Rio Tinto Industrial Case Award
The words hard hats and babies are not usually spoken of in the same sentence. The outcome of an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) CASE studentship awarded by the Integrated Products Manufacturing KTN, shows how these two subjects came together after a chance meeting.
University of Nottingham PhD student Mark Grubb was funded to research ways of monitoring the health of workers in metal foundries where high ambient temperatures are the norm. Mark built a hard hat with a novel sensor that could monitor pulse rate, and with wireless electronics, proved the concept for his industrial sponsors, the mining company Rio Tinto.
A patent application has been submitted for the sensor by Mark and co-workers Dr Barrie Hayes-Gill, Dr John Crowe and Professor Nick Miles. The spin off idea was born out of a chance meeting between Mark and a university lecturer in child health, based at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, following a presentation made on some related research. They realised that Mark's sensor might be more effective for monitoring premature babies than the traditional stethoscope on the thousands of premature babies born each year who need special care.
Image above, Researcher Mark Grubb holding the Heartlight Sensor
The new sensor is much more suitable for these babies, as it can measure pulse from the skin on the forehead, which is often the only exposed skin in such cases. The project has now won a number of awards and the "Heartlight" sensor is well on the path to commercialisation