Peter Niemetz, Imperial College London, 'The “B2W” – A Bike to All-terrain Wheelchair Transformation for Developing Countries'

Peter Niemetz receiving his certificate from Simon Collins, Technical Director, Corin Group



Comments from Simon Collins, Technical Director, Corin Group
Corin were pleased to attend the recent Medical Engineering Student Project Competition at the IMechE headquarters in London and award a prize for the student who demonstrated the best presentation skills. “It is incredibly rewarding to see the standard of the projects entered for this competition. Even more impressive was the standard of presentational skills we have seen today. It is very important for engineers to be able to effectively communicate at the highest level in today’s current environment. Engineers often struggle with public presentations and I was very impressed with the confidence and ability of these young engineers. This is a great competition that I thoroughly enjoyed and look forward to supporting in the future.”

Peter Niemetz: Biography and Inspirations
Peter Niemetz studied music at the Carinthian State Conservatory in Klagenfurt, Austria, transferring to London in August 2005 to do an MEng in Biomedical Engineering with Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. He spent his first two years within the Department of Bioengineering and had significant exposure to Paediatric Orthopaedic Devices (PODs). As part of his second year project, he designed the DCESTAR; an above-knee prosthesis for developing countries. In order to combine his passion for design engineering and manufacturing with his interest in contributing to the community through engineering design, he transferred to Mechanical Engineering in his third year of study. During a summer internship at Morgan Stanley in 2007, he met and became friends with Jo, a spinally-injured wheelchair user (C6i, T12c). Inspired by the POD project and touched by his experience with Jo, Peter recognised the enormous need for wheelchairs in developing countries. This led him to develop the idea of transforming a bicycle into an all-terrain wheelchair, and took on the B2W (Bike-to-Wheelchair transformation) project with 3 colleagues under the supervision of Dr Anthony Bull in his third year.

For a full synopsis of this winning project please follow this link