H4MoD Industry Mentor Interview with Paolo Lamparelli

Paolo Lamparelli is a first-time Industry Mentor for CMP, having worked with a student team at Strathclyde University on the Mission Driven Entrepreneurship: Hacking for Ministry of Defence (H4MoD) Course this past Spring 2022. Industry Mentors are professionals in their field who are matched with an H4MoD student team to provide expertise, support and guidance from an industry perspective. Paolo’s problem centered around collecting information on soldiers’ nutritional intake, and his experience as a Registered Dietitian was crucial in helping his team come up with their innovative solution idea. We caught up with Paolo on his experience with H4MoD and what he’s gotten out of mentoring with CMP.

Why did you decide to take part in H4MoD? 

I wanted the opportunity to help students bring their ideas to life. In my experience at university, it was all well and good learning the theory - but it’s when you go from idea to process to pitching that you learn the most amazing practical skills. Knowing that I could provide the guidance to do this really motivated me to help.

What were some of the course highlights? 

It was great seeing the students progress and incorporate my advice alongside their interviewees’ opinions and it really showed how much their critical thinking grew throughout the course. Based on the evidence collected in interviews the students had to pivot multiple times, each time building a stronger foundation for a new solution idea. The team was really engaged and asked a lot of questions, which challenged me personally in the best way possible. 

Could you talk us through your student team’s problem and solution idea?

The team’s problem was around how to more accurately track nutrition intake from soldiers. In short, the students came up with a streamlined way to do this, focusing primarily on canteens - namely by installing a touchscreen to order food. The nutritional information of the ordered food is tied to the soldier’s fingerprint scan and sent automatically for analysis to the appropriate department within Army Health. This same technology can also be used to record food wastage, which is a perpetual problem in Army canteens. 

What areas did you feel you were most helpful as an Industry Mentor?

I think I was most helpful with understanding the problem itself. Having previously worked with the NHS and care homes, I understand the need for critical problems like this to be solved. My commercial expertise at Apetito was also useful as I was able to give feedback on whether the team’s idea was commercially-viable. Besides that, I gave more general advice on how to structure interviews and communicate professionally.

Why should someone get involved as an Industry Mentor for CMP?

I would say that there is great satisfaction in seeing a student team progress, on both a personal and professional level. Not only have you helped them, but they are also helping the end users by solving this problem - not to mention contributing to the soldier’s health and wellbeing.

I also got great insight into the MoD through the student team’s discovery, which was very useful for my own personal research and growth. I have the Common Mission Project to thank for that!

Do you want to mentor a university student team working on a real world national security and defence problem? To find out more contact us at info@commonmission.uk.