Global Perspective Photo Gallery: Melbourne, Australia

Insights from the Student Photographer

Tim Buck

On March 2nd 2006 I set off on a 24+ hour plane ride to Melbourne, Australia. My group, composed of Jeremy (ECE Major '07), Kerri (Bio-Chem, Pre-Vet '07), Nick (Engineering Physics '07), and me (Biotech '07) applied to the Australia Project site almost a year before, and had selected to work specifically on the Victorian Deaf Society (VicDeaf) project. Our group, and 5 other groups (23 students total), took a few different flights but they all landed at the airport about the same time. A few of us immediately went to check to see if the toilets in Australia really did flush the other way (I won't spoil the surprise). We had a few days of just getting use to the city, slang, public transportation, and beautiful sights before we headed to work to start our IQP. Being from Hampstead, NH, the change of weather from a New England winter to an Australian winter was a welcomed respite!

The goal of our project was to look at the way hearing aids were designed and suggest ways to improve them so more people would wear the devices. In our background research we found that 4 out of 5 Australians who could be helped by a hearing aid, choose not to wear them, and that the number of Australians with a hearing loss was predicted to grow... at an alarming rate. Our main deliverable was to give VicDeaf a report where we suggested ways to make hearing aids, and hearing devices more mainstream. We achieved this by interviewing many different groups from hearing aid users, to well published experts in the field of audiology, and design professionals. And I didn't go to Australia just for the project, while there I traveled all over the continent. From SCUBA to kangaroos, doing my IQP in Australia was just amazing.

There is more about Tim's actual project available here

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