Tom McCausland

Product Design Engineering

Hi, I’m Tom!

I’m a Product Design Engineering student who is passionate about Motorsport and Mobility Design. Some of the highlights of my University journey include leading the Swinburne Formula SAE program, being involved with the Swinburne Engineering Student Society and making concepts and prototypes come to life at the Swinburne Protolab.

When I am not on campus you will likely find me working as a data engineer at a race track, going for a run or assembling a drone. For my final year project I developed a Formula 4 front wing, made from flax fibre.

Carbon Fibre composites have incredibly stiffness to weight properties, but require high energy processing to produce and are harmful to the environment. By using a Flax Fibre substitute, a product of greater sustainability and aesthetic can be achieved, while still hitting cost and stiffness properties.

The ideal scenario is that a wing would be manufactured from naturally sourced flax, wound into fibre sheets with a wet lay bio-resin process. This means that there is less energy expenditure during manufacturing. The wing at completion of its racing life cycle, is then shredded and reapplied to the mould, with another resin process to be down cycled into new mobility products, such as bike frames, surfboards and furniture.

The project in collaboration with the FIA, has gone through a range of static, simulated and dynamic testing as a proof of concept and performance. The final model will be subjected to wind tunnel testing at Monash Clayton in December for final evaluation.

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Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.