SciX - HSC Science Extension

Dear JMSS Community,

In the January school holidays, we headed off to Sydney to participate in SciX @ UNSW, a5-day event for HSC Science Extension (kind of like VCE Extended Investigation) students. We could choose from many different groups, from medical chemistry to quantum computing, which was the group we ended up in.

Neither of us had much experience with quantum physics or quantum computing. However, the UNSW mentors were incredibly helpful and over the course of the first few days, made the theory actually make sense (eventually). By the end of the week, we were running quantum programs, and comparing simulator results with those from an actual quantum computer built by IBM.

Being able to see the many errors that real quantum computers made really put into perspective how new this field was, and it was so cool to be able to work at the cutting edge for the week.

Regardless of your project group, the days were full-on: research lab sessions, project planning and lectures on how to read and write science papers. We had many lab tour sessions that we could choose from to learn more about the work done on the UNSW campus and see their facilities. For the Nanomed group, students were able to createmedicine and observe their qualities using the NMR machines available.

The student cohort was full of brilliant people of different backgrounds — some were working for tech startups, some were science olympiad students and quite a few were the first in their family to consider university. As the event was tailored towards HSC students, we had a lot of exposure to how their curriculum worked. We learned so much from each other’s experiences, and by the end of the week, we had built so many LinkedIn meaningful connections.

We definitely recommend everyone to give this program a go. Whether you're aiming to explore a new topic, experience uni life, expand your network, or have an excuse to go to Sydney, it’s one of the best things you can do in the Summer holidays.

Below is a statement from a student, Kelly, who worked in the NanoMed group:“In our experiments on nanoparticles, we investigated the behaviour of gold nanoparticles under various conditions, such as exposure to protein solutions and polymerisation. Our first lab session consisted of a safety induction, where we were introduced to the available equipment in the chemistry lab and instructed on the proper handling and disposal of waste and contaminated materials.

In the following session, we synthesised the gold nanoparticle solution using the Turkevichmethod. It was particularly fascinating to observe the rapid transformation of the solutionfrom clear to a deep blood-red colour upon the addition of trisodium citrate. In the subsequent sessions, each student conducted their own experiment with guidance from the mentors.

Additionally, the mentors hosted theory lessons to address our questions and provide insights into our data. Overall, this program has been a highly enriching experience, broadening both my knowledge and interest regarding the synthesis of chemical materials”

~ Jill Xu & Joel Tan