Olivia Heaton is a striking example of the opportunities that exist when UTS Tech Lab and industry collaborate to help transform student goals into reality.
At an age where most teens are still taking their first tentative steps towards independence or locking in a date to sit their driving test, Olivia (Liv) Heaton had already settled on her career trajectory.
Now 20, Liv is currently a third-year University of Technology Sydney (UTS) student who is living out her dreams by studying for a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechatronics and a Bachelor of International Studies in French.
A shining light in UTS’ work experience program (Bachelor of Engineering Practice), Liv’s participation in the initiative sees her spend most days onsite as a full-time intern at Space Machines Company (SMC). Her spare time is spent interning at film technology firm D2 Motion where she is part of a team working to make modern robotics and motion control accessible to creators everywhere.
Obsessed with space since childhood, Liv’s interest in computer-controlled smart machines was piqued at just 11 when she was gifted a book on programming language Python to keep her occupied as she recovered from a foot injury. Having consumed the teachings of computer programming and task automation, Liv says she initially began by taking those learnings and applying them to her own projects.
I took any and all science, maths and technology classes offered at my school, and by year 11 I had decided I wanted to take Mechatronics at UTS.
Her first industry experience came about when she secured an internship at D2 Motion after finding them on the UTS Career Hub website and reaching out. Her experience there led her to apply to other opportunities such as UTS Motorsports Electric, a student-based team that each year designs and manufactures its own open-wheeled formula SAE car.
Liv says while she never had a strong interest in motorsports, she was keenly interested in getting to design and manufacture an electric car while also making the most of the chance to compete in various dynamic and static events against teams from across Australasia.
Her success on and off the field meant she has now secured a position as Team Lead and race driver, and it was her experience here – together with building simple Arduino robots and working with embedded systems during her time at UTS – that she believes saw her identified as a strong candidate for the SMC intern position.
I was motivated to apply for a role with SMC because I have always wanted to work in the space industry and thought it would be good to get some practice with at least interviewing for roles at space companies. Despite studying full time, extracurricular activities and working another part-time job, I thought it would be best to start young while I had time and energy to pursue these options.
Her responsibilities involved designing and assembling a prototype wiring harness, where she worked with a scale model of the satellite to find the optimal routing paths, mounting points and designing for strain relief while making it as easy as possible for assembly into the flight model.
Her role also involved selecting the wire and mounting design to ensure it was outgassing compliant and then when the flight model was built, helping to assemble the wiring harness into the satellite and helping put together some small, printed circuit boards that were used on the satellite as cameras.
She cites the launch as the highlight of her university career to date.
I learned a good deal about spacecraft systems, necessary requirements and the strict bureaucracy around space flight. Seeing the satellite launch was super exciting. I’d nominate it as one of the best days of my life. It was a little confronting seeing all the work we had put in be flung into the atmosphere at 30,000km/h, but spaceflight is one of the most daunting engineering endeavours.
There are a million and one things that can go wrong, most of which are completely out of your control. Having the opportunity to have flight heritage at 20-years-old as well is exciting.
Short-term, Liv says she is now focused on making the most of her current internships and absorbing as much industry knowledge as possible. In the long term, she aims to combine her double degrees by securing work in the space sector overseas where she hopes to help Australia build and foster its presence in the global space industry.
Her message for those contemplating following in her footsteps is simple.
“Know that things will go wrong [but] that there is always something to learn from failure. Finding a good mentor has been especially helpful, with navigating engineering challenges, both technical and non-technical. While it may seem difficult, it is not impossible.”