Built by curiosity
Most of my projects start with a question: how does this work, and could it work better? I learn by pulling things apart, modelling them, building them and testing them until the answer is clear.
Can a person fly an aircraft under their own power?
Kōkako is the University of Auckland’s first human powered aircraft, designed and built from the ground up in carbon fibre, foam and mylar. As Transmissions Lead I ran a 10-person team responsible for everything from the pilot’s drive train through to the propeller hub, where every gram and every percent of efficiency counts.
- <40 kgAircraft mass
- 30 mWingspan
- 10People in my team
How light and stiff can a foiling wing system get?
I co-founded and help lead the University of Auckland’s Advanced Foiling Team, building New Zealand’s first entry in the international Foiling SuMoth Challenge in Italy. I lead the design of the wing, foil mounting structure, control systems, rigging and ride-height system across a team of more than 25 students, and we’re using data from Boat 1 to develop a second-generation boat.
For MECHENG 701 I developed a one-piece U-shaped front and rear wing-bar structure for the boat, working through cross-sections, Abaqus FEA and carbon–basalt laminate options to balance stiffness, strength, weight and how it can actually be built.
Questions I follow on my own time
Not every question comes with a brief. My foil board started with wondering whether a board could be shaped around its rider, so I wrote a parametric algorithm that generates the board geometry from the rider’s weight, ability and conditions, then shaped and infused every board myself.
Others are about light and atmosphere: a wall light that throws shadows like a tree canopy, and a night photography series inside an earthquake-damaged building in Christchurch.
