Santos Karnkanthi Indigenous Engineering camp

Partnering for future success

Last week the University of Adelaide welcomed 30 Indigenous year 11 and 12 students from around Australia to participate in the inaugural Santos Karnkanthi Indigenous Engineering Camp.

This camp – which was part of the Santos Karnkanthi Indigenous Engineering Program – aimed to:
• Recognise and drive opportunity by removing long standing barriers.
• Drive the national agenda through strong industry and university partnership.
• Engage community, industry, government and the university in an integrated, multiple touchpoint program.

The students spent a week on campus while staying at Lincoln College, participated in design and build classes and an Adelaide Oval roof climb, were introduced to services available at the university, and finished the week with a graduation dinner at the Adelaide Zoo. Each of these activities, while a great deal of fun, also gave the students an understanding of how engineering is applied to real-life situations in order to solve real-world industry problems.

To see the way the students developed in such a short time, both through the course material they studied and the friendships they forged, showed the true success of an initiative such as this. Thanks must go to the Wirltu Yarlu and Faculty of ECMS staff, as well as program coordinators Alexis McKay and Mathew Swan, all of whom worked tirelessly to put this together. Their hard work was what enabled a collaboration between Wirltu Yarlu, ECMS and our major industry partner Santos to benefit our stakeholders so greatly.

Going forward, it is exciting to think about what the future of this program holds, we are excited by what lies ahead and how it can be enhanced further. A strong partnership between ECMS and Wirltu Yarlu has been developed, which bodes well for the future of this institution and the goals we want to achieve together.

Professor Shane Hearn
Dean of Indigenous Research and Education Strategy
University of Adelaide

Ms Louise O’Reilly
Marketing, Engagement and Recruitment Manager
Faculty of ECMS