Meet Thomas Hodges, a first year doctoral student in Design Engineering and a David Sainsbury scholar.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your professional background?
I have recently joined Imperial and have just started my first year as a PhD student in the Department of Design Engineering and the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance (CSEP).
Before this, I completed the Design Engineering degree at the University of Bath and worked for a year as a Research and Development Engineer. My skillset is quite broad having worked and led various projects focusing on user centred design, robotics, computational modelling and medical devices.
What projects are you working on currently and what part of your work is most exciting for you right now?
My PhD is investigating how the UK can deliver mass customised healthcare services/devices at scale. I am particularly interested in exploring the breadth of newly developed medical tech innovation, but also in wider question of how these technologies can be delivered affordably and practically within the NHS.
What excites me most is that the project sits between engineering, economics and policy. Rather than only asking whether a patient specific device can be designed, I am interested in understanding the manufacturing systems, costs, infrastructure, and stakeholders needed to make these technologies accessible at scale.
What are your interests outside your work?
Rock climbing is my biggest interest and I actively join competitions, with my most exciting one being participating in The North Face Deep Water Solo competition in London.
How do you see your role contributing to CSEP’s mission?
I think my project fits closely with CSEP’s aim of improving the competitiveness of the UK’s economy, particularly through optimising the manufacturing and healthcare systems to support high quality customised healthcare at scale in the NHS. I hope my engineering background can bring a technical perspective, while my work itself can help identify how to implement customised healthcare technologies across the UK.
What do you hope to learn or gain from your time here?
One of the main things I hope to gain is a much deeper understanding of how engineering decisions interact with economics and policy. My background so far has primarily been in designing, building and testing, so I am excited to broaden that perspective and understand what determines whether an innovation can move beyond a prototype and create impact at scale.