Donald Dalli, a student at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Engineering, placed first in a heat of the European Speak Out for Engineering Competition (SOFE) held in Seville, Spain. He was competing against contestants from Germany, Spain and Palestine.
The competition, organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, encourages young engineers to present their work in order to promote themselves, as well as to develop their presentation skills.
Dalli presented part of his PhD project that contributes to the Maltahip project. The project is developing a novel hip implant, which the Maltahip team is aiming to patent in the near future. For this purpose, a physical hip joint simulator to test the novel design was developed.
Dalli based his presentation on this simulator so as not to disclose any details about the implant itself.
The presented hip joint simulator not only simulates walking, as opposed to traditional hip joint simulators, but can also be used as a testbed for newly designed implants to mimic other activities of daily living.
The Maltahip project is funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology through Fusion, the research and innovation technology development programme 2016. MCL Components Ltd is the leading industrial partner collaborating in this project.
The project is led by the Department of Anatomy at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and also involves the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering as well as the Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics at Mater Dei Hospital.
The international final will be held next year.