Aerospace and education business Obelisk Systems took out the major grant of the business category of the Australian Information Industry Association and National Broadband Network grant.

Obelisk joined two other Hunter businesses that won funding in other categories – SwitchDin and Vicinity Marketing. They were among nine winners nationwide.

Founded by university graduate Andreas Antoniades, Obelisk provides miniature satellite hardware for Australia’s space sector.

It also provides school students with hands on experience with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) programs through its StarLAB education platform.

Launched earlier this year, StarLAB is a hardware, robotics and coding platform which provides the means to teach STEM skills in an integrated and interactive way.

It is used by about 50 schools across NSW, ACT and Queensland.

“The business receiving $25,000 from NBN Co means we can work towards growing StarLAB (our flagship STEM product), exciting new prototypes, improving remote infrastructure and allowing us to also work with rural and disadvantaged schools all over Australia,” Mr Antoniades said. 

“It will also provide the means to improve our remote infrastructure so that we can work with more rural schools and allow people, particularly those in disadvantaged areas, to be involved.

“It has been humbling to have continued support of local organisations that lead to this point, such as the ME Program, Beyond Bank and the University of Newcastle too.”

Mr Antoniades said access to the NBN network had improved business productivity and helped the company operate out of regional NSW.

“Videos were out of the question [before the NBN] and we couldn’t communicate with our clients or schools remotely,” he said.