Isabella Duncan writes about the WiE CAN programme she attended at the University of Canterbury in January.

During the school holidays I was lucky enough to be selected and attend the five day/4 night Women in Engineering residential programme (WiE CAN) at the University of Canterbury in the January holidays. I heard about it through a seminar about women in STEM I attended during Year 11. There was an application process; 217 students applied across New Zealand for the 2024 WiE CAN, and they chose 60 students.

It is a fully-funded programme that allowed me to learn about various engineering courses and subjects available to study throughout engineering at UC. These included Electrical, Software, Civil, Humanitarian, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Forestry, Chemical & Process, and Aerospace engineering. I was immersed in student life at UC as we stayed in Tupuānuku, one of the halls and had residential assistants assigned to us to answer any questions about UC life. 

I enjoyed the activities we completed, such as designing and building a rocket that got launched approximately 100m in the air and learning to build and code a solar-powered vehicle to compete in a race, as I had never had the opportunity to learn about those things before. Another stand out to me was when we made functioning solar panels out of titanium oxide and blueberries. It was also very interesting when we coded a control system to play the piano and it actually ended up sounding like music. Through this course I met like-minded girls from all over New Zealand through team-building activities such as an entrepreneurship challenge and amazing race challenges, and I am still friends with them today.

WiE CAN is an amazing opportunity, and I recommend it. It is interactive and extends what we learn in the classroom. I am now very excited to pursue engineering next year at UC, and it has encouraged me to strive for the grades I need to achieve this pursuit.

Isabella Duncan
Student Leader
Year 13