Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 08-10-2004, 03:03 PM   #1 (permalink)
Junkie
 
An inspiration to us all

Quote:
As a young boy growing up in war-torn Iran, Peter Abolfathi had one dream: to become an inventor. So after moving to Australia with his family aged 12, he turned his mind to studying biomedical engineering, a skill he could use to help the sick.

Last night at the Hordern Pavilion, Mr Abolfathi was honoured for realising his boyhood dreams. His invention of a bionic glove embedded with artificial muscles for people with paralysed or damaged hands won the 2004 Eureka Prize for inspiring science, $10,000 to study in Britain.

Mr Abolfathi's journey from the bomb shelters of Tehran to Royal North Shore Hospital's Quadriplegic Hand Research Unit included a job working with the world's only flying eye hospital, ORBIS, which took him to 27 countries in three years.

"It was an immensely valuable experience, dealing with different cultures and learning from people who used basic things to solve problems," he said.

"In Cuba, for example, I saw biomedical engineers fixing complicated machinery with hand made tools."

Mr Abolfathi said just getting the job took determination. He had to do extra teaching and research, all during his last year at university, to make the grade.

But determination is something the 29-year-old PhD student has in spades. He has overcome the Iran-Iraq war, tough times at high school and even shyness, by signing up as a presenter for community radio.

Mr Abolfathi's final posting with ORBIS was in New York, where he saw the devastation of the September 11 terrorist attack. "It was a traumatic experience. And I thought, 'It's probably a good time to come back'."

On his return to Australia, Mr Abolfathi began work on his rehabilitation glove. He said it helped its wearers - people with burns, arthritis or who are recovering from surgery - by moving the joints of a damaged hand gently and continuously.

"Quadriplegic people or stroke victims will be able to grasp objects, brush their teeth, feed themselves, pick up the telephone and shake hands," Mr Abolfathi said.

Mr Abolfathi is now working on ways to control artificial muscles electrically using tiny crystal motors, alloys that remember their shape and "smart" polymers.

Overall, a record $220,000 was presented to 22 Australian Musuem Eureka Prize winners.
Link to story in Sydney Morning Herald - 11 August 2004


It's nice to see someone overcome personal adversity and go on to help improve the lives of others.

Mr Mephisto
Mephisto2 is offline  
 

Tags
inspiration

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 02:39 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360