NEWS
Photos: Macquarie University
campusreview.com.au
Skills STEM from robotics
Macquarie puts on contest featuring automatons
to lead students down path to technical careers.
By Patrick Avenell
M
acquarie University is one of the
major sponsors of the FIRST
Robotics Competition, a contest
for high school kids that uses the emerging
world of androids and AI to impart STEM
skills and knowledge. The partnership
has been active for more than 10 years,
with Macquarie joining leading brands like
Google, Ford and Boeing as sponsors.
Although STEM skills are in demand by
employers, a recent OECD report found
20 per cent of Australian 15-year-olds
are low maths performers, 14 per cent
are low performers in reading and 14 per
cent are low performers in science. More
than 50 teams representing countries
throughout South-east Asia competed in
Sydney in mid-March.
Macquarie vice-chancellor S. Bruce
Dowton said the sponsorship gave the
university an opportunity to be involved
with adolescents in a hands-on social STEM
environment, which could have long-term
positive effects for the individuals, the
university and the country.
“At a national level, there is the very
understandable and urgent call for action
to try to get Australia prepared to be a
much more innovative society,” Dowton
said. “STEM skills will be required in jobs
as the country moves towards reliance
on these sort of industries and away from
more traditional Australian industries. We’ve
got to get kids interested in this at a much
higher rate and to prevent the erosion that’s
already happened. If you look at it over
time, the interest in school students going
off to study mathematics and science from
high school to university has eroded during
the last couple of decades.”
Dowton attributed that erosion to a
lack of clear pathways to a career after
graduation. With more jobs expected to be
available in the new era of innovation, it’s
important that STEM education is pitched
as an attractive and enjoyable option, which
is where playing with robots comes in.
“Social engagement has certainly
contributed to FIRST’s success. It’s a very
social interaction,” Dowton said. “It’s one that
is done in small groups so students learn
how to work together to solve problems.
“If you look at students of today, the
theatre of sport and entertainment is
something that’s part of the mainstream of
their life. Students going to music concerts,
students going and taking part in major
sporting events. When you go to the
FIRST regional contests, it’s all about street
theatre. It’s a big event with lots of crowd
noise, lots of applause, lots of music. It fits
into a comfortable space for them because
that’s part of their lives.”
Dowton said partnering with the contest
has borne fruit, both in terms of increasing
Macquarie’s mindshare as a popular and
high-achieving institution to learn STEM
skills and on a more personal level.
“We went with our FIRST Robotics team
to the tiny outback