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David, tell us about your interests since leaving school:

Outside of education and work, I have been playing football for Central District Football Club.

Could you please tell us about your current role:

I am currently the Sports Engineer at the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI). SASI supports local Olympic and Paralympic athletes in sports such as swimming, cycling, rowing, sprint canoe, and beach volleyball. This includes some current Olympic champions and world record holders, as well as developing athletes who are looking to make national under-age or senior teams.

My role supports athletes, coaches and support staff in innovation around their training or competition environments. Effectively, we try to make things easier in terms of how they complete specific aspects of training or receive feedback on their performance. These ideas often come from coaches or staff who would like to achieve something, but don’t quite know how to do this. It is then my job to try and work out how to make it happen. This can be through designing equipment, modifying software, using new or different sensors, or adding in some data analysis methods.

What has your journey been, leading up to the career you are in today?

Following Year 12, I went straight into studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical and Sports) at the University of Adelaide. This was a four year degree and built a base of engineering knowledge in the first couple years before learning how to apply these skills to sport specific environments in the later years of the degree. I graduated in 2014 with First Class Honours.

Following this, I was lucky to have an opportunity to begin studying for a PhD. This was again through University of Adelaide but I also had support and guidance from Paralympics Australia.

My research focused on wheelchair rugby to determine a method for finding the best wheelchair set-up for individual athletes, based on their physical impairment and on-court role. With the involvement of Paralympics Australia, my research was able to focus on the Australian wheelchair rugby team who were current Paralympic and World Champions. We received great support from the coaches and athletes. This work led to some changes in athlete set-up and promoted more discussion about aspects of wheelchair set-up that had previously been neglected. I officially received my Doctorate in May 2019.

Towards the end of the PhD (late 2017), a role was advertised at SASI for the Sports Engineer position. I started there in January 2018, and the next 6 months were spent trying to balance full-time work, completing and submitting my thesis and sport. It was pretty chaotic!

What do you enjoy most about your role at SASI?

It is a very broad role, working on projects from mechanical design to software development to electronic systems. This means I can go from designing and 3D printing a part in the morning to writing code for data analysis or automation in the afternoon.

There is also the opportunity to work with elite sports, which is what interested me in the field initially. I am a sports nut, so being able to be involved - and hopefully have a positive influence - on an athlete’s performance is an exciting part of the role.

How did your education at St Columba help you along the way?

St Columba College gave me a good base in a range of areas that has helped throughout my education and in my current role. I still use some aspects of all my Year 12 subjects (Maths, PE, Biology, Physics, English – the last year before the research project), including having a base understanding of athletes biomechanics and physiology. Most importantly, I have been able to communicate to people with a range of skills and backgrounds.

What aspects of St Columba College did you enjoy the most?

We had a good group of students and had some great experiences as a Year 12 group, particularly at the retreat. Events like Saint Columba day and Sports Day were a lot of fun and there were always various activities to get involved in around the typical classes. We also had teachers who would go out of their way to support you and push you to get as much as you could out of their subjects.

What advice would you give to Senior Students deciding on a career path?

I was lucky that I had an area I was interested in (sports) that had an overlap with skills that I enjoyed (maths, design) which led to a potential profession. However, you do not need to know exactly what you want to do right now. If you can give yourself options, you will have opportunities to explore areas you are interested in. From my experience, if you are open to listening to people and willing to put in the effort, opportunities will arise.

What are your future career aspirations?

I would like to have a greater impact on South Australian sports, allowing more of our athletes to compete and be successful at major events. I think SASI can be the heart of South Australia's sporting success and build on its current reach and have impact across a wider range of sports and athletes and I would like to help achieve this.

I am also getting opportunities through my current role and previous experience to be involved in national sporting teams and support them; particularly with the Australian Para-Athletics team. I had the opportunity to attend the 2019 Para-Athletics World Championships as an Engineer/Mechanic, particularly for the wheelchair racing group. My role there is to ensure the athlete’s chairs are ready to go for their races and that they make it to the start line with no concerns about their equipment. It also gave us a chance to check out any innovative equipment from other nations and consider what the next step will be in para equipment. I’m also looking ahead to the next opportunity to attend a major event with this group will hopefully be the Tokyo Paralympics.