Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 405 Issue Date: 5 Sep, 2010

ENGINEERING - A New Understanding & Meaning!

Jacob Timmerman and his mother Dawn attended Western Endeavour’s Breakfast meeting on 23 February.  Jacob gave an eloquent account of his experiences at the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) in Canberra in January 2010.

Jacob elected to be part of the engineering interest group because of his desire to pursue a career in this area.  He recounted how this group:

• Visited the Australian National Museum of History (A social history museum);
• Attended Parliament House and participated in a Senate Committee;
• Studied water reservoirs built to withstand the worst flood in one million years.  These dams had concrete spillways with walls that became heavier as water rises, but which float away when extreme flood levels are reached to protect dams from becoming damaged;
• Visited the Snowy Mountains Hydo-electric Authority’s flood-flow models for different dam designs;
• Canberrra’s water treatment plan where water is irradiated to ensure that it fresh for drinking purposes;
• Participated in debating forums discussing such subjects as “If Science allows, should we live for ever”;
• Overviewed to Australian National University’s Physics Laboratories (e.g. studying plasma chambers, plasma space ship drives in their planning phase which may permit man to travel in space close to the speed of light, hydrogen fuel cell technology, particle accelerators, etc);
• Examined wind farm power technology;
• Debated managing bio-technology; and
• Visited the Centre for Nuclear Research.

At the same time he and the other participating students had a really great time.

Jacob’s enthusiasm was infectious.

When asked whether the NYSF had caused him to amend his career plans, he said that it had made him even more enthusiastic to pursue his engineering interests.