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Ligaments, Lemons and Learning Curves - Abigail Lucas

Written by Abigail Lucas

Category
Blog - Innovation in Medical Engineering
Date

I’m now almost a year into my PhD project. It’s been an interesting year. A year of reflection, resilience and revelation.

My grand plans of generating three different mechanical testing protocols to implement on two different ligaments of the knee which can then be analysed via four different techniques is proving to be… somewhat ambitious! Nonetheless, present work has thrown out some interesting findings regarding anatomical variations in the porcine knee, and on top of my background in biochemistry I have now developed skills in dissection, fixture design, soft tissue mechanical testing and histology. I’ve also recently had the opportunity to watch live knee replacement surgery which was amazingly engrossing.

What I’ve learnt is that when things fail in the most unexpected ways, it can be infuriating and wonderful in equal measure. The PhD process has been liberating in the way it encourages trial and error, with each little failure offering you the opportunity to learn and grow, rather than hang over you and leave you feeling deflated. As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

The CDT TERM programme has provided superb peer mentoring, lots of exposure to industrial partners and processes, and multiple opportunities for personal development as a researcher, presenter, project manager and teacher (as a starter for ten). Of course it’s not plain sailing, but would I recommend it? Definitely!