Space Power Founder's Lecture
Last Friday we had the pleasure of hosting OMT Keval Dattani, a successful entrepreneur and founder of Space Power, a company at the forefront of mechanical innovation in Space.
Naturally, due to the allure of his title and talk, the turnout was substantial, with every student ready and willing to absorb as much information as possible.
The talk began with Mr Dattani outlining his background of studying mechanical and nuclear engineering at Imperial College London before continuing his career with Rolls-Royce, helping to design nuclear submarines in Scotland for many years.
After introducing himself, he began to outline his current field of work, describing the dissolution he had between his previous field of work and what he strives to do for the rest of his life. Keval outlined that he felt he wanted to take a leap of faith to do what he wanted on his terms, becoming an entrepreneur utilising his previous industry knowledge and pushing the boundary of what we define to be space technology.
His work from the founding of his company in 2019 has been multitudinous, with him sharing with the crowd his perseverance with collecting funding from potential investors to help transform his dream into a reality. As his company grew, the projects and partnerships he began multiplied tenfold, with a long-term partnership with BAE space program being the highlight of this period of growth in his budding company.
The talk closed off with an engaging Q&A session between the guests and Mr Dattani, providing insightful answers to a wide range of questions, such as: “what separates a good engineer from a great one?”, and “where do you see your company in 20 years’ time?”.
Overall, Mr Dattani provided a deeply rewarding lecture, jam-packed with useful information that aspiring engineers are able to use for their futures, potentially following in his footsteps or even further. Mr Dattani is still very attached to the school, and his return to MTS shows his willingness to give back to the place that shaped him as an engineer.
We’d like to thank Krish T (U6) and the careers department, in particular Ms Grice, for providing such a promising opportunity to the school. We hope to have Keval back next year in order to fascinate us further.