Robotic eyes win international award

Final year engineering student Tim Nelson has won the IEE International Premium competition for the EyeSim, a unique pair of robotic eyes that can mimic the response of human eyes.

Final year engineering student Tim Nelson has won the IEE International Premium competition for the EyeSim, a unique pair of robotic eyes that can mimic the response of human eyes.

The EyeSim was developed to provide a platform for medical trainees and professionals to practice ophthalmic examinations.

The robot allows a greater ability to study the human eye responses providing students with a wider range of possible abnormalities than when training with real patients.

The international competition saw students studying science; engineering and technology submit final year projects to be judged by their peers at the IEE International Younger Members Conference in Birmingham.

The EyeSim was developed as part of Nelson's biomedical engineering degree, which he completed at Flinders University in Adelaide.

The project won as it demonstrated a solution to a real world problem and has achieved a degree of successes over the period of its development.

Nelson is hoping that the EyeSim will have a strong impact for students, patients and practitioners within the field of neurology.

"Winning this competition has been a great experience for me personally but I hope that it will help launch the EyeSim commercially".

"There is a very real educational and industry need for this and once we have refined some of the mechanical components we will be marketing it more aggressively", he said.

Chair of the Premium Competition Sam McLaughlin sees these competitions as vital for the future of engineering: "Having demonstrated the ability to convey technical information with authority, those competing in the International Premium Final are the individuals who will be leading their professions into the future", he said.

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