A soldier with a prosthetic leg is pictured at the Personnel Recovery Centre in Edinburgh. Image: Sgt Ian Forsyth RLC
Our body is a little bit like a machine: our bones form a robust structure, which is moved by muscles. Our digestive system is in charge of taking up energy from food and the blood stream delivers it to where it is needed. We even have a very sophisticated waste management system, and all of this machinery is controlled by a central computer: our brain.
Biomedical engineers apply their design and problem solving skills to biology and medicine to improve healthcare. Some of the most well-known biomedical applications are micro-implants, complex equipment to look inside our bodies or robotic artificial body parts.
In the Health zone you’ll meet five engineers with very different exciting jobs. There’s an engineer looking at how to make better joint replacements for your ankles, and another creating heart bandages from plants. One engineer is designing new medical devices to inject human cells from donors to patients, as well as one inventing robotic systems to help handicapped people move normally. Finally, one uses maths to predict how different people will respond to certain medicines.
You can find out more about the engineers in this zone, and what they work on by reading their profiles. Click on their names at the top of this page to find out more!
