When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ‘I’ve got time, I’ve got a notebook, I’ve got a pen, so let’s just be creative.’” He started doodling and came up with “all these random ideas for different things that I could make or build”. In fact, he says he could have happily “done another couple of days” by himself.
This drive to solve problems has been evident from a very young age, and his interest in building and technology was fostered by his parents. His family spent much time building Lego creations and he eventually started working on bigger technology projects, “which kind of just snowballed and became bigger and bigger and bigger”, he says. His older brother also loved coming up with clever contraptions: a garden sprinkler that wouldn’t water the pavement; a shopping trolley that would lock its wheels when it left the supermarket carpark; a screen that showed people behind a bus what was in front of it. “I saw what he was doing and thought it was really cool,” he remembers.
In primary school, James developed a system that used radio-frequency identification tags to mark students off the roll automatically when they arrived, as well as a smart lock that could give people access to buildings at certain times. In Year Nine at Burnside High School in Christchurch, he created a device that stopped drivers with roof cargo from crashing into their garages. Soon after, he noticed his elderly neighbours and grandparents struggling to get heavy wheelie bins to the curb, so he spent more than two years developing an autonomous robotic solution. He’s working on an alert system that goes off when something has been forgotten on the stove, and he’s studying towards a bachelor of electrical engineering with honours at the University of Canterbury.
“I really enjoy taking a problem that someone’s having, and asking, ‘What’s the best way that we can solve this?’ You’re interacting with people and figuring out what software is needed, what hardware is needed, what electronics are needed, and how we can use technology to make life better,” he says. “It’s rewarding when it feels like you can make a difference.”
A lot of his projects have been prototypes that prove something is possible – the hard part is turning those prototypes into products or businesses. “There are things like reliability and convenience and whether people would actually use it in its current state,” he says. “I’m starting to think about how I can make sure these projects don’t stop at that prototype stage, and actually take them that next step further.”
Being accepted to the Pinnacle Programme in 2018 gave James opportunities to learn from and interact with a range of other impressive people. “I think that had the most value for me,” he reflects. A student on the programme who had already applied for a Prime Minister’s Science Prize gave Thomas tips on what to focus on in his application. And it worked. Thomas won the Prime Minister’s Future Scientist Prize for his robotic wheelie bin in 2019 when he was in Year 12.
The programme also aims to teach participants about working as a team. While doing one of the longer hikes for Outward Bound, Thomas decided to hang back and help someone who was struggling, while others in the group powered ahead. Some of the team dynamics were eye-opening, he says, but he felt that offering support was more important than reaching his own goals.
Now 21, Thomas is currently focused on getting through his studies. Though he understands the importance of theory, it’s not surprising to learn that he loves the practical aspects of the course the most. As part of his degree, he has to complete 800 hours of on-the-job training, so he has used that opportunity to explore the private sector as broadly as possible. One of his internships was at Dawn Aerospace in Christchurch, which creates propulsion systems for satellites. “Space is quite leading edge and there’s lots of cool stuff happening there,” he says.
He’s not sure what he will do post-study, but he knows his future will always involve inventing and finding solutions. “If I have an idea for a business and that could go ahead, I’ll definitely take the jump. But I’d also be more than willing to work with another startup or a business that ticks all my boxes in terms of that problem solving.” He might also consider a PhD down the track. For now, he’s happy going with the flow, safe in the knowledge that there will always be problems to solve.
“That’s something I try to do because you can’t control everything,” he says. “As long as you’ve got a plan and you’re working towards your goals and you can kind of judge if you’re going in the right direction, you don’t need to have everything planned out.”
Find out more about the Hyundai New Zealand Pinnacle Programme here.
