NICTA helps High School Students Invent the Future
12 years ago in 1995 hardly anyone had heard of the Internet. 12 years from now – in 2020 - what will have replaced the Internet, and what is the future going to look like?
A group of around 20 senior high-school students from Yrs 10 & 11 will be pondering this question at a special workshop run by NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence this week. Students from local schools around Randwick, Kensington, Mascot and Maroubra near the NICTA Research Laboratory at Kensington were invited to participate.
NICTA has been running a series of ‘2020 Vision’ foresighting workshops over the last few months. These have involved CEOs, CIOs, opinion leaders and industry analysts as well as NICTA research scientists and PhD students, who shared their thoughts to create futuristic scenarios for ICT in Australia.
According to Dr Terry Percival, NICTA Managing Laboratory Director, it is clear that today’s teenagers are the “creatives” for tomorrow’s technology.
“We would like to get input from the younger generation whose imagination is unbounded by knowledge of what is currently possible, and who will be the users of the new technology we are developing at NICTA,” Dr Percival said.
“Adolescents are critical early adopters of new technology – their use of texting, mobile telephony and social networks such as MySpace and Facebook is driving the evolution of ICT.”
“In 2020, these students will be young adults. They will be working and running businesses, starting families or undertaking further education. As the digital generation grows up they will have higher expectations of technology.”
“What do they think about how they will live, work, play, commute and travel? Will anyone still be using desktop computers? They will be filming, editing, downloading videos and creating music, researching and filing documents remotely and talking to each other off a single wireless device like today’s mobile phone, but what else?”
“What does it mean for future living spaces and workplaces, and how we communicate? Given the rate of change over the last 12 years, it’s likely that technology will continue to rapidly change.”
NICTA will use the visions from the workshop to guide its future ICT research.
The workshop will be held at the NICTA Kensington Laboratory, Level 1, 223 Anzac Pde, Kensington on Thursday, November 1 from 9.30 am - 12.30 pm.
Document(s): 
High School Students invent the Future (pdf, 26KB)
Contact: Kelly Mills
Phone: +61 2 8374 5489
Email: kelly.mills@nicta.com.au
