The theme was ‘Leading young people into the next industrial revolution,’ in an exciting living laboratory within a traditional rural setting.

“It was an amazing experience being part of the transformation of a humble Masonic Hall into a high level technical training facility with $250,000 worth of equipment for the students to train on,” Advance Gloucester member, Ian Shaw said.

The two-day workshop, run in the Gloucester Masonic Lodge, provided a group of 13-17 year old’s an introduction to manufacturing and robotics electronics, coding, systems automation, project construction and the internet of things.

“Participants experienced hands-on learning and were immersed in a sample of technology-based training delivered by industrial experts who are professional educators with TAFE NSW,” Ian said.

Gloucester Bots is a collaborative project by Advance Gloucester, Gloucester Freemasons and TAFE NSW Newcastle, funded by AGL.

“It’s great to get the word out there to teenagers across the region that maths and physics has exciting real-world applications.

“They actually learn techniques used in prototype-quality soldering, get access to some real world industrial robots and learn how to use high end industrial test equipment,” Ian said.

The program covered the basics of electricity and electronics, advanced soldering techniques, electronic project-making, as well as programming and operating all-terrain semi-autonomous vehicles and multi-function industry robots.