Revolutionising prosthetics
Start innovating - Product Design Engineering alumna, Kate Walker shares her experience at Loughborough and how she was able to turn her final year project into a multi-award-winning business.
Studying product design engineering can open a wide range of future careers, and even put you on your way to starting your own business. That is exactly what alumna Kate Walker did and having developed a multi-award-winning business, ExpHand Prosthetics, she hasn’t looked back!
The inspiration
During the summer between Kate’s placement year at a design consultancy, Sagentia, and going into her third year she met a young girl called Zoey, who was born with below elbow limb loss. Having always had an interest in 3D printing, this meeting inspired Kate to make a difference.
Most prosthetics are custom-made and individually fitted by a prosthetist, making them expensive and not easily passed on and reused by someone else. Often, people have to wait a couple of months for them to be ready, and then they need to be checked and serviced regularly. This makes them expensive; some can cost upwards of £5,000 and at least twice that for electric models!
During my research, I also found that the access to prosthetics is worse for children as they outgrow them so quickly, as well as those in developing countries, where there are few trained prosthetists and little or no manufacturing expertise. This made me want to make a difference and to help enrich the lives of people like Zoey.
The idea
Having studied various modules on her course including Additive Manufacturing and Product Design, and with the various laboratories available, Kate came up with the idea of creating an adjustable 3D printed prosthetic arm for children as her dissertation project. Many of her lecturers were impressed by the idea and with the encouragement she received along with the support available at Loughborough, she decided to turn the idea into a business.
After showcasing my project at my end of year design exhibition I was encouraged to take it forward as a standalone business and over the course of the next year I was able to do just that, registering my company in the summer of 2018. Without the encouragement from a variety of staff members at Loughborough I may have never taken the leap and started my own company.
Support from the University
When starting her business, Kate sought the support of the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN).
Dr Sophie-Louise Hyde, Student Enterprise Adviser explains:
“Whether students or graduates have a general interest in entrepreneurship, want to start their own business, become self-employed or freelance, LEN provides valuable opportunities to develop enterprising skills and business knowledge through focused programmes, workshops and training, events, competitions, 1:1 mentoring and access to funding grants. For those keen to be their own boss, our start-up programme, Studio, forms the final stages of LEN, bringing together a community of student founders in our business incubator LU Inc., helping entrepreneurs to start, develop and grow their business."
Since graduating with a first class honours degree, Kate has transitioned into The Studio.
“Being a member of the Studio is great! I receive training, mentoring and tailored advice as well as business funding. Its shared workspace is the perfect base for me, and I have access to the resources, facilities and expertise I need to continue refining ExpHand. A crucial thing has been the support of my mentors. They’ve taught me so much about building a brand, accounting, finance and business management.”
The awards
Soon after setting up her business, Kate entered the Ingenuity19 competition, in which she won five awards: Brenda Dean Ingenuity Scholarship Award; BDO’s sponsored Award; Sainsbury Management Fellows Award; Experian’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award; and People’s Choice Award, with a total cash prize of £18,500 towards her business.
It was fantastic to be awarded the People’s Choice Award, as it showed how much support I had already gathered for the business, but for me the pinnacle of the evening was being awarded Experian’s Entrepreneur of the Year, as the money from this prize alone allowed me to cover patent and manufacturing costs for the coming year.
A bright future
Since then, Kate has gone on to receive recognition in multiple other awards on both a local and national scale and the future of her business continues to look bright.
Over the next year we’ll be finalising the design of the ExpHand and getting ready to bring our product to market, with both patents due to be submitted in June. This year we’ll also be running a user trial to test our products before they go to market.
To support this, we’re currently speaking with clinicians, prosthetists and researchers across the East Midlands to gain their insight and learn from their experience. We'll also be reaching for another large milestone this year, completing an investment round which will bring in external finance to allow the company to accelerate and grow.
Apply now
Find out everything you need to know about applying to study at university and start your Loughborough journey!