Seventeen-year-old Alfie Curren-Regan, a Cardup local, who attends John Curtin College of the Arts, has recently been nominated for a young achiever award.
Originally gaining entry to the school through the drama programme, Alfie has said that his interests have shifted towards more technical pursuits, and he has since been immersing himself in the world of virtual reality innovations.
“I dropped drama as a core subject last year in order to focus on business, but I feel that drama actually has helped me gain the skills to thrive in a business environment, like presentation and public speaking abilities,” he said.
Aside from pursuing a diploma and considering university, Alfie has begun running his own business, which he feels may turn into a long-term pursuit.
“My business is in VR. It’s called Occulum VR, and it started out with me reading an article on the subject and its applications in gaming. It kind of left me with a bit of a question of what else can VR be used for? That question took me into the business space, as I came up with an idea of using it for renewable projects being built.
“For example, where a wind farm goes up, in a small town, locals often hate it before it’s even gone up. They’re protesting against it, even though it’s going to bring great money and great power to their town. They’re often misinformed. They think it’s going to be too big and ugly. That’s quite often the case with a lot of rural infrastructure projects.
“My idea was, well, let’s use VR to show someone what the project actually looks like before it’s even built, and I did a demo of that. The idea took me to West Tech Fest, where I was invited to host a trade stand.”
Through his remarkable innovation, Alfie was accepted into the 12-week Launchpad programme at Bloom UWA, where he is the youngest individual to ever be accepted. Through the development of his business ideas and applications in the Launchpad programme, Alfie says that he has begun to apply his VR plans towards hazardous environment training.
“I’ve started developing a system of using VR to train people who work in hazardous environments, such as electricians, plumbers and other tradespeople. I’m developing that at the moment, under a contract as a joint venture.”
Alfie says that he is still considering university attendance, but does not want it to clash with his rapidly growing business, which is where he believes his true passion lies.
