Advanced projects by 10 outstanding Flinders University students will receive vital support from this year’s Playford Memorial Trust Scholarship program.
Among them is young gun and Greek Australian, Philippa Tsirgiotis, who’s biomedical and civil engineering project will advance with an Honours project based at Tonsley.
During a workplace internship, fifth-year student Philippa prototyped a novel device for shoulder rehabilitation in collaboration with Global Movement Pty Ltd. She has been invited to continue this partnership for her Masters project this year, which will involve further development and testing of the device.
Ms Tsirgiotis will perform a trial of the device with patients suffering from shoulder pathologies and study users’ muscle activity during rehabilitation.
Playford Trust scholarships and awards aim to help students make the most of their studies, achieve their potential and contribute to South Australia’s knowledge, skills and research base.
The program’s priority areas include advanced manufacturing and new technologies, health sciences and enabling technologies, environmental sciences including water, energy and climate change, mining and resource development, and agriculture, aquaculture and food production.
Playford Trust chairman and former SA Premier, Dean Brown, thanked industry, government and university partners – and the enthusiastic response from students.
“This is our highest ever level of funding, which is an impressive achievement given the disruption and uncertainty caused by COVID-19,” Mr Brown says.
Established in 1983 in honour of SA’s longest-serving Premier Sir Thomas Playford, the program has supported more than 600 students in the past decade alone.
This year, the Trust and its partners are investing more than $700,000 to support about 100 new and continuing university and TAFE students during 2021. This includes more than 30 studying for undergraduate degrees, 33 Honours students and 17 PhDs – many of whom hail from regional South Australia.
