Donald Dalli, a University of Malta’s Faculty of Engineering student, placed first in the European Speak Out for Engineering Competition. 

Mr Dalli presented part of his Ph.D. project that contributes to the Maltahip project, funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology through Fusion: The R&I Technology Development Programme 2016 (R&I-2015-023T).

MCL Components Ltd is the leading industrial partner collaborating in this project.

The Maltahip project is led by the Department of Anatomy (Faculty of Medicine and Surgery) but involves the interdisciplinary interactions between the departments and faculties, namely the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering (Faculty of Engineering), and the Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics (Mater Dei Hospital).

The project is also being supported by other Engineering Departments including the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Department of Industrial Electrical Power Conversion and Department of Systems and Control Engineering.

The main aim of the project is to develop a novel hip implant, which the Maltahip team is aiming to patent in the near future.

For this purpose, a physical hip joint simulator to test the novel design was developed.

Not to disclose any details about the implant itself, Mr Dalli based his presentation on this simulator.

The presented hip joint simulator does not only simulate walking, as opposed to traditional hip joint simulators, but can also be used as a test-bed for newly designed implants for other activities of daily living to mimic better the real-life conditions.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is a worldwide professional engineering body, which organises the Speak Out for Engineering Competition every year. The purpose of this competition is to encourage young engineers to present their work to promote themselves, as well as to develop their presentation skills.

The Malta Heat for the SOFE Competition was held on October 5, while the European Heat was held on November 17 in Seville, Spain at the Cristina Heeren Foundation.

In the European Heat, Malta, Germany, Spain and Palestine competed. Malta placed first while Germany was the runner-up.

The International final will be held next year.

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