Cassandra, welcome to the team! Tell us more about your studies at the moment – we would love to know more.
My interests within academia lie mostly within the field of medical engineering, contributing to designing a total artificial heart as a part of the university competition team, Team Bath Heart.
This is linked with my final year project titled ‘Improving surgery through the redesign of a laparoscopic tool for a wider ergonomic population of surgeons’. The aim is to reduce the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in laparoscopic surgeons, improving efficiency of surgical procedures and patient outcomes. Outside of academia, I train and compete in Olympic-style weightlifting.
What interested you about the EDE scheme?
Along with boosting my final year project, the mentorship aspect really interested me. There aren’t many opportunities to talk with people in the industry about their design practices and journey, especially people from ethnically diverse backgrounds.
I believe that diversity ultimately fuels better design, as people from different backgrounds whether that is the designer, or the user will have different insights, needs and wants, which affects all factors considered in inclusive design. I hope that with this I would also inspire others like me to pursue their passions in engineering and design.
What are your thoughts so far on the team in Bristol and how they work?
I’ve enjoy the open space layout of the office and how it has facilitated such a collaborative environment between each department. The Bristol team have also created such a friendly atmosphere, and everyone is really approachable. Everyone I have met and spoken to about my final year project has had very unique and useful insights, bringing in different areas of expertise.
What would you like to focus on in the future?
I would like to work in the field of human-centred design and create something that can ultimately help people. I hope this would be in a multi-disciplinary team as well which would reflect the wide range of design engineering projects I’ve had at university so far, working with and learning from experts from different backgrounds.
This article has been updated since original publication to reflect HS Design and Kinneir Dufort’s new trading name of Ensera Design.
