Over the past period, eight Master’s students in Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have been working on making ophthalmic surgery more sustainable. This was part of the “Product Futures” course, with a specific focus on the products of ESCH-R partner DORC.

After visiting DORC and the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), the students explored potential future circular design solutions for DORC. Last week, they presented their insights and circular design concepts to Sammar Noor from DORC.

Sammar: “I am truly impressed by the creativity, dedication, and depth of thinking the students have brought to this project. Their concepts demonstrate not only strong design skills, but also a genuine understanding of the challenges and opportunities surrounding sustainability in ophthalmic surgery. Collaborating with the students and seeing our products through a fresh, future-oriented perspective has been incredibly valuable. Initiatives like this show how academia and industry can work together to accelerate the transition towards more circular healthcare solutions.”

The students are supervised by ESCH-R PhD candidate Jan Tsai, WP5 Lead JC Diehl, and Redmer van Leeuwen, ophthalmologist at UMCU.