Inaugural Defence Innovation Scholarship awarded

The inaugural Aerospace Australia Defence Innovation Scholarship has been awarded to budding scientist and engineer Luke Vandewater of Swinburne University.

The Minister for Defence Science and Personnel Warren Snowdon congratulated Vandewater on receiving the scholarship after completing the Industry Experience Placement program at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).

“Luke Vandewater represents the enormous talent that resides amongst Australia’s young scientists and engineers,” Snowdon said.

At DSTO Vandewater was working on a project to harvest vibrational energy from mechanical structures, such as the airframe of an aircraft in flight, and using it to power sensors that monitor the health of aircraft structures.

“Structural health monitoring using such energy harvesting techniques offers Defence the potential to reduce maintenance costs and improve the reliability and availability of aircraft for operational use,” Snowdon said.  

“This scholarship also demonstrates the importance of DSTO’s Industry Experience Placement program which enables young undergraduates to work on applied research projects,” he said.

For Vandewater, the scholarship comes as a great surprise and honour.

“The 12-month placement at DSTO has afforded me a fantastic opportunity to apply my academic skills in the real world and have an impact on a work program,” he said.

The scholarship was awarded by the Chairman of Aerospace Australia Limited Air Marshal Les Fisher, AO, (Ret’d) at the Australian International Air Show and Defence Exposition.