Students get to the heart of the matter

Date Published: 12-Nov-2009

One of Galway’s biggest industries this week joined forces with youngsters from a number of schools in the county, as the students learned how to design the high tech medical devices which have saved lives of heart patients, and created thousands of jobs in Galway.

Stents are used in battling heart disease, and are placed in diseased arteries to keep them open and improve the blood flow – without which patients with narrowed or damaged arteries could be in danger from heart attack.

And this week, as part of the Galway Science and Technology Festival, engineers from Boston Scientific in Galway, mentored students at special classes in the Galway Education Centre, where the pupils designed stents using a 3D software design package known as SolidWorks.

The classes didn’t just teach the students about design – for ‘Design and Communication Graphics’ (formerly known as ‘Technical Drawing’) is a subject on the Leaving Cert and indeed last year a question on the Leaving Cert Honours Paper asked students to show a design and elevation for a stent using the 3D graphics SolidWorks program.

Design and Communication Graphics is also subject growing in popularity – 6,204 students took the Leaving Cert examination paper in 2009, compared with 5485 in 2008. So, the special classes as part of the Galway Science and Technology Festival, could also be a help to students in years to come in their Leaving Cert.

Studying the design of stents is also particularly appropriate this year – for 2009 is the 20th Anniversary of the first use of stents on patients in Ireland. They have saved thousands of patients’ lives, as well as saving them the trauma of bypass surgery. Stents are inserted through a major artery by doctors guided by x-ray.

In 2008 alone, a total in the region of 8,000 patients in Ireland had stent procedures carried out. In Galway two of the city’s biggest industries, Boston Scientific and Medtronic, are both involved in stent research and manufacture and employ thousands. Both companies are major sponsors of the Galway Science and Technology Fair.

The special classes began on Monday, with Scoil Caitriona National School, Renmore. They continued during the week with classes from Clarenbridge National School, and Scoil Einde, Salthill.

Said Scoil Caitriona teacher Anne Marie Duggan: “The pupils were fascinated – with each one of them having a computer to work on and running a program as advanced as SolidWorks. We had done a bit of work in advance in the classroom on stents and so they also understood the importance of stents in modern medicine.

“The classes provided a marvellous opportunity for them to work on advanced design concepts and, of course, some of them will probably be using a program like SolidWorks in years to come when it comes to doing their Leaving Cert. They also enjoyed themselves.”

The Galway Science and Technology Festival continues with special classes, demonstrations and visits to schools until November 22. The finale of the festival will be in Leisureland and The Galway Bay Hotel on November 22 when up to 40 interactive stands from industry and education will be visited by about 17,000 students from all over the west. The aim of the festival is to increase the uptake by students of areas such as science and engineering.

Among the festival sponsors are Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Hewlett Packard, SAP and Galmere Food, with involvement by agencies such as the IDA, Galway City Council, Galway County and City Enterprise Board, the Environmental Change Institute, Coillte, Galway County Libraries, Teagasc, An Garda Siochana, GMIT, NUI, Galway.