HBI hosts Highschool STEM students to explore the world of biofabrication

The QUT Faculty of Engineering has developed and supported a new program for young, aspiring high school STEM students. The Program aims to address the lack of social diversity and gender equity that exists in STEM careers, by engaging with high school students from backgrounds of socio-economic challenge, and diverse cultural heritage, particularly First Nations Australians. The program is called ASPIRE (Applied STEM Projects for Immersive Real-world Education) and is a partnership between QUT, and Mabel Park State High School (MPSHS), south of Brisbane City.

Karen, Hannah, Lola and Simi joined Herston Biofabrication Institute’s Isabel for a day of learning about STEM careers last week.

As part of the QUT Aspire program to address the lack of social diversity and gender equality in STEM careers, the Mabel Park State High School students joined Isabel and other biomedical engineers for a deep-dive into the opportunities on offer when engineers, clinicians and academics come together.

For Simi, who wants to be a dentist upon finishing Grade 12, she says it broadens the possibilities for your future career.

“It widens your pathways to what is available to you after school because we didn’t know this was even an option – so this could be something I can look at too,” she said.