Barbara Melissen – Industrial Design Engineer | Medical Specialisation

Industrial Design Engineer | Medical Specialist | Lover of Nature

About Me

Industrial Design brings people and technology together. I believe this is essential to give people a healthy future on a healthy planet. Simple, circular and user friendly designs will play a major role in reshaping the future in this way. I’m driven to contribute to this cause with resourcefulness and an open mind. I love hiking in the mountains and photographing the beauty of nature.

Portfolio Preview

Products

These products represent a selection of my projects that have gotten to (pre) production stage. I am very grateful to have worked on these projects with a positive medical or sustainable impact on the world.

Prototyping

I love to experiment and testing out what works and what pleases the senses. For me, making it real and getting feedback is the fastest step to improvement.

Illustrating

Here is a selection of illustrations I made during my graduation. The illustrations are made to show the installation instructions for the surgical device that I developed.

CAD/Renders

I am fluent in SolidWorks, AutoDesk Inventor and rendering software like KeyShot etc.

Electronics

During my first Electronics course I bought an Arduino kit for myself and started integrating it in more and more projects. I also did a Software and a Mechatronics elective during my Bachelor.

USER TESTING

Testing with users gives the most valuable feedback for further development of your product/service. Whether it’s observing and interviewing about the status quo to analyse what is needed, or testing what you’ve made to confirm or update your design, these are the most important steps.

Analysis

Interpreting the data of your tests is essential for further development of your product/service. I’m trained in using SPSS in-depth for statistical analysis and I finished in the top 9% of my statistics class.

Sketching

Sketching is where all projects start. I did a Computersketching elective during my Master to further master the Wacom tablet.

Assembly

Not only was I taught in the ways of design for assembly, but I’ve also worked on designing assembly machines at Blok System Supply. This is a video of an assembly method for placing a fragile piece of papier into a container that I developed.

“Resourceful, Curious and Caring"

From an early age I always tried to upgrade the things around me by combining items or breaking off parts and replacing them with more useful alternatives. With global warming and vanishing rainforests around I wanted to study something that would turn my resourcefulness to good use in a more professional way. Therefore, I went to study Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. During this study I was taught in a wide variety of subjects surrounding the ideation, creation and production of products and services. Courses ranged from sustainable product design to consumer behaviour and from interaction design to mechatronics. As a side quest, I did a minor in Medicine at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. This led to choosing and completing the medical specialisation during my master Integrated Product Design with great success. My master graduation project, a collaboration with UMC Utrecht, can be found on the following page: Laproscope Tip Cleaning Device. After my studies I made a journey from working in the medical prosthetic robotics field at RBionics, to being an all round engineer focussed on green energy, industrial grade drones and laboratory machinery at Blok System Supply. De Groene Batterij is one of the projects I’ve been involved in which is able to be shown in public. However, being let down due to COVID-19 has opened my eyes to new opportunities. I have a lot of passion to help people, preferably by being involved in either medical technology or in finding sustainable solutions to help us and the following generations to live healthily in a healthier world.