>> One of Curtin's Engineering graduates is
now working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He brought to our attention
this internship program that they run
and they have lots of students come and
engage in that from all over the world,
but he had noticed that there weren't
very many from Australia and there were
none from Western Australia. So he was
looking for a way to engage West
Australian students in the opportunity
of a lifetime really.
>> So one day I was sitting at home on the couch
and in comes an email
advertising come work for an internship
at NASA of all places. And so I thought,
right, I'm going to apply for that. So I sent my
folks an email saying "Hey, I'm going to apply for NASA."
>> I found out about the job opportunity,
the internship opportunity
through the Engineering Careers Department
and they'd just sent out an email to everybody.
And I thought straight away, "Wow this looks really really exciting."
And the second thought was, it looks just like
such a massive opportunity that, it was
so big that I wouldn't even really have considered
it at all to be something that I could be able to do.
>> I had no idea, I just sent it in
because it was there, it was an opportunity
you've got to give it a crack.
>> So they put together an application which
includes their transcripts, so it's primarily
based on grades but also about their
interest in topics which are of interest to NASA.
>> So I focused on all the things that I did whilst
not at university. All the things I've done in my back
shed, extracurricular here at Curtin.
>> When I applied I leaned on my experience
not necessarily in my classes but actually with
my clubs at Curtin and being really involved
over there and that was really what
differentiated me and allowed me to come over.
>> They need to show us a real drive to do something
a little bit beyond what might normally be expected
of an Engineer in Western Australia.
>> Coming in it was really astounding and
so great to be in an environment where
you were the least intelligent person in
the room by a long shot. There's just so much to learn
and I got that straight away from day one.
>> That was awesome that was like the
equivalent of a two-year-old walking in
to a candy store. It was amazing. There
were so many smart people, there were so
many cool robot skeletons everywhere.
>> The best thing about it was that I wasn't
just an intern getting coffee or you
know assisting people or just like helping out.
I was actually in charge of my own section
and I had responsibilities and I was able to
actually make an impact on the project.
>> First week I sat down with a few of my supervisors
and by then we had a
prototype theory of a self-driving car...
in about half an hour.
>> By the end of that six months I had really taken
ownership on my particular aspect of the project
and definitely gotten confident in making my
own decisions and working not as
somebody underneath the team but
actually as part of the team.
>> University can teach you theory, it's a good time
it can teach you theory, practical theory too.
But then you've got to do these other things.
>> When you talk about world-class experience
it really is cutting edge and there's people there
that are at the absolute edge of their particular fields
with robotics and with engineering.
So there is no second best because the people there
they are the best in the world at what they do.
>> They're working at a very high level equivalent to
PhD level research and they're doing it
while they're still enrolled as an undergraduate.
It's really brilliant.
>> Yeah you can achieve anything with the right effort
and attitude, anything at all.