Hirmer’s world curiosity has him switching modes
Tomas Hirmer speaks English, French, German and Spanish. Now at age 34 he is studying medicine. It has its own language.
Hirmer wants to be a doctor. In July he will start a three-year program at the University of Calgary med school. He is already up to his scrub cap in the health field. Since January of 2013 he has worked in Calgary with a team that uses neuroArm, a system that combines robotics and magnetic resonance imaging for a neurosurgeon during an operation.
Hirmer, who has a degree in electrical engineering from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., helps to set up the neuroArm robot and equipment before an operation. As neuroArm cofounder Dr. Garnette Sutherland removes a patient’s brain tumour or treats a patient’s vascular malformation — the process melds a surgeon’s knowledge with a robot’s precision — Hirmer records it all with video and photos.
He goes back and forth between two rooms, documenting the robot’s movements in the operating room as well as the surgeon controlling the neuroArm in the workstation. The footage is reviewed to ensure no information is shown to identify the patient.
A surgical operation in the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary can take eight hours, going from morning to late afternoon. Hirmer is there the whole time. He takes notes. He looks for ways to do things better.
“From as far back as I remember I have pushed myself,” said Hirmer. “It is important to strive for improvement.”
Born in Germany, he came to Canada with his family when he was four. His mother Terry encouraged him and his sisters Lisa and Eva to be curious. She would take them on long, meandering walks every day.
“Look at what ants are doing,” she’d say. Notice details. Discover.
He played hockey and did martial arts. He liked to draw.
His father Gerhard is a crucible for creativity. Gerhard reads. Gerhard innovates. As the former general manager of Magna International, an automotive supplier, Gerhard is a craftsman. His patents include vehicle sunroofs and rear signal lights.
“I hope some of his inventiveness rubs off on me,” said Tomas, who last summer filed his first patent.
Tomas’s parents have a colourful rock crystal in a vacuum-sealed jar in their home. Tomas was given the crystal around 12 years ago at his first engineering job, working in summer as a robotics engineer for Automated Mining Systems of Aurora, Ont.
His work included going to a German mine two hours from Frankfurt. By installing automation systems, vehicles inside the mine could be remotely controlled from the surface.
“Some miners who had been injured weren’t able to work underground a nymore, but this way they could still work,” H irmer said.
Knowing German, he could talk with them in their language.
“At the end of the project one of the operators gave me a gift,” Hirmer said of the crystal. “That early experience showed me how we can use technology to change the quality of our lives.”
He branched out.
He received a Master of Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, which included being an intern at the German Aerospace Center near Munich. He coauthored a journal article about wearable computers and digital vision systems for astronauts. One summer in Toronto he worked with Steve Mann, an electrical and computer engineering professor who invented EyeTap. The digital vision system includes a camera that fits on the bridge of a pair of glasses.
Hirmer has been a technology consultant with the World Bank and the UN in Washington, D.C.
Four years ago in Canada he was working in advanced robotics for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. One of his projects was to provide software for motor control of the Next-Generation Large Canadarm, a potential successor to the robotic arms used to deploy and manoeuvre payloads in space.
Although space seems like another world, his feet are planted on the ground. Think about it, he said. “When we invest in space exploration we never know what positive influence the knowledge gleaned from that technology will have here in our everyday lives,” he said.
Canadarm in space is neuroArm in Calgary.
Hirmer the engineer wants to be Hirmer the doctor.
“It’ll be interesting to switch modes,” he said. “Engineer. Doctor. Both are problem solvers, but each one looks at it from a different point of view. I hope I’m able to combine the skills and make a unique contribution.
“Where will I be 10 years from now? I’ll continue to collaborate with people. I’ll continue to grow and continue to challenge myself.
“Hopefully, I’ll continue to foster my wonder for the world around me.”