Work Experience
As part of the Work Experience Program, NICTA is offering regular placements to students enrolled in Year 9 to Year 12 in Australia. The placements are usually for one week, at one of the NICTA national locations, and encourage students to observe a range of research and engineering tasks, undertake some supervised work, learn about the workplace and find out about future training opportunities.
What's Up at NICTA?
In the past, Work Experience Program students have worked on advanced research topics ranging from wireless network devices to speech and gesture interfaces to computer games. Here are what some of them said:
Frank (Year 10)
James Ruse Agricultural High School, NSW
During my week at NICTA, I added new functionality to an Intranet system allowing to find other people in the company. I discovered programming languages to edit databases (SQL), create web content (HTML), web layout (CSS) and dynamic content (PHP). I used them to allow users to add extra information as well as to set which days of the week they are on site. More in the video...
Eric (Year 10)
James Ruse Agricultural High School, NSW
During my week at NICTA, I've been implementing a voice and gesture recognition program into the game The Secret of Monkey Island. This means that one is able to use a small infrared light pointer, a wii remote and a microphone to perform the actions which are normally done using a mouse and keyboard. More in the video...
Alex (Year 10)
James Ruse Agricultural High School
During my week at NICTA, I was tasked use Scratch, a software environment enabling young children to learn programming graphically. I invented scripts that could be used to demonstrate to children what Scratch is and what is does. The whole experience at NICTA was really enjoyable and I had a lot of fun being there and using Scratch. More in the video...
Abhinav (Year 10)
During my week at NICTA, I learned about software development for electronic devices, using an Arduino board. I learned about the programming language that can be used to activate features on the card, such as switching LEDs on and off, as well as capturing data from sensors mounted on the card, for example a potentiometer. I also showed a group of Year 3 students how to build an intrusion detection alarm, using a light sensor! More in the video...
Celeste (Year 10)
Manly Selective High School, NSW
During my week at NICTA, I learned about how to design and carry out experiments involving human participants. My task was to elicit specific emotions such as surprise or frustration, while the person was driving. Of course, it would be too dangerous to do it in a car, so we used a simulator in which I could use some tricks. More in the video...
How to Apply?
Email Students@NICTA giving an indication of your areas of interest in ICT (Information Communications Technology), any relevant skills you have and the proposed dates of your work experience.