Laura Diment

Laura is a John Monash Scholar who researches prosthetic design and service provision at Flinders University, in collaboration with Salford University, UK. Her current research focuses on using sensors, 3D scans and big-data analytics to improve prosthetics services for prosthesis-users, clinicians and service providers.

Laura worked for the MDPP at Flinders University, to prototype and clinically evaluate novel medical and assistive devices, then undertook her doctorate at Oxford University, monitoring and developing a bioheat model of the heat-load on prosthesis-users during exercise and rest, and then worked as a postdoc at Southampton University, training Cambodian student-prosthetists to use accelerometers and 3D scanners to monitor physical activity, community participation and prosthetic socket fit. She developed software to classify activity-type from accelerometers, worked on machine-learning for understanding good prosthetic socket fit, and developed a respirator for clinicians in the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked in a research and teaching capacity with engineers, technicians, prosthetists and assistive-device-users in Australia, UK, Cambodia, India and Papua New Guinea.