New insights into biomedical engineering at Southampton for school students
Biomedical engineers at the University of Southampton gave a group of teenagers new insights into cutting edge research in the specialism in a residential programme, sponsored by the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and organised by The Smallpeice Trust.
Over four days, the 15 to 16 year olds took part in a series of masterclasses and laboratory demonstrations covering topics including key hole surgery simulations, measuring and delivering signals from the body for monitoring health and restoring activity and building devices to assist less-abled people with their daily lives. Through taking part in the programme, the young people also developed their teamworking, problem solving and time and financial management skills
Dr Nick Evans, from the University’s Bioengineering Sciences group and Institute for Life Sciences comments: “This course is a really exciting and engaging way for students to interact with some of the University of Southampton’s very best research scientists. The teenagers were really fascinated to discover that engineering is not only about nuts-and-bolts and building bridges and cars, but is also really important for designing medical technology that makes a real difference to patients. It was fantastic to see the students working together in teams to solve problems and to design and test new technologies, in a very similar way to the research scientists here in our labs. The enthusiasm of the activity leaders and facilitators really helped show how exciting this area of science is, and many of the young people left the course strongly considering biomedical engineering as a career pathway.”
Claire Fisher from The Smallpeice Trust adds, “With thanks to IPEM, we have been able to offer students an insight into this fast-moving subject. Members of the group have thought like engineers and have come up with solutions to problems faced by disabled, infirm and elderly patients. Students attending this course demonstrated a high level of enthusiasm and dedication to the subject. Judging by their feedback it was clear that they had learnt a lot during their time at Southampton.”