The smell of engine oil was in the air at a UNSW Canberra workshop as a group of teenage girls tinkered with lawn mower engines.
Their task was to take the engine apart, carefully screwing, twisting and tapping at each piece, and then put it all back together.
While most teenagers were still relaxing in their school holidays, more than 100 high school students have come together for a three-day engineering immersion program.
Dr Neda Aboutorab is an associate professor in electrical engineering and the co-chair of the UNSW Canberra young women in engineering program, dubbed YoWIE.
"One of the aims of this program is to change the picture for them, to break down some of these myths and perceptions about engineering and that maths and science is for boys," Dr Aboutorab said.
The program is run mostly by female engineers supported by previous participants of the program, who are known as Super YoWIEs.
The program started in 2016 with just 16 participants. This year there are 105 students taking part who are from the Canberra region as well as from around NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
Almost 500 students have participated in the program since it started and some have gone on to higher education in engineering.
"At the moment we have 16 of the past Yowies who are doing different engineering programs here at UNSW Canberra, and there are several others that are doing other programs."
The girls will get a taste of civil engineering by building their own dams with clay, rock and soil and by creating their own concrete mix.
They will also learn about software engineering by programming robots to navigate a Lego maze and compete in a game of robot hockey.
Dr Aboutorab said it was important to encourage women into engineering as they only make up about 12 per cent of the workforce.
"If maths and science is something you're interested in, engineering could be a career that would be very suitable for them and it's a very rewarding career. You can see engineering work everywhere around you. It's so impactful in our lives."
St Clare's College student Andi Gao and Merici College student Georgia Ween worked together to take apart their engine.
Andi was interested in the design side of civil or infrastructure engineering.
"I didn't know about [engineering], and then I came here and thought 'wow, that's so fun'. It's definitely something new and definitely, I'll be coming back."
Georgia enjoyed being able to meet different types of engineers and other students.
"I feel like it's a good opportunity to see all of the options and I always meet lots of people at these sort of things."
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