Wired for Wonder

From Garth Aird, Head of TAS

Congratulations to the following Year 9 and 10 students who were selected represent the College at the ‘Wired for Wonder’ Youth Summit on Friday 14th September at NIDA.  In attendance were:

Year 9

Finn Anderson

Harjot Mand

Kyle McBride

Luke McLellan

Donte Pontes-Cox

Year 10

Joshua Cornelius

Eliot Vincent Hull

Jacob Fadel

Aiden Korpar

Makysmillian Klimczcek

Sebastian Rayk

Jasper Stern

 

The following report from Joshua Cornelius explains the amazind day that our students experienced.

  

Wired for Wonder Summit

By Joshua Cornelius

A group of iStem students and I attended the Wired for Wonder Youth Summit on the 14th September at NIDA. We arrived at the NIDA facility with open minds for a day of learning and innovation. We walked in and were met with a huge lobby filled with interactive activities that got our brains warmed up for the day ahead.

VR, AI and holographic headsets were just some of the devices which we were able to get out hands on between all of the sessions. Let me just add, as a young adult, the catering and services were five-star, the food delicious and the hospitality was second to none. A great aspect of the summit was that our group got to socialise with the other schools and chat about our common interests being: Science, Technology and Mathematics.

As we entered our first session we were already inspired by the amazing graphic designs and light array which brought the stage screen to life. Then, we were introduced by the esteemed Chief Executive of Emergent, Holly Ransom, who would later introduce a variety of inspiring and innovative speakers.

The creator of the first interactive video game came to the stage, Karen Palmer. She explained to us about the implication of AI in our daily lives and we can apply the tech in the future. Her famous works include the live action video games, Syncself and Syncself 2. This technology enables the player to interact with the video game using an EEG headset, which connects to your brain to measure focus levels to alter the plot of the game. Karen Palmer’s talk opened our minds to the career pathways which would allow us join the create the future of AI and other technologies.

Her presentation opened us up to the importance of STEM and how these new innovative classes will shape the future. We were shown the implication of the classes through nine major technological advances, including a robot used in space as helper to do tasks and heating a pieces of plasma to 15 million degrees.

Another speaker by the name of Dr. Jordan Nguyen, or as the summit called him, “a young man on a mission to change the world” was a stand-out in the lineup. He is a truly inspirational creator which has made many breakthroughs in understanding the functions of the human brain. Dr. Nguyen has the magical combination of technological brilliance and the ability to inspire young people. He shared a story with us which was truly inspirational which combined the values of compassion and ambition with innovation. Nguyen was able to create a dune buggy that was controlled by the movement of the eye for a child who had cerebral palsy and could only control his eyes. His presentation had a comedic touch and highlighted the importance and the need for STEM based subjects in schools. Dr. Jordan Nguyen really open our minds to a further horizon were we could practise our passion for innovation and technology as a profession.

A designer, innovator, creator and digital mastermind, Mond Qu is the founder of United Make – a work studio in Melbourne which comes up with crazy ideas to push the boundaries in the fields of Architecture and Engineering. Through extensive research in materials and structure he was able to create a structure which filters various hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide into oxygen. Probably one of most fascinating projects we saw at the Wired for Wonder Summit was Aditnalta. A fake Island which Mond created to show how easy it is to upload false information to the internet. Aditnalta, the island just of the coast of Mexico is ravaged by poverty and the mining warlords which promote slave labour. However, this island was entirely made up by Mond and his team.

The end of the day came around, we left the Wired for Wonder Summit with our minds fully immersed in innovation and groundbreaking technology. It was one of the most interesting experiences of mine and, I’m sure others too. I certainly will recommend this to anyone who is a creative thinker or thinks outside of the box.