During the holidays, Year 13 student Elise Smith attended the Women in Engineering (WIE) residential programme at the University of Canterbury. Read about her experience below.

Over four days at the Wie Can camp, we got hands-on experience with every engineering discipline offered at the University of Canterbury. Each day started with brain teasers, mostly maths-based, followed by group workshops. On day one, we explored Electrical Engineering, working with Tait Communications to design a gate monitoring system. Next was Chemical Engineering, where we learned about energy uses and techniques. The day ended with an engineering escape room that tested our problem-solving and teamwork skills, and I loved the gate monitoring project for making us think creatively.

Day two brought new challenges, starting with Mechatronics, where we used code to make a robotic hand play songs. We then worked on solar-powered race cars in Mechanical Engineering and later launched model rockets in Aerospace Engineering. Our group faced a technical issue, but we managed to see our rocket fly! In the afternoon, we worked on a project to connect elderly people with their communities, and our group won the "RA’s Favourite" award for our solution.

The final day included a Forestry Engineering workshop, where we learned about yadders and how they help solve problems. We then worked on building a Len Lye-inspired sculpture in a Mechanical Engineering workshop, before finishing with my favorite workshop—Civil Engineering. I had an amazing time at Wie Can, learning new skills, meeting awesome people, and discovering my passion for engineering. I truly had an amazing experience and would do it again in a heartbeat. I learnt so many new skills but also met some amazing people and most likely found my passion of Civil engineering looking at earthquakes and how we/I can make an impact on my community to create safer areas since we do live in an earthquake prone part on the world. Overall I would recommend this camp highly if you have an interest in STEM as it allows and allowed me to see what my future could be and university life.