Prof Ellen Roche, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT joins me this week. She directs the Therapeutic Technology Design and Development Lab at MIT and her research focuses on applying innovative technologies to the development of cardiac devices. She chats to me about growing up in Galway, her experiences in California working in medical device engineering and why she decided to leave industry to do a PhD in Harvard as a Fulbright Scholar.  She describes her work using soft robotic approaches to augment heart function and her collaborations with Boston's Children's Hospital.  She also discusses juggling family life & academia and how most of her work 'gets done when the kids are gone to bed'.  Follow Ellen: ellentroche Follow me: MeganHanlon4 This season is kindly sponsored by Bio-Sciences Ltd, now part of Thermo-Fisher Scientific.