Published Monday, 29 January, 2007 at 08:20 AM
Minister for State Development, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
QUEENSLAND SMART TEENS BLAST ONTO THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
Thirteen Queensland Smart teens will rocket off to the USA to rub shoulders with NASA experts after blasting ahead of their peers in Brisbane.
Adam Lissimore, Sam Visoma, Dan Comerford, Chuong Nguyen, Adrian O’Keeffe, Kieran Shaw, Luke Sturgess, Alex Bowen-Rotsaert, James Cafaro, Scott Fisher, James Harvey, Lachlan Young and Harry Tilse from South Brisbane’s St Laurence’s College will make the trip of a lifetime to the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas in July where they will compete in the international finals of the Space Settlement Design Competition.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister for State Development Gary Fenlon said some of Queensland’s most promising up-and-coming scientific minds had participated in today’s Australian regional finals of the competition.
“The competition required students to design “ASTORIA” in the year 2067 - the first space settlement community to be located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,” Mr Fenlon said
“These bright young people have to cover every contingency of a human settlement in space, from structural design and costing to providing basic social services to the population,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say university-level students would have found this task challenging.”
Mr Fenlon said more than 80 students from across Queensland entered the competition, including from the regional centres of Townsville, Cairns and Bundaberg.
“And now we have a group of young Queenslanders representing Australia on the international stage.
“What could be better!”
Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Peter Andrews, who opened the three-day event, said the competition was an effective way of encouraging students to take up careers in science and technology.
“It’s a fact; we don’t have enough future scientists coming up through the ranks to fill the jobs of the future and the number of tertiary science graduates is declining at an alarming rate,” Professor Andrews said.
“Programs like the space design competition do more than just stimulate students’ imaginations,” he said.
“They provide a level of real relevance to the students’ learning and show them how science and technology can be applied to a wide variety of exciting careers.
“As more schools take up the Australian Space Design challenge, we’ll no doubt see more students choosing the career paths that will propel our growing knowledge economy.”
Parliamentary Secretary Fenlon said the Beattie Government had thrown its support behind the initiative and matched the Commonwealth funding.
“It’s important we foster the innovative minds of the future and initiatives such as this make it possible,” Mr Fenlon said.
Competition contact – Mark Shaw – Chairman of the Aus Space Design Management Committee – 0411 349 222
Media contact – Chris Brown – 3224 7349 or Elouise Campion 3224 6784.
29 January, 2007
Adam Lissimore, Sam Visoma, Dan Comerford, Chuong Nguyen, Adrian O’Keeffe, Kieran Shaw, Luke Sturgess, Alex Bowen-Rotsaert, James Cafaro, Scott Fisher, James Harvey, Lachlan Young and Harry Tilse from South Brisbane’s St Laurence’s College will make the trip of a lifetime to the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas in July where they will compete in the international finals of the Space Settlement Design Competition.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister for State Development Gary Fenlon said some of Queensland’s most promising up-and-coming scientific minds had participated in today’s Australian regional finals of the competition.
“The competition required students to design “ASTORIA” in the year 2067 - the first space settlement community to be located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,” Mr Fenlon said
“These bright young people have to cover every contingency of a human settlement in space, from structural design and costing to providing basic social services to the population,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say university-level students would have found this task challenging.”
Mr Fenlon said more than 80 students from across Queensland entered the competition, including from the regional centres of Townsville, Cairns and Bundaberg.
“And now we have a group of young Queenslanders representing Australia on the international stage.
“What could be better!”
Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Peter Andrews, who opened the three-day event, said the competition was an effective way of encouraging students to take up careers in science and technology.
“It’s a fact; we don’t have enough future scientists coming up through the ranks to fill the jobs of the future and the number of tertiary science graduates is declining at an alarming rate,” Professor Andrews said.
“Programs like the space design competition do more than just stimulate students’ imaginations,” he said.
“They provide a level of real relevance to the students’ learning and show them how science and technology can be applied to a wide variety of exciting careers.
“As more schools take up the Australian Space Design challenge, we’ll no doubt see more students choosing the career paths that will propel our growing knowledge economy.”
Parliamentary Secretary Fenlon said the Beattie Government had thrown its support behind the initiative and matched the Commonwealth funding.
“It’s important we foster the innovative minds of the future and initiatives such as this make it possible,” Mr Fenlon said.
Competition contact – Mark Shaw – Chairman of the Aus Space Design Management Committee – 0411 349 222
Media contact – Chris Brown – 3224 7349 or Elouise Campion 3224 6784.
29 January, 2007