12 July, 2010 15:20 by Megan
There's no making cups of coffee for year 11 work experience students Stuart Biggar (Cheltenham Secondary College) and Adrian Sortino (Galvin Park Secondary College). These two exceptional students were selected through the Victorian Information Technology Teachers' Association 'ICT Achievers' program, which placed them with Joseph Austin-Crowe and his company Advanced 3D Modelling.
Stuart, Joe & Adrian discuss the 3D modelling project
Source: Museum Victoria 2010
Over two weeks, Stuart and Adrian will work with Joseph and his company to create a virtual moving image sequence that shows the workings of the water harvesting system currently being installed as part of the World Heritage, World Futures project.
Joseph explains:
This is our second year participating in the VITTA Young Achievers program. We are assigned two very bright secondary school students who work on a variety of tasks exactly as an employee would. They turn up 9 to 5 and are expected to make up any gaps in skills or knowledge in their own time.
The project is a hands-on experience for Stuart and Adrian, who will work on the project from concept to completion. Stuart commented:
I was surprised by the level of involvement that Joe allowed us in this placement. Usually all a placement wants you to do is make coffee and do the odd task, but Joe let us make key decisions and let us do most of the work on the project, all the while offering assistance and advice when we needed it.
Stuart and Adrian are both interested in pursuing careers in 3D modelling and this placement offers them a real experience in the working world from meeting clients to dealing with project challenges such as complex software. Adrian commented:
I am interested in pursuing an IT career after leaving school, hopefully in 3D design... So far I have found that the software used to generate 3D designs is very complex but interesting to use.
Keep an eye out for Stuart and Adrian's work, which will be published on the blog!