TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Inspiring innovation
IHEEM COO Tania Davies chats with Aaron and his parents.
Do you think the project has changed your perception of healthcare engineering – if so, how so?
Yes, I’ve realised through my experience that healthcare engineering requires an extra level of detail to simplicity and design which perhaps other industry’s wouldn’t require. As when making a product for the elderly or patients you have to make the product understandable to THOSE who may be suffering with memory issues. So simplicity is key. I think it made me have to rethink how I look at my designs, to now Try to see it how an elderly user would and what parts they would find complicated and overwhelming and address these parts.
What message would you share with other young people wondering if engineering is for them?
There’s a common misconception within school that engineering is only for people good at maths and physics, it’s not! Engineering is about using your creativity to solve a problem, and anyone can do that no matter their socioeconomic background and past, so just go out and build cool things! And see if you can solve any problems whilst you’re at it.
And finally, where do you hope to go from here in your own future studies or professional journey?
I hope to pursue Autopill if I can, winning the award is a amazing achievement but the overall goal of Autopill is to improve the lives of elderly and other pill taking patients, I feel like this is only the
beginning for Autopill and I want to get it to get it to a point where it can do some real good. I hope to attend university where I will continue to build and develop Autopill, the next step is to build a much more professional prototype which is already underway and then apply for a grant where I can get Autopill into the world.
Judging for this year’s IHEEM Special Award for Innovation in Wellbeing and Healthcare Engineering as part of The Big Bang Competition will commence in the coming months.
With last year’s competition seeing such an extensive range and high standard of submissions from young people across the UK, Institute panellists are greatly looking forward to seeing more ground-breaking and inventive ideas from this years entrants.
Find out more about The Big Bang Fair and Competition here:
thebigbang.org.uk.
February 2026 Health Estate Journal 13
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