Inspiring the Future Australia had an exciting day in Blacktown as organisers of Australia’s first Girls’ Tech Day event held by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Many thanks to all the amazing AWS staff and to mentors from twelve other organisations who provided interactive hand-on tech activities for 250 primary school students in the morning and 250 secondary students in the afternoon. Most of the students and teachers attending were from schools in the Blacktown region with some from other parts of Western Sydney.

Each session commenced with AWS female tech mentors sharing their career journey & why they love what they do. The Panel speakers included two students from Blacktown Girls’ High School who lead their school’s international award-winning robotics team.  Their team also provided three hands-on activities during the day.

Activities included robotics, coding, electronics, augmented reality, green screen filming, interaction with Amazon devices, bio-medical, cyber security & how to avoid being hacked, F1 in Schools miniature car design & racing, 3D printing, virtual welding, paper engineering, raspberry Pi and sensors, programming and flying drones, animation and games, underwater sonar & acoustics and laser cutting. At the AWS “lounge” students and teachers had profitable interactive conversations with AWS personnel regarding career opportunities in technology.  The recorded student feedback on the experience was overwhelmingly positive.

The event was filmed by SkillsOne Television to capture the highlights and excitement of the day.