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WEST (Women in Engineering, Science and Technology) is a student-led group designed to engage and empower female identifying students through partnership with industry and academic professionals. The group aims to simulate real-world design projects and further female students' professional growth. I participated in the WEST X Fraser Health 2025-2026 project on the technology sub-team.
The WEST team has been working together to design a pediatric MRI simulator. To use an MRI machine, patients need to be completely still. This can often be a very difficult task for young children. By exposing children to a simulator, they can be prepared emotionally and physically for the real MRI. To ensure children stay still and to mediate anxiety levels, hospitals often have to use sedation. This introduces new risks as well as an increased need for time. The ultimate goal of the pediatric simulator is to reduce the need for any sedation.
The technology sub-team will implement all electrical and software components. The MRI simulator will be controlled by a touch screen that is mounted on the exterior of the simulator. The simulator consisted of programmable lights and speakers that could play MRI sounds. My role within the sub-team was to design the user-interface (UI). I utilized Figma and coordinated with my team to present a preliminary design to Fraser Health. After the first presentation with Fraser Health, we received client feedback. I used the client feedback to refactor my designs to the best of my ability. For example, Fraser Health presented concern that an unattended child could operate the system, so to address this concern, we added a password protection layer.
I consistently demonstrated respect and consideration for our client. I was a strong advocate for simplicity within the design. This was done in consideration to the client consistently stating that they did not want to spend lengthy amounts of time learning how to use the MRI simulator. From our interactions with our client, I devised five core design needs:
Every element must have a clear and intentional purpose.
There should be no nested menus. All actions should be performed with a singular tap.
It must be obvious what state the system is in. For example it must be obvious which of the sounds is playing.
All actions must be easily reversible.
There should be a way to shut down the entire system all at once in case of an emergency.
At the end of the design semester, my team and I presented our work to Fraser Health. Within this presentation I answered several questions pertaining to the UI interaction. I also outlined some future steps. I have been a consistent advocate for test-driven development and comprehensive integration testing. I am looking forward to continuing on this project and growing professionally with my amazing team of female identifying engineers.
To ensure that Fraser Health has complete knowledge of the system, I documented how to use the UI within an employee manual. The manual in it's entirety can be viewed as a pdf.
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