THE Ballarat STEM Network is giving the education sector, industry and the broader community opportunities to collaborate.<\/p>\n
Launched in 2017 by the Ballarat Tech School, the group hosts STEM leaders and gives the city access to resources and specialist support, inspiring young people with potential, ground-breaking, future career paths, and broadly reinforcing the value of science, technology, engineering and maths fields in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n
In partnership with IBM Australia, the network most recently welcomed guest presenter and marine scientist, Dr Vanessa Pirotta who works to conserve marine wildlife, particularly whales.<\/p>\n
Speaking about technology and innovation in the sea, Dr Pirotta shared her specific focus on drones collecting biological samples from whales remotely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a nice opportunity to bring this research to regional Australia. It\u2019s not an everyday topic that\u2019s spoken about in Ballarat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found the community really welcoming, as well as very engaged and generally interested in what I was talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s \u201cextremely important\u201d for industry experts to have spaces where they can share their current, world-leading research and insights in regional areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up outside of Canberra, so for me, it was a nice opportunity to give back something to those younger students and audience members who might be aspiring to big things, or a certain role, and think they can\u2019t do it because they\u2019re in the middle of Australia,\u201d Dr Pirotta said.<\/p>\n
The visibility of women in science, technology, engineering, arts and maths is something incredibly important to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re now having those discussions and opportunities to see women in the workplace doing a variety of roles which weren\u2019t necessarily there when I was growing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see a woman like myself, doing what I\u2019m doing, I hope it\u2019s inspiring for the audience members and makes them connect with something they might want to do when they grow up… and dream big,\u201d Dr Pirotta said.<\/p>\n
Making the most of facilities available and meeting new people is something she believes to be crucial at the start of any STEM career.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy advice would be to network, use the resources that you have and the people that are there for you, such as the Tech School, because it\u2019s such a great opportunity to facilitate discussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very important to collaborate because your ideas might be a perfect fit for thinking outside of the box, and connecting with someone with a different skillset might create something wonderful,\u201d Dr Pirotta said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Ballarat STEM Network is giving the education sector, industry and the broader community opportunities to collaborate. Launched in 2017 by the Ballarat Tech School, the group hosts STEM leaders and gives the city access to resources and specialist support, inspiring young people with potential, ground-breaking, future career paths, and broadly reinforcing the value of […]<\/p>\n