A group of students from the University of Dundee have won studentships with the medical technology company Medtronic after creating new learning tools in augmented reality (AR).
Seven students were offered the studentships after completing a three-month project to design and build new medical software and teaching tools for the Microsoft HoloLens.
The project involved over 50 students and will be ran next year over a period of six months to allow more time for development.
Professor Tracey Wilkinson, joint programme lead with Nicolas Denervaud from Medtronic, said: “The aim of the project was to design and create innovative augmented reality apps for medical education and training, using the HoloLens device as a training tool. We have a large number of active, fertile, creative minds in our university who are very comfortable with modern technology. Allowing our students to develop their ideas with support from Medtronic has led to immersive and fascinating learning.”
Denervaud said: “The Medtronic team were really impressed with what had been achieved in a very short period, and one of the prototypes is going to be demonstrated at the European ENT congress in October. The company are now sponsoring seven summer internships, giving several of the students an opportunity to develop their ideas further. This is an important project for us, in our effort to develop new teaching modalities, with the aim to help Health professionals deliver improved patient outcomes. Our interns will be tasked with bringing an educational app in anatomy and ENT surgery to completion, so that it is ready for use by trainee health professionals.”
