Perth Aerospace Student Team

Development Lead · 2026 Jan – Present

I serve as Development Lead for PAST, where I manage team operations, contribute to mission documentation, and build the organisational infrastructure that enables student aerospace projects.

FlatSat Mission — Systems Documentation & ConOps

Technical contribution:

  • Co-authored Concept of Operations (ConOps) documentation for PAST's flatsat mission (contributed 25% of final document)

  • Defined operational scenarios, system interfaces, and mission phases

  • Coordinated technical review meetings with subsystem leads (avionics, power, communications, ground segment)

Program management:

  • Drive project momentum through regular coordination meetings and milestone tracking

  • Facilitate cross-functional collaboration between hardware, software, and test teams

  • Maintain documentation standards and ensure deliverables stay on schedule

What this demonstrates:

  • I can contribute to mission-level systems engineering documentation

  • I understand spacecraft operations and ConOps structure

  • I can coordinate technical teams to maintain program progress

Ground Station Telemetry Infrastructure

My contribution:

  • Built and iterated Grafana dashboard panels for live telemetry visualization

  • Resolved headless deployment configuration issues preventing the Docker stack from running correctly on Raspberry Pi

  • Integrated telemetry pipeline: LoRa receiver → Python decoder → MQTT (Mosquitto) → Telegraf → InfluxDB 2.7 → Grafana

System architecture: Five services run in Docker containers: LoRa receiver captures radio signal from balloon payload, Python serial service decodes and publishes to MQTT broker, Telegraf forwards stream to InfluxDB time-series database, Grafana renders live panels for ground team. Full stack deploys with single command.

This system is the desktop complement to HermesGS: the ground station provides full data infrastructure and laptop-accessible dashboards, while HermesGS puts a subset of that data on a handheld display in the field.

Team Development & Organizational Infrastructure

Recruitment & onboarding:

  • Scaled recruitment operations from [X] to 150+ applications per cycle

  • Increased conversion rate by 200% through improved candidate experience and clearer role definitions

  • Built onboarding systems for new members across avionics, propulsion, recovery, and ground systems teams

Skill development:

  • Established monthly technical workshops covering embedded systems, CAD, version control, project management

  • Created knowledge transfer mechanisms so graduating members' expertise stays with the team

  • Built connections with industry mentors for specialised training

Ecosystem development:

  • Facilitate collaboration between aerospace student clubs across universities

  • Coordinate with Royal Aeronautical Society for student engagement and industry access

  • Connect student teams with regulators and industry contacts at networking events

  • Build PAST's presence in the broader Australian aerospace community

What This Role Demonstrates

Systems thinking: I understand how aerospace programs work at multiple levels — technical (ConOps, hardware integration), operational (team coordination, resource management), and strategic (ecosystem building, stakeholder engagement).

Program execution: I can drive momentum on complex projects with distributed teams, ambiguous requirements, and long timelines — exactly the environment small aerospace companies operate in.

Building capability: I don't just execute projects, I build the systems and processes that make future projects possible — documentation standards, skill development, industry connections.

My goal within PAST: Transition from Development Lead to Mission Lead role, taking ownership of a full mission from ConOps through launch and recovery.