2023 Rotary Forum – connecting with the next generation!

HERA was thrilled to host the 2023 Rotary National Science and Technology students at HERA House to kick off the new year!

As part of our commitment to inspire future engineers to work in the metals industry, this student event showcases and highlights the real opportunities that exist within our sector.

This years cohort consisted of 22 students who are seeking further insight into potential future career pathways.

Despite Covid-19 bringing a halt to things for a short while, HERA has been hosting this event for a few years now, and our general approach is to invite our technical team to deliver concise presentations on their role at HERA, how they got there, and what it entails.

Fostering student collaboration

Our Automation and Welding 4.0 Engineer, Holger Heinzel, welcomed the students into HERA House with an engaging morning session. With a fresh, awake, and engaged crowd of students, the technical team then delivered their presentations followed by a panel discussion to encourage the students to engage and interact with the speakers.

The panel, which focused on science and engineering, included three members of our HERA team. Holger Heinzel, our Structural Systems Finite Element Analyst, Nandor Mago and our Research Engineer, Hafez Taheri.

These presentations and panel discussions allowed the students gain a brief overview of what our engineers accomplish in their roles, as well as the multitude of opportunities available to them as both a graduating student, and also through internships.

After a morning tea break, the students were refreshed and ready to go for session two. This consisted of splitting the students into smaller groups to experience some of the amazing automation equipment and facilities at HERA House. Spending roughly half an hour on each station, the students got to experience our 3D Scanner, Virtual Reality Set and Cobot Programming with our team. Hafez discussed and demonstrated how the 3D Scanner works and it’s purpose, before allowing the students a turn at scanning various objects in the Fab 4.0 Lab.

Nandor took the students through a virtual reality experience in our Pūtātara Media Room. Using the Virtual Reality set and Google Earth, students took turns to experience virtual reality and explore around the globe.

The final station was Cobot Programming with Holger. Here the students listened to Holger explain the purpose of the Cobot and demonstrate how it is used, before encouraging the students a turn of their own.Once the students made it around all three stations with the opportunity to experience each, the cohort then met back up for a de-briefing session to chat about their day, and their learnings and experiences before hitting the team with discussion and questions. All in all, it was an educative and enjoyable day had by all.

Where to from here?

We believe this student visit is an excellent opportunity for both students and our own employees to interact with the future generations of our sector. We undoubtedly look forward to hosting these student events again in the future. The diverse range of students we met is also a great indicator of the direction our industry is heading and speaks to the strength of the young people and their capabilities. Our available student memberships also offer out an additional point of contact to future engineers, allowing us to interact with the students earlier in their career pathway and have a greater influence.