Med-Trek innovation? Captain Picard stunned by medical device manufacturing

The man who piloted the Starship Enterprise was given a glimpse of the future of medical device manufacturing at the University of Huddersfield.

Sir Patrick Stewart – who played Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation on TV and film – is emeritus chancellor at the university.

On his latest visit, he worked closely with young actors and film studies students, but he was also shown some of the scientific and technological research taking place in the medtech sector

He visited the university’s Future Metrology Hub, a £30 million research centre that is developing embedded sensors for advanced manufacturing.

The Hub – heavily backed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) – is based in the university’s Centre for Precision Technologies, home to a team of researchers in precision engineering and metrology.

On his visit, Sir Patrick met the hub’s director Professor Xiangqian Jiang and senior lecturer Dr Haydn Martin, plus its multi-disciplinary, multi-national team of researchers who are harnessing new developments in metrology and miniaturisation.

Professor Liam Blunt showed Sir Patrick how metrology and X-ray analysis were aiding the development of new, patient-specific medical devices, and could also be used for purposes such as investigating and verifying artefacts including antique weaponry.