AHT 2015: Appropriate Healthcare Technology for Low Resource Countries

David Balmforth: President and Water Specialist, ICE

David Balmforth is an Executive Technical Director of MWH and is an accomplished civil engineer, specialising in flood risk management and urban pollution control. Formally an academic, his recent work ranges from the delivery of multi-million pound engineering programmes, to flood advisory work for municipalities in the UK and overseas. He has acted as an advisor to governments on infrastructure development, and has recently worked to alleviate flooding in London, Glasgow and Singapore. His novel approaches to managing urban river pollution have been widely adopted. David is now a visiting professor at Imperial College and President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Rémi Kaupp: Programme Officer, Water Aid

Rémi Kaupp is a water and sanitation engineer, working at WaterAid as a technical advisor. He focuses on urban sanitation issues, and specifically how to work with utility companies, issues of faecal sludge management and business models for small entrepreneurs.

Shilpi Srivastava: Researcher, Institute of Development Studies

Shilpi Srivastava has her Master’s degree in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She also completed her M.Phil in Law and Governance from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, where she undertook a multi-level study of the Indian water policy and analysed the gaps between policy and implementation of drinking water programmes. She worked as a Researcher
on projects with the National Institute of Administrative Research (India) and Centre for Policy Research (India). Prior to joining IDS, she worked as Research Associate with Centre for Policy Research on an IDRC-funded project on the rise of regulatory state in the south.

Dr Patrick Finlay: Chair, Biomedical Engineering Association, Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Patrick Finlay is Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Association of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. His background is in medical robotics, and has founded and directed two companies in this field. More recently he formed his consultancy company, MediMaton Ltd, to pursue a wider role in biomedical engineering, including interests in healthcare technology for low resource
countries.

He initiated the IMechE’s biennial Appropriate Healthcare seminars, and helps to organise a sister event held on alternate years at the IET. He has an engineering degree from Birmingham University and a PhD from Strathclyde. He is an expert adviser to the European Commission and the author of some 20 patents.

Theodoros Margazoglou: Senior Design Engineer, JCB Loadall Systems Limited

Theodoros Margazoglou works as a Design Engineer at Sandvik Mobile Crushers and Screens, responsible for heavy duty machines since 2013. He received his B.Sc. in industrial design engineering from the Technological Educational Institute of Western Macedonia, Greece, in 2006. In 2013 he completed his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at Aston University, focusing his research project on desalination and water purification. A year later, he received his M.Sc. in Engineering Design and Manufacture from Loughborough University. Prior to joining Sandvik, he worked for three years as a mechanical design engineer in various heavy industries in Greece.

John Griffith: Trustee, The Safe Water Trust

John Griffith was a Lecturer in Ghana from 1965 to 1968. He then worked as Chief Designer at The Bonas Machine Company, and subsequently as owner/manager of Griffith Textile Machines. His design successes have included the Varitex narrow fabric loom and the world’s first successful electronic jacquard, both still in production and widely copied; and the bicycle pedal loom for Harris Tweed that re-equipped the industry, and a high speed carpet loom. Commercial failures included a laparoscopic suturing instrument and an air-jet loom.

David Hutton: Managing Director, Flexipump Irrigation Ltd

David Hutton is an inventor/entrepreneur. David studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, gaining a Master’s degree in 2011. The flexipump started to take shape as his final year project at University. Realising the vast potential of the pump, he continued to design and develop the flexipump after graduating. In 2012, David spent seven months in Zambia, field testing the pump with groups of farmers. The pump was commercially launched in 2014. David has recently moved to South Africa to be closer to his customers.

Dr David Clifton: Group Leader - Computational Health Informatics Laboratory, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford

David Clifton runs the Computational Health Informatics (CHI) Laboratory at the University of Oxford, which focuses on the use of machine learning for health monitoring. Outcomes of his research have been used for health monitoring systems on board the engines of the Airbus A380, Boeing 787, and Eurofighter Typhoon, in patient monitoring systems for the NHS, and in tracking the health of water systems in poor, rural regions. David trained at the Department of Engineering Science in Oxford, and was appointed to a tenure-track position in 2013, when he was appointed a Research Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Henrik Hagemann: Co-founder & CEO, CustoMem

Henrik Hagemann is a Biomedical Engineering MEng graduate from Imperial College who has found his passion in using bioengineering to tackle global issues of our generation. He is co-founder of the bioengineering startup CustoMem, originating from Imperial College’s participation in the iGEM competition, the world’s largest synthetic biology competition where they secured 2nd place out of 240+ university teams competing at MIT. Previously, he developed a handlebar system for below-the-elbow Paralympian silver medallist Jon-Allan Butterworth.  He has won the undergraduate award from the Institution of Engineering & Technology twice in 2013 and 2014, the City & Guilds College Union Student Activity award and co-founded Imperial College Synthetic Biology society, SynBIC.