Welcome Martin Olip!

Hi Martin. It’s a pleasure meeting you. Would you like to briefly introduce yourself?

Sure, it is a pleasure for me as well. My name is Martin Olip, I live in beautiful city of Klagenfurt next to Lake Wörthersee, I am currently in the middle of my master’s degree in Health Care IT at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS), and since mid-July of this year I have been working as a scientific project employee in the Active and Assisted Living research area at the CUAS.
Technology was always fascinating for me, which can also be seen in my educational background. Before I started my studies at the CUAS in 2017, I passed my school leaving examination at a higher technical college (HTL) with a focus on electrical engineering. The field of electrical engineering is a very interesting subject, but unfortunately it was not the right subject for my future. Therefore, I sought some information about different field of studies and finally I decided to study Medical Engineering at the CUAS. At that time, software development was still a bit of a mystery to me, but since I’m always willing to learn new skills, I decided to major in medical informatics. Now I am absolutely glad that I chose medical informatics, because I am confident that the development of software, apps, websites, etc. is an exciting, future-oriented and truly diverse field for me.
After my bachelor’s degree, I directly followed up with a master’s degree in Health Care IT at the CUAS, which I am currently still in. During my master’s degree I was offered the scientific project collaboration in the research area Active and Assisted Living and now I am a proud member of the research team AAL of the CUAS since mid-July 2021. I hope I could give you a short insight about me and my career so far.

Why did you choose the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences for your studies? I would be interested to know about your experience and prior-knowledge about Carinthia University of Applied Sciences.

That’s a good question. After my higher technical college training with a focus on electrical engineering, I concluded that the field of electrical engineering was not the right subject for my future. Therefore, I looked around for completely different career directions. While I was doing my alternative service from October 2016 to June 2017, I gathered information about different study programs, and a special feature I really appreciated about the Medical engineering study program was the combination of medicine and technology/IT. After a short respite I was totally sure that the Medical engineering study program was the right program for me. Therefore, I immediately registered for the study program. This decision was exactly right for me, and I would choose it again. The Medical engineering study program offers a varying and different study compared to other studies which are offered in Carinthia. In addition, it is located in Carinthia’s capital Klagenfurt and I liked the concept of the CUAS. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any direct experience with the CAUS during my time at school; it wasn’t until I was doing my alternative service, when I was researching fields of study in Carinthia.

Now you’re part of the Active and Assisted Living (AAL) Team. What experience do you contribute from your prior career?

Due to my bachelor’s degree in Medical Engineering and my master’s degree in Health Care IT, I already had some lectures and courses in the area of Active and Assisted Living or courses that were indirectly related to the AAL topic, e.g., medical informatics for the development of medical software or usability engineering. Therefore, I am convinced that I have a good knowledge base for the research area Active and Assisted Living based on my bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Tell us a bit more about how you actually plan to bring in your experience in the research group.

As already mentioned, my specialization in the bachelor’s degree in Medical Engineering was medical informatics. That’s why I would like to bring in my experiences in the field of software development related to AAL to the research unit and the projects. Besides the development of software itself, it is also about responding to the needs and requirements, creating concepts, checking the feasibility, developing, testing, optimizing and validating the software. Even though I am not yet an expert in this domain, I am always motivated to acquire new skills and knowledge in order to incorporate them into the projects.

What are your goals and expectations working in the field of AAL?

First of all, I would like to mention that I have already achieved a great personal goal, the goal that I have been given the opportunity to work on research projects as a junior researcher in addition to my master’s degree. Besides that, it is a wish and at the same time a goal that I can help or support people with my work or through the research projects I am involved in. Furthermore, it is a goal of mine to improve myself in the research area AAL, as well as in the area of research itself and also in software development, so that I can be part of future-oriented medical research projects.

Thank you Martin for your authentic answers! We wish you a good start and we look forward to reading from you again soon about what you have achieved.