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Rotary club sponsors local students for high tech adventure

Three École secondaire publique Odyssée students chosen to attend tech conference
Tech conference- Hayden Murphy- center  Alex Boissonneault  right  Jo-Zef Mathieu
Tech conference attendees Hayden Murphy (left), Alex Boissonneault (center), and Jo-zef Mathieu (right). / Photo supplied by Sylvie Vannier

Alex Boissonneault, Jo-zef Mathieu, and Hayden Murphy—all grade 10 students at  École secondaire publique Odyssée—were recently chosen to attend the annual Advanced High Technology conference.

Only 45 students from Ontario were chosen to attend the three-day conference, which attracts attendees from throughout the country.

The Rotary Club has hosted the Adventure in High Tech event for over thirty years, the organization explains on the event’s site. Usually, the conference occurs in Ottawa, although with Covid, the event was moved online.

Missing out on the live aspect of the event was not ideal for the Odyssée three, as they would have enjoyed a trip to Ottawa. However, “they still got to participate in the sessions,” explained their teacher, Sylvie Vannier.

Those sessions—streamed online—took place from October 16 to 18 and included talks on quantum security, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, cyber security, virtual reality, and other topics pertaining to the future trajectory of current technologies.

The Rotary Club of Nipissing sponsored the three students to attend the conference, and president Mark Lamontagne noted the organization “is proud to sponsor young leaders in our community, like the three high school students that attended the Adventure in High Technology conference.”

“While we are engaged in numerous projects,” he said, “our club focuses specifically on children and youth initiatives.”

“We look forward to future initiatives with our secondary school partners in the region,” Lamontagne added, “as we all believe that our future is bright with these young leaders.”

Vannier mentioned her gratitude to the club for providing the opportunity, and noted the conference also shed light on what the future of jobs in the technology field might look like.

As a co-op teacher, Vannier is always excited for such insights, and the event highlighted “jobs that will exist” in the students’ future “that don’t even exist yet.”

“Technology is changing so quickly in our world and affecting everything,” she said, “from quantum physics to self-driving cars, to rockets going to Mars.”

The conference “gives students a real perspective on what’s out there” and what is available to them.    

“My favourite workshop,” explained Boissonneault, “was about gaming and animations, and how to get into that business.”

For Mathieu, the Google presentation was tops, giving him insight “into how the Google Cloud works, and the technologies behind that.”

Murphy enjoyed “that satellite presentation” the best, learning how “they work in space, and how they build them.”

“They had an interactive part too” during the session, “so that was fun.”

Something for everyone at the tech conference, and the students acknowledged the sessions opened their eyes to new horizons.

“I think they realize that whatever they go into” work wise, “it will be influenced by technology,” Vannier said, adding that she hopes more students will be accepted for future conferences, although “it will be hard to top these guys,” as far as participants go.

“It was an honour” to be chosen to attend, Boissonneault said.

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.


David Briggs, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

About the Author: David Briggs, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering civic and diversity issues for BayToday. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada
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