• Question: Have any of you made a big discovery that people are using now?

    Asked by HarveyyM to Alejandra, Ana, Daniel, Sophie, Todd, Zach on 7 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by jaimiemcm.
    • Photo: Ana Gallego

      Ana Gallego answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      The ‘discovery’ wasn’t completely my own, I worked with a team but yes, my products (3 of them) are currently in the market, being sold around the World and are used by thousands of people 😀

    • Photo: Daniel Morse

      Daniel Morse answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      I haven’t made a discovery that’s in use at the moment, because my work is exploratory (basic biology, rather than an end product), but we have found that in the medical condition I’m looking at (chronic erythematous candidosis (google it!)), the dentists need to consider the bacteria in the mouth as well as Candida (which primarily causes the infection), as there may be other ways to treat it than we do currently!

    • Photo: Zach Welshman

      Zach Welshman answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      I haven’t personally made any big discoveries, in engineering it’s usually a team discovery. The reason for this is that problems that we face are require perspectives from lots of people: for example it can sometimes be difficult for an engineer really good at generating ideas (sometimes called a Product Design Engineer) to produce a product on a large scale (sometimes called a Manufacturing Engineer) so they need to collaborate to get the best solutions.

    • Photo: Sophie Cox

      Sophie Cox answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      Hi HarveyyM,

      Our team have made a few discoveries that we are really excited about because we think they have the potential to improve people’s quality of life (an anti-scarring wound dressing, a new eye drop, a novel antimicrobial spray, and some personalised bone implants). We are working on getting these products to market at the moment. In medical engineering you have to do a lot of testing, which costs lots and takes time, before your product can be used. That’s to make sure that new discoveries are safe to be used and don’t harm the patient in any way.

      Ask me this question in a few years and hopefully I’ll be able to say our team’s products are being used! 🙂

    • Photo: Alejandra Aranceta

      Alejandra Aranceta answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Hi HarveyyM,

      Not yet! I am on the experimental stage at most of my discoveries (which is hugely important to do!). We are still only to understand how our body works, so there is still much more to discover before taking over the world!

    • Photo: Todd Burton

      Todd Burton answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      No yet, but hopefully by the end of my PhD i will have published work and have made a contribution to science.

Comments