Education in engineering: The Student who Built a Surgical Robot Arm

“The project has definitely made me more curious about all the kinds of subjects I had to delve into for the project… also resilience, I think, is a big part of it.“Education is vital for inspiring the engineers of tomorrow. In this special episode of the podcast we ask: are we encouraging enough young people to go into engineering to meet the demand for innovation? We speak to Jordan Cox from PTC’s Education segment about the importance of inspiring the next generation to study STEM subjects, and how the company is supporting academia in creating the engineers of the future. We also head to Germany to meet Steve Sandhoop, a high school student at the Gymnasium in den Filder Benden, who is living proof that giving students access to technology to get involved in engineering can yield great results. Steve created a robot arm designed to carry out knee surgery as part of his final project at school. Not content with just building the robot, he also created an accurate life-size model of a human knee for it to operate on. He 3D printed all parts of his robot arm and the model knee in the school “fab lab” (short for fabrication lab) and consulted with a surgeon to make the model anatomically correct. Steve designed the robotic arm in PTC’s Onshape CAD software.We hear about how the project has ignited an interest in engineering and software for Steve and how vital it was for him to have the tools and support provided for him by his school. Find out more about PTC’s Education Segment here.Find out more about CREO here.Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC. Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.Third Angle is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Ollie Guillou. Recording by Ollie Guillou and Clarissa Maycock. And music by Rowan Bishop.