Darren is an inspiring young person who as a university student had a vision of using his passion, energy and engineering to make dreams come true for a paraplegic he met in a car park who dreamed of riding again. He did this by designing a completely hand controlled motorcycle which he successfully built and had approved for road use whilst a student.
After graduation Darren was so passionate about continuing to help more people with disabilities fulfill their dreams, so he started an organisation called Dreamfit which supported teams of engineering students to use their projects to help people with disabilities.
Dreamfit is now a registered not-for-profit organisation rapidly building in capacity. Darren's official roles is as the CEO and director but also takes on many other responsibilities including mentoring and supporting the students that come through the program.
Darren is current leading the development of a 1500sqm workshop called Dreamplex which is being custom fitted out to support the student engineers in helping people with disabilities.
In 2009 almost 300 students from two different universities were involved in Dreamfit projects.
Darren is an active advocate for both engineering and disability, regularly guest speaking at functions encouraging students to study engineering and to improve conditions for people with disabilities.
In 2008, Darren received a Churchill Fellowship to visit a range of international programs and organisations to gain knowledge which he could bring back to Australia for the benefit of the community.
In 2008 Darren was named the 2008 Young Mechanical Engineer of the Year by Engineers Australia and in 2007 was named the 2007 WA Young Australian of the Year.
