A virtual programme has been launched as a collaboration between the Dyson School of Design Engineering and MBRU Dubai.

The programme aims at equipping undergraduate and graduate candidates from three disciplines (medicine, design, engineering) with skills to create the health system of tomorrow.

Ahmed Mohammed Patel from the Dyson School of Design Engineering, was invited to present and deliver a workshop on prototyping in the virtual exchange.

Ahmed talked to students about the fundamentals of prototyping; elaborating on what is a prototype, why we prototype, and prototyping as a mindset. He provided an overview on prototyping in industry with examples and covered prototyping in industrial design. The pinnacle of the talk covered fidelity for prototypes: describing differences, applications and dimensions of low-fidelity, mid-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes. The presentation also provided a discussion about the process of prototyping, a minimal viable prototype and the methods and need for testing a prototype.

Ahmed commented: “I really enjoyed giving a virtual lecture to engineering students from the Dyson School of Design Engineering and Medical Students at the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU), Dubai. The initiative of having clinicians from MBRU and engineers from Imperial come together to innovate is superb and reflects one of the positives and benefits of virtual conferences and collaborations that stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic. I was glad to be able to impart some knowledge and expertise which could become useful to the diverse group of students in their continued practice, future work, and look forward to the next opportunity to collaborate with both universities and departments.”

Dr Talya Porat from the Dyson School of Design Engineering agreed that this collaboration is a great initiative adding that “designing innovations that have real-world impact requires healthcare professionals, engineers and designers to work collaboratively together to understand and address healthcare needs and propose solutions that can be integrated in the complex healthcare environment.”

Thomas Boillat from MBRU: “It was a great pleasure to have Imperial and Dyson as part of this year’s bootcamp. I cannot stress more the importance of multidisciplinarity in innovation and especially for students who sometimes tend to have a narrower view of their topics due to very specialized courses and training. For participants such bootcamps are often eye-openers and empower them to be actors of change. This skill and mindset acquired in this bootcamp are particularly important in healthcare that is undergoing a digital transformation. In this transformation, not only does healthcare need digitally savvy physicians, but also engineers and designers to conceptualize impactful solutions. Additionally, the partnering clinics and health authorities have the chance to understand better the process and value of human-centered design, the approach that we used during this bootcamp. We look forward to the next edition!”

Dr Neel Sharma, Founder and Director of the Clinician Engineer Hub concluded: “This is the first of its kind collaboration between Imperial and MBRU Dubai involving clinicians and engineers. Clinicians rely heavily on engineering solutions to help diagnose and manage their patients. By bringing together clinicians and engineers a better understanding of engineering solutions can be made with the aim to develop more advanced solutions accordingly. Cross collaboration between the East and the West will help students gain the knowledge and skills needed to work in a global economy.”