MPBE undergraduate students attend overseas industry trip

One of the greatest milestones in my year-long exchange at UCL was increasing student exposure to industry as events director of MPBE Society. It seemed impossible at first —  I did not have a professional network in the UK or Europe, so after weeks of contacting companies, I was beyond thrilled that Siemens Healthineers and Cochlear responded!

So, we set off by coach from London to Siemens Healthineers, Oxford, to learn about their MRI magnet technology - If you’ve ever had an MRI, the superconducting magnet inside was likely manufactured there!  

We owe this wonderful experience to Kevin Coolin and the Siemens staff who gave us a glimpse into the world-class engineering that we all aspire to here at UCL. From magnets that were two weeks away from becoming MRI machines, to massive 7T MRIs and their pioneering DryCool technology which runs on just 0.7L of liquid helium, we saw all the intricate hardware that powers the remarkable imaging technique. A bonus was getting to explore a bit of sunny Oxford afterwards!

Just two weeks later, we were in Sweden, learning about bone anchored hearing solutions by Cochlear. This was particularly exciting, as Cochlear is an Australian market leader in MedTech that many of my peers had never heard of. Of course, all of this was possible thanks to funding from the faculty and the student union. The overwhelmingly positive response from both students and the companies has been incredibly rewarding, and I leave my position with confidence that future MPBE committee have the contacts and strategy to make UCL industry trips a continuing tradition. 

 I’m so proud of our committee’s hard work this year, thank you Joy Zhang, Ashley Hooi, Lynn Karam, Christopher Behnert-Smirnov, Makanaka Mazheke.

As my chapter in London comes to a close, I look forward to hearing about future society trips and UCL Medical Physicists and Biomedical Engineers engaging with the local and global industry —  all the way from Sydney, Australia!