Malta places first in the International Final for the Speak Out for Engineering competition. The SOFE competition invites contestants from all over the world to present their engineering research projects. The competition is coordinated by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), a worldwide professional engineering organisation.
Donald Dalli presented part of his PhD work that contributes to the MALTAHIP project and represented the European region. Before participating in the grand finale, each participant must first win the local heat of the SOFE competition held in their respective country. The winning participant is then invited to compete on a regional level. Once the participant passes the regional heat competition, the contestant is eligible to participate in the international final.
Dalli competed and placed first in the Local SOFE competition on 5 October 2017 at the Corinthia Palace Hotel. The Malta Group of Professional Engineering Institutions hosted the local competition, which was organised by Ing. Charles Cuschieri and Prof. Ing. Duncan Camilleri (IMechE's local representatives). Moreover, Mr Dalli competed in the European Regional Heat held on 17 November in Seville at the Cristina Heeren Foundation. During the latter event, Dalli competed against Germany, Spain and Palestine.
The international final for the SOFE competition was held on 17 February in Christchurch at the Commodore Hotel, New Zealand. In total, six contestants participated, representing the Americas, Europe, Middle East, North East Asia, Oceania and Southern Asia regions.
A wide variety of subjects were presented during the competition, covering computational fluid dynamics, thermoacoustic refrigeration, aerial grasping from drones, autonomous vehicles and sustainable transport. In this competition, Donald delivered a biomedical presentation about the hip joint simulator that he has been developing as part of the MALTAHIP project. The hip joint simulator is intended to act as a testbed to provide University of Malta researchers better insight on the corrosion-wear performance of hip implants. The MALTAHIP team intends to use the simulator to test a novel total hip joint replacement implant design.
Prof. Pierre Schembri Wismayer MD is the innovator behind the novel implant design and the team leader of the MALTAHIP project. Moreover, Dr Ing. Joseph Buhagiar and Dr Ing. Pierluigi Mollicone are project collaborators and are supervising Donald's doctoral thesis. MCL Components Ltd is the leading industrial partner collaborating in this project. The MALTAHIP project is funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology through Fusion: The R&I Technology Development Programme 2016 (R&I-2015-023T).
The MALTAHIP project is led by the Department of Anatomy (Faculty of Medicine and Surgery) but involves the interdisciplinary interactions between other departments and faculties, namely the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering (Faculty of Engineering) and the Department of Orthopaedics, Trauma and Sports Medicine (Mater Dei Hospital).
The project is also being supported by other engineering departments including the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Department of Industrial Electrical Power Conversion and Department of Systems and Control Engineering. The MALTAHIP project and the innovation that lies behind it would not exist in the first place if it were not for the cooperation of researchers from different fields.