He propelled a satellite into space and has judged some of the country's best ideas as a panelist on TV's The New Inventors. Now QUT engineering and IT graduate and former Young Queensland of the Year Dr James Moody is asking Australians to share his own "big idea" and join a national social media-based "freebie" movement.
Dr Moody is the founder of TuShare (www.tushare.com) - a web-based community aimed at iPhone owners and social media users where people can give away things they no longer need to one another. Members can pick things up for free, or use TuShare's courier service to help make sharing easy.
TuShare has the noble (and by no means small) goal of reducing the 4 trillion kilograms of waste that is sent to landfill globally each year by creating the world's largest community of sharers and enabling goods to reach their full lifespan.
Dr Moody, who completed a double degree in engineering (electronics) and IT at QUT and was a university medalist, will return to QUT on October 15 to be special guest speaker at the next QUT Learning Potential Fund Breakfast. His topic will be Unleashing the sharing economy: Tapping the hidden value that surrounds us all.
The public event will be held at QUT's new RoomThreeSixty venue to help raise awareness of the Learning Potential Fund, which provides scholarships for low-income QUT students and is supported by QUT and community donors.
Dr Moody's career path started with a childhood love of Star Wars - and a passion for maths and physics - that propelled him toward engineering and the space industry.
A key role as chief systems engineer for FedSat (Australia's first satellite project in 30 years) brought him to national prominence and helped win him the Young Queenslander of the Year title in 2000 and be named Australia's Young Professional Engineer of the Year the same year.
He also spent six years with the CSIRO (2004-2009), culminating in his last position as the organisation's executive director of development. During this time, he was also named one of Boss magazine's young executives of the year.
Tickets for the QUT Learning Potential Fund Breakfast featuring Dr James Moody on October 15 are available from QUT for $55. Visit www.qut.edu.au/events or call 3138 1838.
The event is supported by sponsors Medibank Private, Coca-Cola Amatil, the QUT Career Mentor Scheme and the QUT Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Media contact: Mechelle McMahon, QUT media officer, 07 3138 9449 (Mon & Thurs) or media@qut.edu.au (Mon-Fri)
