Kelly Kaneswaren is 26, from Blanchardstown in Dublin, and he has always loved taking things apart. That is part of what has brought him to studying for a doctorate in electronics at the University of Limerick.

“One of the main projects that we’re working on is a pressure pill,” he says. “You will have a pressure sensor mounted inside a pill that you’ll be able to swallow. You use ultrasonics then to tell you whereabouts in your lower intestine the pill actually is. It could be diagnosing cancer, it could be diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome...”

Kelly says that when designing medical equipment, there are certain standards that scientists have to keep to. “If you use the wrong frequency, it could actually oscillate at the same frequency as the water in your body and cause it to burn a hole in your skin,” he says. “Also, having an electrical source inside your body - there’s nothing to stop it electrocuting you if it’s not sealed correctly.”

“There’s a lot to think about before you start building, testing or swallowing anything,” he says.

Building bridges

Kelly previously worked for two years in a factory. He says it got very boring and monotonous, doing the same thing every day, and that was the main reason he decided to go back to college.

“Blanchardstown College had just opened,” he says. “I did five years there. I did a degree in computer electronic engineering and I really enjoyed it. In 2002, while at Blanchardstown, Kelly won the Intel Excellence in Electronics competition.

Kelly has been in Limerick for a year, doing a master’s degree and then a doctorate. The work, as part of his PhD, includes assisting other lecturers teaching classes. “We have some very busy labs here, sometimes up to 90 students in the class,” he says. “So it’s not very often the lecturer can get to every student in the class. That’s where we come in.”

Movies

However it’s not all work and no play for Kelly. He has also worked as an extra in films such as Intermission in his spare time.

“Over the past few years, I’ve done a few adverts, a few films and music videos, things like that,” he says. “Just extra work, where you’d stand around in the background. It’s a lot of sitting around, drinking tea, shivering in the cold,” he says. “You don’t do it for the money, you just do it for the enjoyment.”

Kelly is no stranger to the entertainment industry, as two of his sisters work in the business – Hazel as a singer and Gail as a model. However his interests definitely lie in science.

Help people

“My main goal is designing stuff to help other people,” he says. “If you look at things on the market now for these kinds of pills, you’re looking at €250,000 just for the equipment to monitor the pill and maybe €800 each per pill.”

“Obviously that’s a big cost to the government here and a big cost to the patient,” he says. “We should be able to reduce the cost to maybe less than €1000 for the whole overall system including a pill and the pills would be less than €100 to manufacture.”

“I’d say we’re less than a year away from actually getting into the capsule,” he says. “We’ve got most of the circuitry designed and the sensors - we’re not far away at all at this stage.”

Learn more:

Visit the University of Limerick’s department of electronic and computer engineering

Find out more about the Intel Excellence in Electronics competition

Read about an electronic engineer at science.ie

Check out engineering courses at the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown