Name: Thomas Bork Hardahl

Born: 16th of may 1980

I was raised in a small town, in the Northern part of Denmark, called Brønderslev. In the summer of 1999 I graduated as a matemathical student from Brønderslev Gymnasium (US equvivalent: High School).

In August 1999 I enrolled at the Alpine skiing line at Oure sportscollege, to become a ski-instructor. It was 4 great months, with a lot of excellent skiing in the Alps in Val D'isere and Tignes.

In September 2000 I initiated my education at Aalborg University(AAU), to become a civil engineer in Biomedical Engineering and Informatics. (thats in danish sundhedsteknologi). This education was the first of it's art in Denmark and the second in Europe. The University in Einthoven, Holland, started up a similar education in 1999.

The education sounded very appealing, since the scope was to educate engineers with all the classic engineering tools, but also to give basic knowledge about anatomy, physiology, microbiology, study of diseases etc. The basic idea is to educate engineers capable of understandig the clinical problems doctors and nurses are faced with in their work, so they are able to make technical solution which fits with the clinical settings.

During my education I have been working with many interesting project, which you can read more about under the section Projects.

However i want to emphasise on the project i did on my 7th semester. The project was carried out together with to other students, and concerned diagnosis of a heart desease called Long QT Syndrome(LQTS). We made a system together with our supervisor called AALQTEC which could diagnose LQTS from the electrocardiogram (ECG). The ECG is a meassure of the elctric activity in the heart, which gives you information about the hearts condition. The AALQTEC system was patented by Aalborg University, and a licens agreement between AAU and General Electric(GE) Healtcare was signed.

At the 8th semester i was working on the AALQTEC project in my spare time, since I wrote a student project in another area. A semester without much spare time for fun and relaxation.

Togehter with one of the student from the 7th semester project, Mads Peter Andersen, we choosed to write a long master thesis, that would say using both the 9th and 10th semester. The master thesis was a prolongation of the 7th semester AALQTEC system.

During our master thesis, we got the opportunity to work closely together with the engineers at GE Healtcare, on the AALQTEC system. We went to their department in Milwaukee for 1,5 month. where we worked together with the engineers at GE, especially Joel Xue. After our stay in Milwaukke we went to GE's department i Freiburg, where we also had a great experience working together with their engineers. 

Then in June 2005, after 5 years of hard work, I graduated from AAU as M.Sc. Biomedical Engineering & Informatics. I was then offered a position at AAU as a Research Associate, to do further analysis, development and evaluation on the AALQTEC system.

Today I am still working on the project in collaboration with GE Healthcare and still an employee at AAU, but as a Technology Transfer Manger at the Patent & Contract Office. So today I am trying to commercialize invention done by researchers at Aalborg University. I think it is a very interessting job, where I need to use both my engineering skills togehter with my marketing skills and patenting knowledge.

In order to acquire skills in marketing, sales etc. I started on the education Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (HD in danish), thats kind of a danish version of an MBA. This a half-time study, meaning that I am doing it after working hours. I am studying at the line called Marketing Management, where I should graduate from on June/July 2009.   

Well that was a lot of stuff about my career. But it's not all about work, at least it should not be :-) In my spare time I am very active and loves to excercise and do a lot of sport activities. I am playing soccer, going to the fitness centre, doing a lot of long distance running, playing golf and when the time and money allows it I hit the slopes, to go skiing.