Having graduated with First Class Honours in Biomedical Engineering (BEng) from Ulster University, I have developed a broad set of skills that will support me in my research – including programming in C++ and MATLAB, and the use of software like Ansys for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

Initially, I had planned on returning to Medtronic upon finishing my studies, where I spent my placement year with the Drug-Eluting Stent (DES) team. While there, I was responsible for analysing, cleaning, and presenting large datasets related to stent manufacturing. Additionally, I assisted where needed, whether it was with maintaining and calibrating the hardware, or through quality control of the stents. However, after finding myself enjoying the independent aspect of research from my final year project, and developing skills I wouldn’t have otherwise, I decided that pursuing a PhD would be the best path for me.

Throughout the first year of this journey, I have accomplished a great number of things, including undertaking master’s-level modules, prestigious training courses in London with Muscat, and Dubrovnik with the European School of Antennas and Propagation (ESoA), a secondment at Zimmer Biomet, and to top it all off, my mini-project: ‘Design of a Body-Centric Patch Antenna’.

This mini-project mostly entailed modelling and simulating basic patch antennas, before moving onto more advanced models from the literature – evaluating them against a self-made three-layer human phantom model. Through this, I taught myself how to properly use the HFSS (High-Frequency Structure Simulator) package within Ansys, and am now ready to tackle modelling metasurfaces.

In addition to this, the aforementioned ESoA training was my first formal introduction to the topic of metasurfaces. While advanced, it gave me invaluable insight as to what has been done, and what is currently being done in the field – helping to form the foundation for my future research.