Dental Institute student wins first prize at national undergraduate research conference
Ms Catherine Liu, a fourth year BDS student at King’s College London Dental Institute, was awarded the first prize for her oral presentation at the first ever INSPIRE conference, which took place at Guy’s Hospital on the 24th October.
The INSPIRE event was a national undergraduate research conference which aimed to encourage and support students with an interest in research. Students from all dental schools across the UK were given the opportunity to present their research, by poster or by oral presentation.
Catherine gave a ten minute presentation on her research project entitled ‘Validation of a low-cost portable optical scanner for 3-dimensional facial imaging’, which was supervised by Dr Andreas Artopoulos and conducted at the Academic Centre of Reconstructive Science. It was carried out during a four week summer internship as part of the King’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy and precision of a new portable, ultra-low cost device (Scanify, Fuel 3D) for 3D imaging of the face, in order to investigate its suitability for clinical applications. The results showed acceptable levels of accuracy and reliability in some areas, but significant errors in depth measurements. The research results indicated that further development and testing are required, but the device has potential to be used clinically on a wide scale due to its ease of use and low cost.
Second prize went to Hannah Gleeson from Cardiff University for her research on the effect of restorative materials on dental pulp cells, and third prize was given to Paul Hankinson from Sheffield University for his project on oral squamous cell carcinomas.
Read more about the IINSPIRE event here.