Second year biomedical engineering PhD student Oisín Byrne has been announced as the winner of the BOC Gases Symposium 2018. He presented a pitch of his work to a multidisciplinary audience of engineering staff and students from the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering on March 12th.
His presentation entitled “3D printing of polymers onto the abluminal surface of cylindrical tissue samples” secured him the BOC Gases sponsored prize fund of €1300 and consequently, he participated in the prestigious Sir Bernard Crossland Symposium which was hosted by UCD this year on April 25th.
Competing with 23 posters from other Mechanical Engineering Institutions across Ireland, he received 3rd prize at this event and €200. As a member of Dr. O’ Cearbhaill’s Medical Device Design group, the aim of Oisín’s project (co-funded by Cúram, the SFI Centre for Research in Medical Devices and Neograft Technologies Inc.) is to provide an intra-operative method for improving the mechanical performance and longevity of saphenous vein grafts that are routinely used in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) procedures. He seeks to harness the unique benefits of additive manufacturing technology to provide a patient-specific graft reinforcement method in order to improve graft performance compared to the current state of the art reinforcing methods.