Launch your aerospace career with this inspiring event providing information on local aerospace industries and the various career pathways for you to follow.

Planned Presentations:

Event Moderator And Overview Of Career Pathways

Mark Rocket, CEO, Kea Aerospace and President, Aerospace Christchurch

Internet and aerospace entrepreneur. Mark was the seed investor and co-Director of Rocket Lab from 2007 to 2011. In 2018 Mark founded Kea Aerospace to develop commercial aerospace projects and is committed to growing the Christchurch aerospace ecosystem.

Viruses In Space And Careers In Research

Dr Sarah Kessans, University of Canterbury, Lecturer

Dr Sarah Kessans is a lecturer in the UC College of Engineering's School of Product Design. As a biochemist and synthetic biologist with a passion for space exploration, Sarah is working to create solutions for sustaining life both on and off Earth, as well as developing technology that will make this possible. Hear Sarah talk about research on "viruses in space".

Careers In SpaceCraft And Launch

Dr Avinash Rao, Director and Co-Founder, IDS Consulting and Argo Navis Aerospace

Avinash led the development of the guidance, navigation and control systems for Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle before taking up the role of Director of Mission Delivery until mid-2019. He has now moved into full-time work at IDS Consulting/Argo Navis. Avinash completed his PhD in rocket attitude control in 2014 and is an expert in dynamic systems modelling, embedded softrware, programming and project management.

Careers In Aerospace Telecommunications: Receiving Telemetry And Payload Data From Spacecraft

Kerry Clapham, PhD Student, Great South

Telecommunications is an exciting, evolving area in New Zealand Aerospace. Working at the Awarua Satellite Ground Station as part of the UC Rocketry team has been a fantastic postgraduate experience for Kerry. This talk will describe some of the awesome opportunities in Ground Segment Operations, in particular the critical role of telecommunications, data processing, and mission control.

Career Progression In Manufacturing: Shooting For The Stars

Roland Sommer, Plant Manager/General Manager, TE Connectivity

Come and listen to how a career in manufacturing can take you from the shop floor to leading one of NZ's largest tech manufacturers! After a brief career in the UK Merchant Navy as a radio/electronics Officer, Roland came to New Zealand and joined Tait Electronics in a manufacturing support role. This developed into setting up and running the test engineering department at Swichtec where after 10 years Roland had risen to the role of General Manager for the systems division. For the last 9 years Roland has been General Manager at TE Connectivity.

Event Prize: One of our lucky attendees will win a 30 minute guided tour of Dawn Aerospace with Dawn's Co-Founder/CTO, Stefan Powell!

A special thank you to our event supporter ChristchurchNZ.

Header photo credit: This is Engineering