Space, the finals frontier
Undergraduate engineering student Matt Prance is preparing for a fast landing in the run-up to his final exams in Semester Two. He explains how the Future17 course played a vital part in combining sustainability with his passion for space.
Matt’s interest in space started at high school. At the time, he was contemplating medical school and following his sister into a healthcare career. But it was his father’s experiences as an apprentice in mechanical engineering – together with discovering an online content creator, who revealed different applications of rockets, satellites and all things aero-related – that got Matt thinking about a different pathway.
Once Matt enrolled at university, he found more opportunities for getting involved in space and sustainability activities. As well as the courses he selected as part of his honours programme, he joined up to clubs like the Formula SAE team (which designs and builds motorsport vehicles for competitions and the Auckland Programme for Space Systems (which supports students in building and launching satellites and contributing towards the field of space research).
Being a part of those clubs helped me a lot. Helped me figure out that this is stuff that I'm really interested in. This is something I want to do when I'm older.
He also worked on a variety of research, including disease identification in tomatoes, emotion detection in Te Reo Māori speakers, and communicating with satellites via lasers. Matt is currently doing a stage 4 project with Te Pūnaha Ātea Space Institute, where he had previously worked as an intern.
It was his involvement in the Business School’s Velocity start-up programme that led Matt to apply for the Future17 course. He was accepted and allocated to a project that saw him and his team members partner up with Lenovo Education, a company based in the Netherlands. The goal of their project was to create a communication strategy for Lenovo’s sustainability course, which was designed to help future students (for example, engineers and lawyers) develop a sustainability mindset for their own fields of expertise.
The project team comprised a diverse, core group of four students, from different countries. None had any prior experience in developing a communication strategy. For Matt, a lot of research helped him initially to expand his knowledge to be able to try and solve this issue.
It was a really good scenario of what it's like to go into consulting, where you get in touch with a client, you ask them a bunch of questions, try to get things clearer.
Throughout the duration of the project, Matt and the team had regular meetings with Lenovo Education, keeping them updated with progress, and clarifying any questions. They also had a Future17 mentor guiding them through the whole process.
For most students, Future17 is not their only course, and each team needs to organise itself around members’ study and other commitments. In Matt’s case he had four exams at the end of other courses. He says that he felt comfortable in flagging this at the outset and asking for help when he needed it. As a result, he felt well supported by the project mentor and his fellow team members.
At the end of the project, the team presents their recommendations to the client. This pitch is an important milestone, as well as forming 50 percent of the marks for the Future17 course.
In taking a step back, you're pitching to a company about what's going to impact not only that company, but also the recipients of the strategy. A lot of people have been impacted by the work that you're doing.
Matt and his team performed exceptionally well, and received plenty of positive feedback from Lenovo Education, who credited the students with coming up with ideas they hadn’t previously thought of.
From a sustainability perspective, the course was an eye-opener for Matt, revealing the multiple facets of sustainability, including cultural and social aspects. It has been particularly beneficial in interview situations (for internships and graduate roles), where he was able to draw on his experience of working in an international team environment.
I was working with different backgrounds and experiences and different skills to try and resolve this one project. And I was able to articulate that in a good way.
So, what’s next for Matt? With the New Zealand space sustainability community being so tiny, it’s likely he needs to venture overseas to pursue this as a career. He is also reflecting on the benefits of a law/policy qualification as a way of driving tangible action. If he decides to take the law route, his aspiration would be to try to get into Harvard Law School and work his way up to a global role as part of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, with his final semester fast approaching, Matt is very focused on the task at hand for the next few months, as he looks to complete the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours). Reflecting on how Future17 complemented that programme, Matt says:
As an engineer, we might be the best at being able to build an idea. But you're probably not the best in being able to articulate the business side of things to an investor, a client or someone like that. The project revealed that I'm very technically focused and less human or business focused. Being able to open my mindset, and my field into that area as well, makes me, as an engineer, more valuable.