Tim Harris

Courage, determination and talent in spades.

Meet 2020 Graduate Engineer and Faculty of Engineering Dean’s Honours List recipient, Tim Harris.

Intrinsically drawn to brainteaser games at school and a spark for mechatronics discovered at a Year 10 Careers night, led to Tim enrolling in Monash University’s Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Science.

Tim deep dived into student life at Monash but then life took an unexpected turn in 2016 when he was diagnosed with a rare malignant pineal brain tumour (germinoma).

With the support of his close-knit family and Monash lecturers, Tim began a gruelling round of brain and spinal radiation whilst gradually working his way back into his Monash studies contending with chronic fatigue, reducing his ability to concentrate and adapting to permanent double vision.

In 2020, remote learning presented another challenge, but despite this, Tim dug deep and showed great determination to persevere and graduate with honours and secure a graduate software engineering position.

Dr Andrew Rodda, Direction of Education, Dept of Materials, Science and Engineering says "Tim was one of the inaugural recipients of a Healthcare Innovation Summer Scholarship during the 2019/20 summer break. Here he co-led a team, including clinicians from the Monash Partners hospital network, that developed a prototype app aimed at helping patients with aphasia (a language impairment caused by stroke) to return to work.

Tim managed this challenging time with inspiring courage, always professional and well-organised particularly as he was dealing quite independently with team members who were external to Monash University”.

We sat down with Tim to hear how studying Mechatronics Engineering at Monash has shaped his career outlook and strong connection to the Engineering community. And, of course, to learn more about his current role as Graduate Software Engineer at Leidos Pty Ltd,a global defence, aviation, information technology, and biomedical research company providing scientific, engineering, systems integration, and technical services.

What or who inspired you to become an engineer?

At school, I was always drawn to brainteaser games that challenged my thinking.

The real kicker for me was at the Year 10 Careers night where I was tested for natural skills to identify aligned careers.

Accounting/Engineering was the number one skill identified. A highlight for me was hearing from a Mechatronics Engineer who spoke about computing, I felt a natural connection, and that this was the right path for me. I consider myself lucky to have had that clarity early on, as some of my other friends have changed careers mid-way.

My dad is an engineer and I was naturally drawn to it. Dad has always had a knack for approaching a problem logically and not being too caught up with emotions.

This calm and considered approach helped me as a 21 year old develop as a person to become an engineer.

When I became ill, I also wrote a list of people whose attributes I admired who would inspire me to better myself and keep my goals on track, and Dad was on the list.

What's the best/most memorable thing you did during your studies and why?  

My science lecturer, Arun Konagurtu has had a profound effect on my studies, his passion for learning and teaching is remarkable and I feel lucky post-Monash to count him as a personal friend.

During my studies, I undertook FIT3143: Maker Lab and worked on Boxaroo, an automatic shopping list (kitchen inventory management system) and app. The premise being that it would keep track of grocery items in your kitchen, prompt you when they needed to be replenished and as a bonus, price check amongst the key supermarket groups.

In 2019/2020, I received a scholarship to be part of Monash Young MedTech Innovators ( MYMI) program for healthcare innovation.

I also worked on Project Qwerty – an app for patients with Aphasia, which is a language disorder that affects your ability to communicate, most commonly caused by strokes. We developed software to work with speech pathologists, where treatment can be accelerated with laire low learning, mental process, speaking and writing.

What are your career aspirations/goals/highlights?

Currently I am a graduate software engineer at Leidos and potentially doing a PhD with them. I enjoy the company culture and work with a super supportive manager and it has been a great introduction to the workforce. Views of Caribbean Lake are a bonus!

Boxaroo and Project Qwerty are still bubbling away as they are great ideas to solve real-life problems and I would definitely like to revisit them in the future.

What are your passions in life?

My illness and months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy taught me to really ‘seize the day’, live in the now and have many experiences.

I am a chess nerd and to this day still love it, staying up at all hours to tune in with my friend and devour the biannual World Championships!

Living in Melbourne, we are so lucky to have such a rich array of festivals and live music. I make a point to attend as many chocolate tastings, trivia nights, and gigs as I can. My favourite acts were Odesza at the Forum and The Cat Empire at the Palais.

I am also a marathon runner and have tapped into my passion for running to fundraise for Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.

Travel-wise, New Zealand is at the top of my list. I missed going on a family trip recently and would love to go there as well as to Japan, just before the crowds descend for the annual Cherry Blossom Season!