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Picture: Olivia Widjaja
There’s an episode on the American sitcom The Huge Bang Principle the place the principle characters are gathered on the roof of an condominium constructing to carry out a lunar laser experiment.
Watching that episode on the time, Olivia Widjaja by no means imagined she would someday find yourself doing one thing comparable, besides she did throughout her 4 month internship as an preliminary orbit dedication engineer at Electro Optic Methods (EOS).
“What [EOS] primarily do is once they detect house particles that is about to collide with one other piece of particles, they use high-range lasers in Mount Stromlo [Observatory in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory] to nudge it out of its pathway to stop collision and extra particles,” she instructed ZDNet.
“What I did was use totally different numerical strategies to foretell varied doable ways in which particles can journey and enhance the algorithm by reducing its error as a lot as doable, so then we will hopefully run it in real-time and use it with different instruments, similar to vibration lasers.”
Watching The Huge Bang Principle as little one was the place the curiosity in science and house began for Widjaja, who’s now a fourth-year aerospace engineering pupil on the College of New South Wales.
“They used numerous science jokes and I wished to know them and that is the place I realized numerous the issues myself,” she stated.
Regardless of her curiosity, the help throughout faculty life to enter the sphere couldn’t have been farther from useful.
“I used to be slightly bit annoyed once I was in main faculty as a result of my main faculty did not have any STEM lessons. That they had maths, however they did not have science, so I used to be instructing myself. I bear in mind stealing my sister’s science textbooks simply to learn it,” she stated.
She defined the way it worsened throughout highschool the place she attended an impartial women’ faculty and had to decide on two electives to review in 12 months 9 and 10 — and that her elective decisions have been whittled down involuntarily as a result of precedence was handed to college students on the brother faculty.
“That 12 months was the primary time the brother faculty was providing new electives — it was woodwork and engineering. After all, I used to be excited and thought I wished to do engineering; that was my first choice … [but] I bear in mind being pulled apart by the vice precept — in addition to with just a few different women who put engineering as an elective — and acquired instructed that every one the boys took the spots, so we had to decide on totally different electives,” Widjaja stated.
“I used to be a bit aggravated on the time, so I swapped it out for commerce however in retrospective, I ought to’ve kicked up a fuss about it.”
See additionally: Honoring Ladies’s Historical past Month in tech
Widjaja continued to face sexism first-hand when she began college.
“A selected instance in my head was in first-year throughout O-week, I used to be asking a male pupil a bunch of questions on uni life, and when it got here to the subject on my HSC outcomes and the way I did higher in my humanities topics that maths and physics, he really helpful me to ‘actually take into account if engineering is what I wish to do’, particularly if I discover myself failing in first 12 months,” she stated.
Whereas she admitted to failing a “bunch of programs” throughout her first 12 months of college, Widjaja accredited her dedication to persevere.
“I used to be cussed sufficient to remain in my diploma, secured myself some work with EOS, and am near graduating,” she stated.
As to the place she hopes to her profession will land after commencement, Widjaja is assured it is going to be in house sustainability, an space she hopes to lift extra consciousness about.
“It has been a difficulty because the ’60s and it is simply acquired worse and worse,” she stated.
“The unlucky factor is that house particles wasn’t actually within the information till final 12 months when a chunk of particles was going to hit the Worldwide House Station. Solely when one thing dangerous occurs do individuals realise that is a factor.”
She believes a part of the answer is healthier regulation and coordination.
“There are such a lot of satellites being launched. Loads of them is an effective factor – we want web communications, and we want it to observe the setting. On the identical time, there are such a lot of useless satellites up there that is floating round,” Widjaja stated.
“We form of overlook about it as a result of the media is at all times like, ‘Oh, this firm is launching this quantity of satellites’, which sounds nice however realistically how can we promote high quality over amount within the area of sustainability, and the way can we higher collaborate and share one another’s information in order that we’re not always launching impartial satellites and growing the congestion up there.”
Learn: NASA needs to transform waste into house gold
Along with wanting to assist clear up the house junk drawback, Widjaja additionally hopes to grow to be a task mannequin for different girls who want to enter the sphere. She has began mentoring first-year UNSW engineering college students and can also be a mentee herself as a part of the Western Sydney Ladies’s community.
“I feel that we have to promote the concept girls should not need to work to ‘mix in’ and be like ‘one of many boys’ simply because we examine and work in a male-dominated trade,” she stated.
“We should not really feel ashamed for having fun with ‘historically female’ actions similar to being into trend and make-up and drive ourselves to undertake ‘historically masculine’ hobbies, similar to enjoying video video games and constructing PCs. After all, this will apply to males as properly.
“I feel that having distinctive pursuits and personalities is what permits us to convey numerous opinions, particularly in an trade that strives for innovation.”
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