Profile

I’m originally from Northern Ireland where I completed my first degree in Biomedical Engineering at the Ulster University. Since then I have moved to England where I am completing my MSc and PhD at the University of Leeds. I’m a big rugby fan (Ireland obviously) and before engineering I played for Ulster schools. Nowadays, In my spare time I like to tinker with gadgets, computers (I’m a fan of the Raspberry Pi and Arduino) and I like to keep up to date with startup companies in the technology space – favourite resources are TechCrunch and MedGadget. Aside from the technology interests, I enjoy a good TV series, holidays in the sun and coffee… I have many gadgets for making the perfect coffee…

My work, involves, firstly, a process called segmentation, where medical images can be transformed into a 3D virtual human on a computer. I then use gait analysis to take a real human in motion e.g. walking, squatting etc and feed this into my virtual model. This same method has been used in games such fifa and golf to mimic elite performers form and technique for game play. Using gait analysis on the the foot can provide information on the relative motion of the bones and from this biomechanics can be derived. I am specifically looking at differences between a high arched foot and flatfoot types.

In the final year of my BSc in Biomedical Engineering, I worked on manufacturing and characterising lithium doped calcium phospates for bone tissue engineering applications.

I like to rise around 7am and make myself a latte or cappuccino with fresh espresso – this is pretty much my psychological priming for the day. I’ll then make my way to the office typically around 8/9 and read up on news from sources at techcrunch or medgadet to stay current on new technology trends. From around 9am I will either be writing code, collecting/analysing gait data or reading relevant academic papers, this format will continue Monday to Thursday. Typically on a Friday I will do some experimenting with software development where I will learn a new skill or some new information from an adjacent technology sector and attempt to implement this in my PhD – it’s quite amazing just how helpful it can be to have a look at what other industries are doing – there’s a lot to be said for “connecting the dots.”

In the evenings I sometimes “read for fun” recently I have been reading The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly, The Rise of Robots by Martin Ford and  A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston.

I’d use my “experimental Friday’s” to develop a virtual reality application that could be used with google cardboard or samsung’s equivalent. The application could be used to simulate a hip replacement surgery where the user e.g. YOU would be the surgeon and you would go through the same surgical procedure required to implant a hip replacement.

Of course my VR application wouldn’t be limited to hip replacements – i’d be more inclined to run a poll to see what you, the public would like me to engineer!