Jonathan D’Angelo, a UWA Biomedical Engineering student, has built up practical skills designing 3D printed products as part of a Royal Perth Hospital Innovation Hub internship through the McCusker Centre for Citizenship.
“During my internship I was able to develop a functional larynx model for Speech Pathology and design and test a novel alarm for anaesthesia equipment,” Jonathan said.
“I also wrote a technical feasibility report for bronchoscope attachments and analysed workflows in the operating theatre to reduce cognitive overload and improve procedural compliance. Being able to meet with clinicians and implement their feedback to deliver products and solutions they can use was particularly rewarding.”
Dr David Morrison, Innovation Technical Lead with Royal Perth Hospital Innovation Hub and Jonathan’s supervisor, was impressed by his internship efforts.
“Jonathan has materially contributed to the RPH Innovation Hub. As the Hub is a relatively new facility, Jonathan was able to use his hands-on engineering skills to activate the 3D printing facility, simultaneously working on several clinician-driven projects,” Dr Morrison said.
“Developing an alarm system for a high-flow oxygen device was a particularly challenging yet rewarding project for Jonathan and it was pleasing to see his UWA engineering skills applied to this practical, high-stakes problem.
“Jonathan’s strong work ethic and the ability to take on a wide variety of projects made him an asset to the RPH Innovation Hub team.”
For Jonathan, the internship experience was rich with learning, providing him with new professional skills and options for career progression.
“The internship has motivated me to get into the manufacturing side of biomedical engineering rather than taking a purely academic path,” he said.
“The manufacturing and designing skills alone will help me handle a wider range of engineering tasks, and skills like administration, communication, and collaboration with other professionals are not something taught in university, so it was great to have the opportunity to develop these.
“Along with the support of Dr Morrison, I really appreciated the enthusiasm and energy that the McCusker Centre team brought to the program – the check up calls and emails made it a very smooth process.”
Image: Dr David Morrison and Jonathan D'Angelo at Royal Perth Hospital Innovation Hub