Brilliant minds gather in West Lindfield

Tomorrow's leading scientists have met to discuss their big ideas at the Big Day In held at the CSIRO in West-Lindfield. At a conference on February 16 and 17, 70 promising students from across Australia took part in presenting their research discoveries.

Students have tackled a large range of topics. Michelle Blom of Clayton, Victoria has created mathematical software that schedules the process necessary for creating the best quality wine and Yih Hui Lai of North Ryde has developed virtual fences for controlling livestock in a simulator. Local student Jason Kulk of Lindfield has designed a more fuel-efficient and quieter motor for washing machines.

The participants are Vacation Scholarship students from the CSIRO and the International Centre of Excellence for Education in Mathematics.

"The idea is to get them together to socialise, share their experiences and generally give them a boost about the wonderful things science and technology can do for Australia," says Gerry Haddad, chief of the Industrial Physics Unit at the CSIRO.

For University of Sydney student Ronnie Ma of Marsfield, his Vacation Scholarship at the CSIRO his participation in the Big Day In is part of a life-long dream.

"Back in high-school days, I walked to school and I always walked past the CSIRO Marsfield site and looked at these amazing antennas, and all these high tech radio physics stuff, that was my inspiration to work in a research organisation with leading edge technologies."

Now Ronnie is involved in working on software that will allow different companies working on the same project, to share resources, such as networks or computer storage systems. This would be particularly useful in the film industry.

Andrew Charles of Hornsby is also doing research in IT at the CSIRO. The space engineering student from the University of Sydney is working on increasing the speed of supercomputers. In the future, he hopes to work in the defence industry as an engineer. He is positive about the future of science in Australia.

"We have always been seen as an innovative country and I think we can keep that name."

Dr Cameron Murray of the CSIRO who has presented the conference believes the Big Day In was an opportunity to encourage the talent in this select group of bright young people.

"If Australia is going to have world-beating technology and technology-based business, we need to nurture people like this."