Meet Design Engineer, Cameron Angus.
What is your role?
I am a Design Engineer at Translational Research Initiative for Cell Engineering and Printing (TRICEP). We are responsible for operating and maintaining a suite of advanced manufacturing equipment and helping researchers and clients realise their prototypes.
What is your area of expertise and what kind of experience do you have in this area?
I have accrued extensive experience in additive fabrication. My focus has been on the development of custom bioprinting platforms. I’ve hacked and slashed enough printers over the past few years that I could probably get a 3D printer to make me breakfast if I really wanted to.
Aside from developing new systems, what I love doing most is making coloured and textured 3D models to really get the most out of our full colour inkjet 3D Printer.
What are some of the projects and collaborations you are currently working on?
3D REDI, our commercial bioprinting platform that we will take to market very soon. It massively undercuts the cost of large bioprinting platforms while retaining most of the functionality. This has been a huge undertaking and I have learned so much throughout the course of the project. It has been a rewarding experience to be able to go from concept to tangible product. At the same time, there have been many challenges related to taking on so many roles for the project, including Design Engineer, Systems Engineer, Quality Controller, Supply Chain Manager and so on. There is never a shortage of things to be done.
What is the future outlook of these projects?
If all goes well, nothing but growth. In the near future, this project will have sufficient documentation and support that units could be built and shipped without my direct involvement. It sounds like I might be working myself out of a job, but it will all be used as a framework for ongoing system development, not to mention the top-quality user support to be provided. I look forward to developing more systems to tackle the latest challenges in this ever-changing ecosystem.
How is this work being translated into real applications?
Some of the printers I have worked on have already been shipped around the world and are already helping researchers make a big impact. While the primary focus is education and training the next generation of biological innovators, in Adelaide they have been developing pancreatic organoids for treating Type 1 diabetes, and there are plans to work with Prof Fiona Wood to develop wound healing applications.
Really, the systems are just tools and I cannot wait to see what other problems people solve with them.
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