Prof Karen Reynolds

Introduce yourself and your role at Flinders University

My name is Karen Reynolds, and I am a professor of Biomedical Engineering here at Flinders.

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

Well, I've been here since 1997, so over 25 years now. Oh, goodness. And so, in the very early days, we were teaching primarily electronics and biomedical engineering, and now we're teaching the much broader range of courses.

So we now teach mechanical engineering, we teach civil engineering and a number of other courses such as robotics.

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

Well, I've been here since 1997, so over 25 years now. Oh, goodness. And so, in the very early days, we were teaching primarily electronics and biomedical engineering, and now we're teaching the much broader range of courses.

So we now teach mechanical engineering, we teach civil engineering and a number of other courses such as robotics.

When I started here, we were using blackboards and chalk. We progressed to whiteboards. So obviously with the technology now and the teaching methods have evolved to suit the technology, or rather perhaps the technology has evolved to suit the teaching methods. But we use a lot of online teaching as well. And particularly with the COVID pandemic that that caused us to translate a lot into the online.

Which do you prefer, the older ones or the newer ones?

Well, I don't really know. Like, the blackboard is very much the chalk dust used to get everywhere. So but actually, it was it was quite fun sometimes to, to be able to stand there and rub bits of chalk off. Yeah, I, I've really enjoyed being in a face to face environment with the students. I find it really difficult when you're teaching online, when particularly when the teaching is recorded, students can watch it offline.

So you don't get that personal engagement and you know, it's not the same. And you know, in the early days, our classes were quite small, particularly in the biomedical engineering field. And so I guess I kind of felt that I knew all the students quite well. Whereas now many more students, a lot more online teaching. And I just don't feel I have that same relationship with the students.

Do you think there are advantages to the more modern tools that we're using now?

Sure. And, you know, I think some of the opportunities for the students to learn through online mechanisms are really good. They can go back over lectures if the bits that they don't understand the ability to be able to even just submit assignments online is good rather than having to come in physically and put it in a pigeonhole. So there's a lot of advantages, with the newer technologies.

And there're other ways of teaching that you can actually make use of some of those online tools, interactive type things.

What's your favourite thing to teach?

Two topics I've enjoyed most. One was teaching biomedical instrumentation and taking the students into the hospital and letting them actually see things in actually being used in saving lives effectively.

And, the other one is a topic that I teach now, which is about innovation in medical devices. It's about letting them understand the kind of commercial aspects of trying to take a medical device through to market.

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

The increasing numbers is has been really good on the one hand. On the other hand, you know having bigger classes has meant restrictions in some of the things that perhaps we were able to do much more easily. And as an example of that, I used to take the students into the hospital to see the different medical instrumentation being used.

When you've got ten students or 12 students, that's okay. You can take them into the intensive care unit. When you've got 40 or 50, then you know it's impossible. And so I think, you know, some of those advantages of a small group have been lost.

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

They don't have to walk up and down the hill between the medical center and engineering, which is at the top of the hill in Bedford Park [Biomedical Engineering is now at Tonsley]. So, they're probably not as fit today!

 It was always a little bit of a joke that they used to walk up and down the hill. Well, actually they didn't. They used to take the loop bus, or if they did walk, they never actually made it back up the hill because they used to stop at the Tav - !hey said that was the best part of the course, was stopping at the Tav on the way back up the hill!

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

I love that face to face interaction with the students and seeing them develop skills. I loved it back in the day when I could take them into the hospital, let them see what the possibilities are. So instead of sitting in a classroom and learning theoretically, they were actually seeing medical devices and instrumentation being used to save lives, taking them into the intensive care unit or taking them into the theatre or wherever it might be.

The other time that I'd see the change is when we send them off for their work experience. So, work integrated learning or back in the day it was called I think by IAP. Yeah. And you know, they come back 20 weeks later and about, you know, two or three years older in terms of what they know.

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

It's a really good question. I don't know that I know the answer to that… More and more people are getting involved in engineering without being engineers.

So, things like artificial intelligence and certainly in the biomedical engineering area, you know, everyone now is developing things to measure on their watch and measure heart rate and all the rest of it. So, lots of more consumer-focused biomedical engineering is going on. That's only going to continue, I think. The lines around what people perceive of as hardcore engineering will blur a little bit.

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

Apart from the dessert? Obviously seeing as many students as hopefully will come back. I still see some of our graduates from time to time in various different fora. But actually having them there just altogether will be fabulous.