Isabelle Ormerod

Email: io16231@bristol.ac.uk

PhD supervisors: Chris Snider, Mike Fraser, Antony Hodgson

PhD title: Exploring Data Driven User-central Product Design

Biography

I graduated from the University of Bristol in 2020 with a master’s in mechanical engineering. During this time, I focused on mechatronic systems within the medical sector, which led me to work as a mechanical design engineer at Crux Product Design, helping design and enable production of FMCG and medical products.

Within my time at Crux, my role transitioned to something more analytical, working to answer more open-ended questions and exploring new technologies and their potential applications and limits. My expertise became more focused on FEA and analytical modelling of systems.

Pursuing a PhD was the natural next step for me, allowing me to quench my curiosity on the daily.  I want to look out how we can bridge the gap between design theory, human factors engineering and how we can use robotics to provide and streamline highly dimensional data to help better describe the choices we make during the design process and better quantify how people react to interfaces they use every day.

In my spare time, I’m a keen cyclist and climber! In the colder months I focus my efforts on knitting, crochet and pottery. I’m also a seasoned musician having played the clarinet, saxophone, and piano for over 15 years and I’m a chair for Women in Robotics UK!