• Question: what kind of engineering do you do?

    Asked by lucy to Alejandra, Ana, Daniel, Sophie, Todd, Zach on 6 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Zach Welshman

      Zach Welshman answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      My broad domain is medical engineering, but my sub domain is computational biomechanics. All engineering specialties use a similar process for problem solving. Some common approaches are the “engineering design process” or the “scientific method”

      Current software programs I use include AnyBodyTechnologies for virtual human modelling,
      MeshLab/SolidWorks for 3D modelling and
      3D Slicer for analysing MRI Images

    • Photo: Ana Gallego

      Ana Gallego answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      Hi Lucy!

      I am a Materials Engineer / Scientist. I work with soft and cushiony materials such as the ones you will find inside your mattress or some shoe insoles.
      I like working with anything that is sticky, any glue, as you can put together a lot of different things if you know what to use, and for this, knowing chemistry is a great help.
      I also design components, so I spend half of my time using CAD (Computer Assisted Design) with programs like Solidworks to design the products and then I use 3D printers to turn them into reality in just a few hours.
      I can make tools to mould with 3D printers! Even cookie cutters!

      Once I design something, for me to be able to sell it, I also need to think about how that thing is going to be mass produced (make a lot of them in one go). So I have to plan and think about the best, cheapest and easiest way to make something, so I guess I am also a bit of a process engineer.

    • Photo: Todd Burton

      Todd Burton answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      I am a Biomedical Engineer, specifically a tissue engineer! I look at the types of materials and environments that help cells to grow. I spend my time making different types of material structures and designing a bioreactor for cell to grow in.

    • Photo: Daniel Morse

      Daniel Morse answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      I’m similar to Todd, I’m a biomedical tissue engineer.

      I work on developing a living 3D model of a tissue (in this case, the roof of your mouth) so I can use for my studies. Other people use the same model, but look at cancers, cancer progression and treatments, but I use it for infections and to see how the cells respond.

    • Photo: Sophie Cox

      Sophie Cox answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      Hi Lucy,

      I’m a Biomedical Engineer. My work focuses on:

      1. Making new materials to help the body to heal itself
      2. Finding new ways to make implants, including 3D printing
      3. Designing systems to deliver drugs that are easy for doctors to handle

      To do all of these things this involves using skills from lots of different types of engineering/science, from materials and manufacturing to computational and biology. Like Zach said though, as engineers broadly we try to solve problems.

      Are you interested in becoming an engineer or learning more about it?

    • Photo: Alejandra Aranceta

      Alejandra Aranceta answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      My field is biomedical engineering. That means a lot of things, biomedical engineering can be anything from prosthetics, orthotics, tissue engineering, artificial organs, development of medical devices, etc.

      On a day to day, I do experiments on people/patients and then I analyse those results trying to get into a conclusion/discussion that would hopefully change the way people live. Helping with their quality of life and making sure that they take control of their life.

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