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Media Release

December 3 2003

Peer tutoring program adds innovation to engineering, science and technology in high schools

The University of South Australia in collaboration with a South Australian company, eLabtronics, is bringing leading edge technology into the hands of secondary students and teachers through an innovative peer tutoring program run by UniSA's engineering students.

In an unusual move, UniSA students trained by eLabtronics deliver the specially designed curriculum to both secondary students and teachers, and act as mentors for their younger secondary school peers by leading them through a well structured program of building and programming intelligent robots.

By including leading edge technology such as CoreChart, which simplifies and speeds up the programming of micro chips, electronics has become more accessible to much younger people who wouldn't normally understand the complicated programming, according to Mr Peng Choo, CEO of eLabtronics, whose company invented the world leading software.

The peer mentoring program measures up most favourably against schemes with similar objectives in Australia and abroad, according to Associate Professor Brenton Dansie, Project Manager and Dean of Teaching and Learning in UniSA's Division of Information Technology Engineering and the Environment. "It is innovative and unique, and incorporates features well beyond those considered to constitute world's best practice. On the platform of electronics and robotics, it develops underlying skills in mathematics, science and information technology," he said.

"UniSA's students develop valuable communication and people skills, it is an important staff development opportunity for secondary teachers to learn how to teach electronics in a creative way and keep up with the latest technology, and secondary students gain valuable engineering and programming skills by being introduced to concepts normally only taught in university courses," Ms Zorica Nedic, UniSA's Program Coordinator said.

"The feedback is very encouraging. The students are so enthusiastic about what they are learning in the program and are keen to master the new technology because they see a great future in this field."

The perception in schools and in the community that engineering and science are difficult to study and do not offer interesting career paths prompted the development of the innovative outreach program to raise awareness of the role and importance of the engineering and science professions among high school students.

The electronics industry is a significant contributor to the South Australian economy. One of the key drivers to its future development is a good supply of well trained technical and engineering staff with an innovative skill base that is essential for the industry to accelerate its rate of growth, according to Jason Kuchel, Director of the Electronics Industry Association.

"Significant job opportunities exist in electronics related industries in the northern regions of Adelaide but often local students are not equipped with the required skills. The robotics program has been designed to specifically meet these key challenges," said Ms Tanya Rogers, Superintendent Futures Connect, Department of Education and Children's Services.

With funding of $50,000 from the Department of Business Manufacturing and Trade (Centre for Innovation Business and Manufacturing - CIBM) and $10,000 from industries including Codan, Holden, Playford Partnership, Tenix, Entech, Autotherm and Microchip, some 220 students from 13 secondary schools participated in the program run by 22 University student mentors during 2003.

The program achieved national recognition by winning the 2003 Australian Engineering Excellence Award - AusIndustry Innovation Award. Judging criteria included the project's contribution to the national economy, its impact on the quality of life of the relevant communities, the number of personnel engaged in research and development, and the extent to which the project represents world best practice in engineering.

The contribution of Professor Dansie; Ms Nedic; Mr Miroslav Kostecki, the Technical Manager from eLabtronics; and Mr Phil Stump from CIBM was instrumental in the project's success. The enthusiasm and commitment of UniSA's student mentors from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering were equally critical.

"eLabtronics and UniSA have also been awarded $22,000 from the 2002 World Congress of Information Technology Legacy Grant to support further curriculum development of the program during 2004. Now we are seeking further funding to enable the program to be offered to some 1,000 students next year," Professor Dansie said.

Representatives of the program attracted widespread interest when they met in Canberra with Peter McGauran, Minister for Science; and Dr Thomas Barlow, Science Adviser to Brendan Nelson, Minister for Education, Science and Training, to discuss the program's dissemination and sustainability, and showcased the program at the Prime Minister's Science Engineering and Innovation Council meeting in late November. CoreChart and the Robotics Peer Mentoring Program have also aroused the interest of major microcontroller companies including Microchip Technology Inc (USA), as well as government education officials from Malaysia.

At UniSA's Robotics Peer Mentoring Program Celebration and Competition on 28 November, the secondary students demonstrated their newfound expertise, with Nuriootpa High School (Philippe Vigor and Marcus Reinders) winning the standard division and the team from SACE on the Lakes program (Kim McCormack, Craigmore High and Brian McAvaney, Paralowie R-12) winning the advanced division.

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