Indigenous Youth Science Forum visits DSTO Stirling
The Perth 2012 Indigenous Youth Science Forum initiative brought indigenous students from around WA on a three day camp where they were able to gain exposure to science in industry.
As part of the forum, students were invited to DSTO Stirling to gain an appreciation for DSTO’s role in Defence and the Collins submarine program.
The hour-long visit commenced with a welcome and short introduction to DSTO by submarine operations modeller Nelson Yiap. The students were then escorted to several demonstrations around the site.
Sonar scientist David Matthews gave students glass-shattering insights into sound physics and DSTO’s work with underwater acoustics; submarine human factors scientist Kate Ponton measured students’ stress levels and eye movements while explaining how the same instruments could assess submariners’ workloads and stress levels; and submarine human factors scientist Dion Parera provided students hands-on experience with DSTO’s Virtual Worlds software and described how DSTO uses the software to develop submarine control room designs.
The Indigenous Youth Science Forum in Perth is an initiative of the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF), an organisation dedicated to encouraging the nation’s top Year 12 science students to continue with their science studies at the tertiary level and to explore a wide range of potential careers in science and engineering.
