Dr David Hobbs

Introduce yourself and your role at Flinders University

My name is David Hobbes. I'm a senior lecturer in rehabilitation engineering in the College of Science and Engineering and in Karen's Medical Device Research Institute.

Are you Alumni?

I am, yes.

What led you to study at Flinders University?

So my journey at Flinders University began when I was very young because my mum studied here and said we would always be coming to the carpark for mum to hand in her essays. And so I got to know the university because we'd sit in the car park in a stinking hot car while mum ran in her essay because you had to put it in the pigeon hole.

When I was at school I loved maths, but the application of maths for me was the physics and so I came here to do physics and so I finished my degree around Anchor Court, did my physics degree and that was from 92 to 94. And then I just was thinking, what next? And I didn't really want to do honors in physics.

So I took a complete break, actually, and I went overseas to America and became a camp counselor at summer camp. So did the camp counselor thing and came back and my parents said, We can't keep doing that. And I was like, Well, you're right. I can't do that even though I would like to do it. So I decided that I should try and find out what I want to do because I didn't want to do what I saw in physics, but I found medical physics and I thought that might be interesting.

I got a work experience placement at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in medical physics and got to meet the chief medical physicist there, which was Leyton Barnden, and got a chance to work with his team. And then I was there for a couple weeks just voluntarily, like I just go there and just work to get an idea of what it was about.

I really enjoyed it, but I found that what I really enjoyed was actually all of the doctor stuff, not the medical physics, technical stuff. Yeah. Okay. So I thought, that's kind of interesting. And then on the last day, Layton said, Look, before you leave, you should probably go and have a chat to a guy these days called Adrian Richards.

And I said, Who's Adrian? And he said, “Well, he's in the biomedical engineering department”. I said, “Well, what's biomedical engineering?”, and he said, “Well, you better go and see Adrian. So I did. And then Adrian said ”well, if you're interested in biomedical engineering, you should go and talk to a guy called Andrew Downie. He's at Flinders University. That's where they teach the degree.”

I said, “I don't even know what you're talking about.” Okay, so I set up a meeting with Andrew and I took all of my transcript from my physics degree because I said, Look, I'm actually from here. I'm supposed to voluntary work experience now, and Andrew got my, my degree from my physics studies and they had the program of study for biomedical engineering.

He started drawing all these lines on a list sort of thing. He goes “Oh yeah, credit, credit. This is great. Great, great. Oh, great. Hang on a minute,” went to his desk, called up SATAC directly, and told SATAC that he had a student in his office who was interested in doing biomedical engineering. It was late, you know, could he get a late offer?

Comes in and he says, “Look, it's all sorted. You’ll get an offer in the mail and we'll see you in March.” And I left the office and I came home and my mum said to me, she goes, How did that meeting with the professor go? I said, “I think I'm doing biomedical engineering next year”. She said “What do you mean you think you’re doing it?

I thought you're going to find out more information about it” I said “ Yeah, me too. I think I'm enrolled in the course now.” So, you know, one thing led to another, and I got enrolled in the course and it was great. So loved it from start to finish. The best part was definitely doing the what we called our Work Integrated Learning.

And that was because I was very keen to go overseas and do an overseas placement. So talking to Andrew, because he's a guy that got me into the degree the first place, managed to align me with a place in Canada in rehabilitation engineering and never looked back after that. That was great.

So when after I graduated and I worked at Innovative Children's Services for almost ten years, they itch to do a PhD was getting stronger and stronger. And Karen and I never lost contact. Karen came to our wedding, so I wanted to come back and work with Karen and and join the college again.

So I did.

How have you seen the engineering degree evolve over the years?

Back in the day, so I was in the fourth class that came through and it was a five year compulsory degree at the time, and there was only one flavoring. It was electronics. So you had to be five years and you had to go in the electronics pathway. Yeah, I've been there in that time.

It was really interesting because we didn't have any graduates and so you kind of got to know those above you and those below you and that that that leading edge just sort of got a little bit further ahead when you got to see them do Expo Day and you hear about what it was like when they did work experience, then you saw them graduate.

So that was really nice because that was sort of breaking ground for us in that way, which is great. And I honestly think if I did my degree now, I would actually have chosen the mechanical pathway. So we have students of choice. They can do an electronics flavoring or mechanical flavoring, and there's a four year option and there's a five year option.

Okay, If I had the marks, I would have tried to go into the five year option, which is a very high ATAR to get in. And I would have gone down the mechanical pathway just because I think that would have aligned with my interests and what I think I'm good at. Yeah, right. So I reckon it's great we've got those offerings now.

How have the teaching methods or technologies used in the course changed?

My comparator is always to physics because that was my first degree and I think engineering is taught very differently and it's a lot more hands on and practical because it's the application of the technology and the maths, and things like that. So I've got that sense, I think almost from my first class that it was a lot more applied and a lot more practical, which I really enjoyed even though I was in the theoretical aspect of physics, I really enjoyed that practical aspect and I used to teach engineering design here at Flinders.

when it first started in 2011, I taught I taught it to the next 11 or 12 years and I just stopped teaching it. But after about the third or fourth year, I actually got a grant from the college to bring 3D printers into the topic. So we started using 3D printers as soon as we could, and that's because that was just what was happening, so let's get our engineers on board with that. And, they really gravitated to it and I really liked it. And that assignment that I gave them around that and then I sort of dangled a carrot in another big challenge was if you 3D printed your bonus marks to demonstrate the brought a prototype to life as well. So I think that is just an example of yeah, making sure.

And then when the students do the Worman projects, so the mechanical aspect, like laser cutters, 3D printers, you name all the stuff they can do to make artifacts is there. Software just gone out of this world at the moment, so, you know, what CAD can do now compared to back then and whatnot. So I see lots of advances there and I think engineers are pretty nimble to jump on it.

We tested the market around programing languages. We thought the programing language we were teaching might not be fit for industry. One of our colleagues read a survey overwhelming to come back to Python - Boom! Next year they’re teaching Python and learning Python. So I think that's a good thing as well.

What have been some of the biggest challenges in teaching the course and how have they been addressed over time?

So, it was a challenge, but it was a good challenge, and that is that Flinders University was probably the first in Australia to not just teach an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering, but to have one that's accredited.

Then, if we're not an accredited department or accredited area, if I say that, then we can't graduate an engineer - if they won't be recognised by Engineers Australia, they won't be recognised overseas. So, a constant challenge I think is making sure that whatever we do, we're signing off on those sixteen Stage One competencies of being an engineer to say that, yes, we've got the right level and then being responsive, you know, and I think a lot of my colleagues have been responsive.

What are some of the most significant changes you've seen in the students who have taken this course of the years?

Definitely the amount they work. When I was going through university, I was a student and I did casual work around that. So I worked in a bar and I worked at a drive through and things like that.

The modern student - it's not unusual to hear them say they're doing 30 hours of work. That's not as a student, that's as work [employment].

 What about the types of things that students are interested in studying?

I think the rise of software has really changed a lot. And so there's a lot of our students and we expose them to quite a bit of software engineering and coding in their degrees. But a lot have a real flair and a real skill in that area too. And for me, the logical extension and I think I heard Karen say it before and it might come up next, is really that machine learning artificial intelligence aspects of where that goes.

I'm seeing a lot of students go into those areas or have an interest in those areas. We've got graduates who work at Consilium technology in those areas as well. So that's one and probably the merging of the fields too. So, you know, they, they that the biomedical and the technical and then the mechanical and then some electronics and then some software.

What gives you the greatest pleasure from teaching budding future engineers?

Oh, I think the two things stand out for me. The one is seeing them succeed. Yeah. I love seeing them come in. And when I said Teach first year design. I could see them coming in and they're fresh and everything's new and it's different and what should I call it, the “shackles” of high school being broken. Because university is very free. There's no bell to tell you that classes start, there’s no bell to tell you that classes finish. No one's going to remind you to put the assignment in. You know, it's independent. It's what you make of it. So I love seeing the students grow. I think that's really, really great. And that's one of the things I really look forward to, is I love getting to know them.

So they almost become, you know, peers or colleagues not not in that true sense. But, you know, when in that fallow year, when they're just about to graduate, you spend a lot of time together with their projects and whatnot. So I love developing that relationship and I love helping them get a job. That's the next thing. They come to university because I want to get a job.

Writing references or being on the phone when they call me up for an independent reference is fantastic. I love being able to do that.

What do you think engineering will look like in another 30 years?

2050, I might still be teaching. I'm so I think one of the reasons we're in the area we are we do the things we do is because electronics and the miniaturisation of electronics has got us to where we are. I mean, we have to actually understand we've all got supercomputers in our pockets.

And that that was not the case when I was a student. It was all blackboards and chalk back then and the whiteboards and markers and things like that. So I think the current trends in software and machine learning, artificial intelligence and the miniaturization of electronics is going to take things to areas where we probably actually won't have to do a lot of the things we do now.

Some of the things you see in Minority Report with Tom Cruise, where he's gesturing and moving things around, I think that will become a fact because there's stuff that can do that now on a on a low level voice responsiveness. I mean, that's fantastic. That comes from my area, the disability sector, you know, voice to text and voice to action.

I think that would have become the norm as it is now. Some of the things where you walk in go lights on, oven 150 degrees TV, Channel Seven, you can do that now. So for me that's merging of lots of different types of technology in the engineering space. And so the fact that students can come out and be a little bit multipronged is good too, because if they're biomedical with a lot of software, they might find a software path and not actually in that working environment that contributed a lot of software in area as well.

So it's exciting. It's kind of scary too, at the same time, I have to say. But, let's see where it goes.

What are you looking forward to the most at the 30 Year Gala Dinner?

I’m really looking forward to catching up with the people that I went through [with] So, being the fourth group that went through and seeing some of those early groundbreakers ahead of me will be really great to see some of them come back and find out where they are now because it's three decades worth of career experience for them. So they will be well past the graduate engineer stage and yeah, looking at where they are and what they're doing.

And I'm sure the advice they've got for our current students will still hold weight in today's climate and today's activities. And so reconnecting with staff I, Karen and I would say finish with Andrew Downing just the other day. So looking forward to seeing our inaugural head of engineering come back and be there as well will be good and maybe some staff who have moved on coming back to celebrate as well with us.

So, yeah... Reconnecting!