Looking to the stars – Australia’s rising innovative industry
Innovation spaces in Australia need the support of bright and motivated people. Solange Cunin is the CEO of Cuberider, which gives high school students the opportunity to learn STEM skills by designing and coding experiments that are tested in space on the International Space Station.
NSW’s disassembly of BOSTES into the NSW Educational Standards Authority (NSWESA) highlights the need for innovation in the educational system. The education system is itself a space for Australian innovation.
In particular, most Australian students lack fundamental STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) skills. It is thought that by 2025 the gap between STEM skills needed in the workforce and people possessing those STEM skills will be over 600%.
This huge disparity needs to be addressed.
Cuberider equips today’s students for tomorrow by instilling passion for, and capability in STEM. What better way to do this than with another one of Australia’s rising innovative industries: space. Students participating in the program learn about outer space as well as creating experiments that will be sent to the International Space Station.
Students receive space hardware full of sensors that enable them to learn logic, skills and reasoning. They use this exciting project to investigate and discover within their science and mathematics classrooms.
Space is the magic bullet. It is an industry that is truly innovative. But it is more powerful than that, as it has the capability to inspire and motivate a broad demographic. It inspires everyone because man has always looked to the stars as something both glorious and ambitious.
The current and future innovation spaces in Australia need the support of bright and motivated people.
The best way to innovate in the education system is to create ambition within the students. What better way to motivate young people than with something that has been aspired to since the dawn of time?
Solange Cunin is a 25-year-old self-confessed space geek who grew up off the grid on her parents’ farm in northern NSW. She was given her first telescope at the age of eight and told herself at fourteen said that she would become an aerospace engineer. But it wasn’t until she watched the live stream of a SpaceX rocket launch four years later that she knew her long fascination with space would become a reality. Solange has three years’ experience in the space industry including roles in management, research and operations.