Sean Mascarenhas
Engineer, Design & Production, Dotterel Technologies
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
When Sean Mascarenhas had a near-death experience while swimming, he decided to use his engineering skills to help others in a similar situation.
“I had a near-death experience while swimming out at the beautiful but notorious Piha beach, where one of my legs cramped up while out in the surf. It was excruciatingly difficult to swim in large waves with just three limbs and my calf on fire from the cramp. Thank God I managed to somehow make it to the shoreline before blacking out, but that experience drove me to create a solution for myself and others, should they find themselves in a similar situation.
“My solution was to create Wrist.Q, a wearable wrist-worn device for beaches, lakes and rivers. Simply put, it’s a personal locator beacon with a rip-cord that, when triggered, inflates a floatation device to keep you afloat. In addition, it also sends your GPS location to the rescue coordination centre.”
To help turn his idea into reality, Sean decided to participate in AUT’s CO.STARTERS programme and the X Challenge competition for budding entrepreneurs like himself. He also enjoyed being able to use his idea as the basis for his final-year engineering project.
“I gained tons of valuable lessons including that creating a functional prototype has many challenges and that your first prototype will rarely be ‘the solution’ so you have to take on feedback from mentors and customers to iterate. It also showed me that if you create something that resonates with people, they will rally behind you and support the vision.”
The right choice
Sean, who came to AUT to complete a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, always knew he wanted to study engineering.
“Electricity and, by extension, electronics have become imperative to our modern way of life. We can't see electricity directly, yet its properties and effects are crucial to our survival. I wanted to gain a sound understanding of the core principles, to then go and develop new technology that could drive the world forward.
“What I liked about AUT was the hands-on approach AUT has become known for, which suited my learning style. I’d recommend AUT’s engineering degree as it provides solid foundational knowledge, which will then give you the confidence to build specialised skill sets on top of.”
He has some great advice for other students who are only at the start of their university journey.
“Follow your genuine interests, not what anybody says you ‘should’. Don’t stress too much about what you’ll do for the rest of your life because if you enjoy what you do, you’ll strive to become the best at what you do – and whether you decide to become a fashion designer or a surgeon, the best in any field gets paid the best bucks.”
Taking ideas from concept to product
After graduating from AUT in 2021, Sean now enjoys applying his engineering skills in his work at high growth startup Dotterel Technologies.
“I’ve had the opportunity to wear a few different hats within the business. Over the past couple years, I’ve done a variety of things, including designing and building custom drones to showcase Dotterel’s groundbreaking microphone and shroud technology. This included piloting those drones in demos for police, search and rescue, and defence force teams. I’ve also done quite a bit of engineering CAD design, rapid prototyping via 3D printing and building various test-rigs.
“I’m now shifting my focus towards electronic product manufacturing by helping set up an in-house production line for our KONOS microphones. I enjoy being able to help take an idea from concept to a commercially available electronic product. It's been eye-opening seeing all the complexities involved along the way, but also incredibly gratifying to see the product in people’s hands and hearing how much they love it.”
In addition to his work at Dotterel, he has also found the time to help launch Sky Motion, a virtual reality production studio that specialises in producing immersive VR content for the travel and tourism industry.
“I’m proud of the variety of ‘soft skills’ I’ve developed, which has aided massively in the recent launch of our passion project, Sky Motion. Our goal is to foster connection between people and the places they visit through engaging real-life stories.”
