Over 3,000 people visited the ANU campus on 3 September, 2022, the first in-person Open Day since before the pandemic. Future students and their parents were greeted with a festival-like environment and offered numerous opportunities to connect with academics, staff, and current students.

"There was a real buzz on campus with prospective students and their parents visiting student booths, and staff presentations, as well as information stations to help navigate degree and program structures," said Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell AO. 

Bell, as Interim Dean of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS), offered welcoming remarks at the Cultural Centre's main theatre. She introduced a few of the incredible programs and pathways at CECS, inviting visitors to attend the day's events, roam the campus, and see if they can envision themselves here.

The School of Engineering and the School of Computing also offered presentations at the Cultural Centre, while an all-day information expo filled up level 5 of the Marie Reay Teaching Centre. Student-led organisations and clubs invited future students to join their ranks at "STEM fest," which was set up on the lawn of University Avenue, right next to a complementary (and very tasty) coffee stand provided by Bean Culture. Nearby in the Hanna Nuemann building, students formed a "Laptop Ensemble" treated visitors to a improvisational musical performance. And, Jubille Joint Fellow Jo Cicua presented on the cross-disciplinary applications of high speed computing.

A mother and son approached us sheepishly after Professor Kylie Catchpole's "Discover Engineering" session had finished. They had gotten mixed up and missed the session.

"Was it recorded?" the mother asked.

"Yes!" we said. "And, we have two Student Ambassadors here who can speak to your son as well."

Up stepped Aayush Nema, who is studying a Masters of Engineering (Mechitronics) and Kirat Alreja, who is studying a Bachelors of Advanced Computing (Honours), both of whom had helped with the filming of the presentation. The four of them had a warm and informative conversation and the young man left knowing that if he does #ChooseANU, he will already have two friends.

Two days later we emailed his mother a link to the video and she wrote back, very pleased. "Many thanks to Aayush and Kirat for your kind support on open day, very appreciated!"

We now have both the Engineering and the Computing presentations up on our Open Day landing page. And the short video above contains highlights from both information sessions.

Student Ambassador shines in front of, and behind, the camera

Alreja also contributed video content to each of our Open Day videos, and made this Open Day trailer for Instagram (embedded below), becoming a mini-celebrity on campus among the professional staffs of several Colleges. To top off a busy week, Alreja also jumped in front of the camera and dazzled a live audience in his native India with this recruitment video explaining why he chose to do a 2 Plus 2 exchange from Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in India.

 

 

 

 

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