About Us

I (Jeremy) am an Engineer. I completed a bachelor’s degree in Mechatronic Engineering and set out into the workforce where I was involved in a number of product developments. After several years in industry, I went back to university to complete a PhD. My PhD topic was to design an interface to control a continuum robot to be used in surgery. My background as an engineer gave me all the skills required to achieve this goal of designing a robust interface and then teaching surgeons how to use it; however, as I started thinking about the limitations of designing for surgery and how surgeons would be using a device they do not fully comprehend I was reminded of the image below. This image, or a variation of it, would make its way around engineering offices from time to time. It follows the development of a tree swing as it moves through the various levels of design processes, but the last scene highlights what the user wanted the entire time. I am sharing this comic strip because I realised that by solely relying on my engineering background I would most likely develop an interface that would allow the user to control a continuum robot, but it may not meet the users’ expectations and, in the process, not be safe, effective, or efficient, and remove the joy or satisfaction that the user is hoping for from the interaction. In order for the interaction to be desirable and accessible for a surgeon to use, it was imperative that their needs were understood and that the robot and the interface were developed to meet those needs. This could only be achieved by incorporating human factors.

Jeremy Opie, 2021