Surf Sense Founder

From a very young age I was interested in building things. I also really like sport and the outdoors. Surfing allows you to be active and connect with the environment.

Being creative and thinking about how the world works is something I try to do as much as possible. I’ve worked on a few cool projects. One of the most exciting ones was building a giant robotic Pacman game as part of Vivid Sydney in 2015. It was incredibly challenging, but also very fun and rewarding to combine gaming and engineering in an interactive art installation.

From engineer to Surf Sense Founder

The idea behind Surf Sense is to bring the world’s first real-time, coastal wave monitoring infrastructure and notification system to beaches and other ocean recreation locations.

At the core of Surf Sense is our Data Buoy platform for measuring the features of swell and surface waves with centimetre-level accuracy. The buoys can be placed around beaches, headlands and at surfing competitions, connecting via 3G/4G mobile data networks.

Engineers build the future. Literally. And there is so much left to build. The world will face even more challenging problems by the next decade, and we need the next generation of creative thinkers and builders to solve them.

Meet another sporty engineer or dive into the Careers with Engineering magazine!

Nathan’s path to becoming the Surf Sense founder

>> Studied a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics)/ Commerce, UNSW Sydney

>> Participated in Robocup Junior for 7 years (2001–2007)

>> Co-founder/president of CREATE UNSW (2013-2015)

>> Founded his own company, Surf Sense

“Engineers build the future. Literally. And there’s so much left to build.”