VCRS Recipient: Andrea Lau

When Andrea Lau was studying chemistry, biology and advanced maths units at high school she found an outlet for her creative side making cards and jewellery at home.

It’s not surprising then that her broad range of talents saw her enrolling in architecture at university – a field that perhaps more than most combines art and science equally.

But just three weeks into a University of Sydney architecture degree she found herself fascinated by the crossover units she was taking in the University’s new Bachelor of Design Computing degree.

“The course is great mix of creativity and technical skills,” says Lau, who quickly switched courses. “In first year we were creating our own virtual studios in a space like Second Life. We each had a plot of land to put things on,” she says.

After graduating recently one of her fellow students found work with MTV in promo production, while another landed a job with Sony in online media production. Others are working in architectural firms, in computer modelling and building rendering.

She believes the combination of design and technical skills helps graduates come up with better solutions. “As a designer you need to know whether an idea is technically possible – and if you understand the technical side, it can help you be more creative.”

Twenty-two-year-old Lau has just been awarded one of the first Vice-Chancellor’s Research Scholarships to undertake a PhD. Worth $30,000 tax exempt, they are fast becoming one of Australia’s most prestigious and sought after scholarships.

She hopes to forge a career as an academic while continuing to develop design computing ideas that work in the real world. “So much of our lives are stored digitally, and so much of our lives now happen online.

“We used to have a pile of letters, and now with emails there is no physical representation. I’m really interested in finding ways to make the intangible tangible.”

“In the physical world our personality is expressed in the way we talk, the way we dress and our facial expressions, but there is no real equivalent in the online world. I want to take the invisible and make it visible.”