Stemiverse 0010 - Phillip Mallon - Reflective Learning

Summary:

In this episode of Stemiverse, Peter and Marcus talk with Philip Mallon.

Started at the age of 9, Philip built a radio crystal set and this became the foundation for an interest in electronics. Phillip's path has given him countless opportunities to learn and to teach during the last fourty years.

As a cadet with the NSW department of Public Works, he studied Science and Technology at the University of Sydney. This was followed by further studies in the UK and a Masterst degree in Engineering Science at the University of NSW. Philip applied his new knowledge in biomedical engineering to providing electromedical equipment for the new Westmead Hospital. He worked on the first electronic toll system for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and was the control systems engineer on the Accelerated Loading Facility.

Philip helped provide the first computer systems engineering labs at UTS and was employed there as both engineering manager and an academic to provide both teaching and practical engineering skills for students.

While at UTS Philip was a director for Autism Australia now Aspect and took an interest in supporting schools for Autistic children.

At the RTA Philip was engaged in Intelligent Transport Systems Projects (ITS) including the flashing lights at all schools zones in NSW, road safety pojects including the Lithgow black ice detection project, managed motorways, the new T-Way bus systems for Sydney and structural health and security monitoring projects including monitoring the Sydney Harbour Bridge for security threats.

Now retired, Philip is an active maker and mentor to other makers at the University of the Third Age ( u3a) and various Sydney Meetups including ozBerry, Sydney Robotics and Coding and Hack Sounds.

Philip's maker projects involve music, robotics, home automation, environmental monitoring, software engineering and electronics and he is interested in how people with disabilities such as autism and retired seniors can be creative as makers.

Philip exhibited his maker projects at the Sydney mini-maker faire last year. He is an alpha tester for new Seeed Products including reSpeaker and won two of their design competitions using reSpeaker and WioLink.

In the next hour or so, Marcus and I explore Philip's amazing engineering and learning experiences, and it was fascinating!

For more information and to see the show notes of all our episodes, please go to txplore.com/p/stemiverse.