‘It’s mindblowing how I got here’: NUS grad with heart defect since birth shares how he made it in uni

Each year, more than 2 million people around the world have open-heart surgery to treat various heart problems.

Only few had thought about turning the experience into a chance to make life better for others — by creating a product to make the rehabilitation process easier for similar heart patients.

One of those who did is Siew E Ian, 24, who recently graduated from the National University of Singapore.

He was born with pulmonary stenosis, a congenital heart defect that occurs when a valve in the heart is too narrow.

First surgery when he was a baby, second surgery while he was in NUS

In an interview with Mothership, Siew said the first time he had to have an open-heart surgery was when he was just a baby.

The doctors said that if the surgery were not done, it would lower his life expectancy.

“As a baby, my heart was small, and the surgery did not fully repair the condition since the heart would still be growing in size,” Siew explained.

Siew said his heart valve continued to deteriorate, and the surgery could not be put off by the time his heart grew to adult size.

“That was when they told me that I needed to go for a second surgery even during the Covid-19 lockdown.”

The second surgery took place when he was 22 years old while studying industrial design at NUS College of Design and Engineering (CDE).

The surgery was successful. Typically, a replacement biological valve can last for 10 to 15 years and even up to 20 years if he’s lucky.

Conventional rehabilitation methods ‘not ideal’

While he doesn’t remember what happened to him when he was a baby, he remembers the arduous recovery process for his second surgery.

During his open-heart surgery, his sternum, the bone at the front of his chest, was cut open, and it took a few months for it to heal.

To keep the bone in place, patients who go through open-heart surgeries usually have to wear a brace.

In Siew’s terms, the conventional braces are “not ideal”.

"They are big, bulky and uncomfortable. It also looks intimidating, so some patients don't feel comfortable wearing it out of their house," Siew said. "Alternatively, some patients are advised to use a pillow to support their sternum."

Create new design to help others, wins international award

After a slow and painful recovery process over four months, Siew decided to design a new brace for heart patients as his final year thesis project.

He said: “It was personal to me, but it could also have a positive impact on many other people.”

The research process was challenging, but thanks to his hard work, help from professors at NUS and resources available to him from the National University Hospital, he created Auxobrace.

His design of Auxobrace saw him crowned as the Singapore national winner and top 20 internationally for the global design competition, The James Dyson Award in 2023.

The competition saw 1,969 entries from 30 countries, including 48 entries from Singapore.

Design created with help of NUS & NUH

Auxobrace’s design was inspired by Siew’s visit to a supermarket when he saw vacuum-packed rice, thinking about whether a similar type of technology could be used on the human body.

After consultations with NUH medical professionals as well as his faculty mentors, Associate Professor Yen Ching-Chiuan and Assistant Professor Clement Zheng, Siew had the opportunity to learn about "soft robotics" — robots with physically flexible bodies and limbs to carry out specific tasks in the realm of healthcare.

Yen, who specialises in healthcare design, and Zheng, who specialises in computational design and tangible interactions, are both from NUS CDE’s Division of Industrial Design (DID).

After much trial and error with many prototypes, experiments and tests, he successfully created a design that is not only effective for the rehabilitation process but also comfortable and, importantly, pleasing to the eye.

Since his graduation, Siew has worked as a design researcher at the NUS Centre for Additive Manufacturing, where he collaborated with engineers on projects contributing to healthcare innovation and embarked on his PhD studies at NUS under the guidance of ​​Yen and Zheng, undertaking research and development with the goal of commercialising Auxobrace.

“My primary research area during my PhD would be 4D printing for rehabilitative devices, and my goals are to explore other areas of rehabilitation that could incorporate the mechanisms and logic of Auxobrace.”

‘It’s quite mindblowing how I got here’

In addition to his heart condition, Siew was also diagnosed with dyslexia since young and never imagined that he could get to where he is now.

“I was diagnosed with dyslexia in primary 1, and studying in my primary to secondary school years was tough. Back then, I only thought of getting a diploma and going out to work.” Siew said, “If I think about it, it’s still quite mindblowing how I got here.”

“With my heart condition, there are a lot of things that I can’t do, like strenuous physical activities,” he said. “Now that I have completed my degree, achieved recognition, and am able to use my experience as a heart patient as an opportunity to help others, it is quite a nice thing for my family to see, as they have watched me grow up while tackling these challenges."

Siew also said the “funny thing” was that he had never thought he would end up in a university, even more so in NUS, which he always knew to be prestigious and once thought would be “out of reach”.

Being at NUS is not all about ‘academics’

Describing himself as not very “academic” and more of a “hands-on person”, he was grateful that he secured the opportunity to enter NUS CDE after his polytechnic studies.

Unlike what he had imagined, he found that he was able to balance developing both his technical skills and creative abilities at CDE.

Rather than chasing good grades, having a passion for what he studies is his priority.

He also received a lot of guidance from his seniors and professors, thanks to the collaborative study platforms at CDE’s Division of Industrial Design, where students from different years group up, allowing juniors to broaden their horizons by learning from seniors while giving seniors the opportunity to practice leading projects with juniors on their team.

“NUS provided me with a very holistic approach to tackle real-world problems by having interdisciplinary industry collaborations,” Siew said.

“In addition, there are a lot of people I’m very appreciative of in the school. The highly dedicated lecturers are inspirational, and together with the camaraderie of peers, my journey at NUS has been fruitful and exciting.

Shout out to Associate Professor ​​Yen Ching-Chiuan and Assistant Professor Clement Zheng for the guidance and help they gave me in school and on the project!

They spent long hours in consultations highlighting areas of improvement and ways to tackle certain challenges during my year-long thesis.”

Reflecting on his undergraduate life, Siew is not only thankful for the education he received at NUS but also for the mentors and friends he made along the way.

As an alumnus of NUS, this sponsored article writer can confirm that NUS has the best food options out of every local university in Singapore.

Top image via NUS