From HIT Lab NZ
On Friday, 5 September, 40 local Christchurch teachers (career advisers, Gateway coordinators and Electronics/ICT teachers) toured the College of Engineering at UC as part of an ICT-focused Careers Update Day. The goal of this visit was to inform local teachers of the programmes UC has to offer in the field of Electronics and ICT. Teachers were given a welcome talk from Assoc Prof Richard Duke, Dean of Engineering and Forestry, where he discussed the degree programmes the College has on offer, specifically focusing on the disciplines of Computer, Electrical and Electronic, and Mechatronics Engineering, and Computer Science. Also highlighted was the wide range of research being done in association with NZi3, the MacDiarmid Institute, and the HITLab NZ.
The afternoon’s events included an interactive Computer Science Unplugged presentation by Prof Tim Bell of Computer Science and Software Engineering, and a tour of the Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering labs, including Dr Paul Gaynor’s discussion of the Mechatronics Workshop currently being trialled by the department with the help of one of our local high schools. The day’s events came to an end with a visit to the HITLab NZ, where teachers were presented with a summary of the latest research, and enjoyed an interactive experience with HITLab demos and a presentation in the always impressive VisionSpace lab.
The tour was jointly organised by Dave Petrie of Careers Services, Les Black of ETITO and Colin Bell of Futureintech.
