. The arm would move by pushing certain needles, which would apply pressure to a specific region and trigger various arm functions.The workshops were able to further expand our interest in the topic; they were interesting and developed our knowledge on parts of the field that we had not previously realised existed.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience for us since we learned a lot of new skills and were able to speak with many of the female students studying IT or Engineering at the University of Melbourne. After attending that program, we discovered that engineering and information technology are not just for guys. We also learned that if more women enter the sector, they will undoubtedly provide a fresh perspective and a significant impact on the world.

During their time on the four-day camp, Mannat and Salma joined forces with other girls in the program to create videos. You can view the videos created by clicking here for Mannat's video and here for Salma's video.