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UWA mechanical engineering graduate, Mr Darren Lomman, whose not-for-profit company builds special equipment to help people with disabilities water ski, surf, ride motorbikes and climb cliff faces has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship.

Under the Fellowship, Mr Lomman will spend eight weeks travelling across the US, Canada, UK and Italy visiting some of the world's leading engineering facilities in the disability, rehabilitation and automotive industries. Darren plans to use the fellowship to research successful business models that can be applied to his work in Western Australia and to examine opportunities for international collaboration.

"I particularly want to use this as an opportunity to develop a proposal to build a ‘Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering' here in Perth," he said. Darren Lomman was motivated to set up the Dreamfit Foundation after a chance meeting in a hospital carpark in 2003 with a man with paraplegia and led him to create a hand-controlled motorbike.

Dreamfit modifies recreation equipment for use by people with disabilities. The equipment is designed and modified by final year engineering students who are guided by volunteer industry mentors and funded by industry sponsorships.