Student profile – Aubrey Keller

At secondary school, I was always interested in science and curious about how and why things worked. I also enjoyed hands-on activities and constructing objects. I felt that engineering would give me the ideal balance between the theoretical basis of the sciences and hands-on work.

I chose to study the double degree in Aerospace Engineering and Business at RMIT, because I was attracted to the hands-on nature of the degree, and felt that the business knowledge and skills would be useful in my future career.

In 2010, I was awarded a Qantas Engineering Summer School scholarship. This internship gave me my first real taste of industry employment as an engineer. The experience of adapting to an entirely new environment and learning new processes specific to my employer was invaluable.

As part of my time at Qantas Engineering, I took part in weekly professional development sessions. These were held in Sydney, and I was lucky enough to fly there every week. The sessions were informative and helped me understand how an engineer can become a project manager.

During second year, I was lucky enough to participate in an exchange program at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, in China. Designing, constructing and successfully flying an unmanned aerial vehicle over a five month period was just one of the highlights of my time in China.

I’m most interested in the field space engineering. My dream job would ideally be in Europe or the U.S. employed by a firm involved with the design of spacecraft and satellites.