Six students from the University of South Australia have been awarded Scholarships in Engineering and Information Technology by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Senator Sandy Macdonald, announced today. “The scholarships are to encourage young scientists and engineers to pursue studies in information technology and science, leading ultimately to a career in Defence research,” Senator Macdonald said.

“I congratulate the six scholarship recipients and wish them every success with their engineering and information technology studies,” he said. The scholarships, worth a total of $12,000, are awarded to students in their first year of tertiary study in the Bachelor of Engineering (Information Technology) discipline. The 2006 recipients are Adrian Snell, Jarrad Cody, Alida Jansen Van
Vuuren, Trong Nguyen, Adam Carson and Joshua White.

DSTO’s Deputy Chief Defence Scientist (Information), Mr Neil Bryans, presented the scholarships to students from the University’s School of Electrical and Information Technology during a ceremony at DSTO’s Edinburgh SA facility. He said the scholarships demonstrate DSTO’s commitment to developing the intellectual capital needed to broaden Australia’s scientific skills base.

“DSTO is a major employer of scientists, engineers and information technology specialists. It is vital to the organisation that the
universities continue to produce high quality graduates,” Mr Bryans said. DSTO assists the Australian Defence Force to achieve a capability edge through the exploitation of rapid advances in information technology, communications and intelligence gathering, and in the development of new equipment, electronic systems and war fighting concepts.