Education and Engagement

We love inspiring people with the potential of the latest technological advancements. Throughout the year, our team works with school groups and community organisations as well as government to promote the use of advanced IT infrastructure. We're always up for a challenge and excel at introducing new ways to tackle problems.

Working with Schools

Innovative kids

We work with school groups year-round to get kids excited about the possibilities of eResearch.

Regular hands-on workshops help our young people see that technology is not just a game for grown-ups.  We endeavour to empower the students of today with small amounts of know-how they can use to make a real difference in their local communities today. By doing so, we seed the passion so they grow up to solve the problems of tomorrow.

Classroom on the Reef

Classroom on the Reef is a collaboration between James Cook University and the Queensland Department of Education. eResearch team members collaborated with other members of the University to install two sensor platforms in the reefs off Orpheus Island. The data from the sensors and other content is available to Queensland high school students studying Marine Science, as well as the general public.

Check out the live streaming underwater cameras and the data from the above ground and underwater sensors.

Gateway to Industry Schools Program (GISP)

The Queensland ICT Gateway to Industry Schools Program (GISP) is linking local industry partners and supporters throughout the state to schools, students and educators.  The program provides education and career opportunities for school students and educators by connecting them with industry to improve awareness of ICT careers, make informed subject selections, and improve teaching methodologies.

The JCU eResearch Centre is actively contributing to the GISP initiative with its staff supporting the local North Queensland secondary school ICT teachers' community, bolstering knowledge of and experience with topics on the new national curriculum. In addition, our staff are visiting classes in schools to talk about the exciting world of ICT careers and opportunities, whilst also reviewing content for teacher presentations.

If you're a teacher or student who's interested in discovering more about the eResearch Centre's role in the ICT industry and how we connect researchers to technology

Connect with us through GISP or contact us directly...

Engaging with the Community

Smart Sustainable Townsville

Since 2011 the JCU eResearch Centre has collaborated with the Townsville City Council (TCC) to apply sensor technologies to understanding the environment of Townsville, Climate Change education and scoping a 21st Century economy in the region.  This collaboration has involved many community events and projects that have been pathfinders for applying smart city approaches to regional communities.  We have made contributions to several high profile initiatives including use of temperature monitoring to understand and respond to tropical heat islands and IoT monitoring of waterways, wetlands, parks and buildings.

Smart Precinct NQ (SPNQ)

Staff of the JCU eResearch Centre have contributed to the North Queensland startup and innovation community for many years,  contributing to the running of many community programs such as Startup Weekends.  The North Queensland Innovation space SPNQ is a regional ideas accelerator supported by JCU.  Our staff work closely with SPNQ and the JCU fast prototyping facility Area61 to support university/industry interaction and product development.

DevNQ

DevNQ is North Queensland's IT community - linking programmers, software developers and engineers in a social, professional development environment. With regular events, guest speakers and exciting topics, DevNQ welcomes people of any level of programming experience, in any language to join in and help build a community of developers who want to learn, share and meet new people.

The JCU eResearch Centre is proud to support DevNQ through helping organise, promote and host events. JCU researchers, staff and students who are interested in learning more about programming and software development can join DevNQ and its open community and come along to its next meetup.

For the extra-enthusiastic, DevNQ is always looking for new and interesting speakers to share their experiences and projects with the community - so if you've done something amazing with your research through the HPRC, or have a groundbreaking story to tell about Research Data Management technology, get involved!

Join DevNQ today at https://devnq.org!

Community Engagement Days

The JCU eResearch Centre regularly partners with schools and education groups, creating inspiring connections to JCU's researchers, our staff and university community. Our role varies depending on the event, but key highlights include building interactive data experiences, hosting world-class speakers, creating inspirational environments, and celebrating diversity across disciplines such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We facilitate "sprint" development days in the community that allow anyone to join in and learn how to build technology without any prior experience.

In real terms, we can link your community group or event to key researchers and work at James Cook University, especially to the research work that our team does within the eResearch Centre in areas such as sensor networking, AgTech, visualisation and high-speed data processing.

If you're interested in working with us around an event, we're always looking for the next opportunity:

Get in touch...