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Since its inception, NICTA (National ICT Australia) has developed a comprehensive outreach program to engage with Australian primary and secondary school students. NICTA researchers visit secondary schools and spend a substantial amount of time in classes talking to and inspiring students with an interest in and talent for mathematics and science-based subjects.

At science fairs, NICTA researchers tailor demonstrations to students of primary school age to ignite their interest in innovation and invention with practical and interactive exhibits.

Examples of NICTA’s involvement in primary and secondary school outreach are: 

• NICTA has joined forces with the Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT) to attract more students into computer science with the sponsorship of the Australian Informatics Olympiad. The Olympiad consists of a number of computing programming competitions for students in Years 7 to 12, which are run by the AMT. Following a selection program, each year an Australian Informatics Olympiad team is nominated to compete in the International Olympiad in Informatics.  NICTA’s sponsorship of this event demonstrates its commitment to capitalise on Australia’s untapped ICT talent by helping to identify and encourage young Australians.

• NICTA was a gold sponsor of the 2008 National Computer Science School (NCSS), held over one week in January 2008. NCSS involved around 80 secondary school students and achieved 40 per cent female participation. NCSS is an extraordinary event where high school students learn to program and design from the basics to more advanced areas and produce a near-commercial quality website in a single week. As well as promoting computer science studies in Australia, students gained an understanding of how university studies can help them achieve great careers.

• NICTA researchers from the Canberra Laboratory are involved in piloting an interactive program to introduce primary school students to ICT research and innovation. The students are asked to become secret agents for the day and infiltrate NICTA to find out what researchers do there. These gifted students were exposed to a variety of concepts that  show the importance of maths in everyday ICT solutions such as using machine learning to identify handwriting or cure cancer, and using thermal image cameras to identify items that are hot or cold. Following on from the positive feedback from the students and school staff, there has been considerable interest from a number of schools in the ACT as well as GATEWAYS (Gifted and Talented Education) which runs programs in Melbourne and Sydney.