Ray Myers

Background

About Ray Myers

I’ve been working on the Hardware Engineering team at Murata Vios for more than five years now, and as our device design has progressed, my role has changed to meet the needs of the team. I’m currently an Engineering Technician, where I blend my past administrative experience with skills I gained as a Functional Apparel and Wearable Product Designer in the Hardware Engineering department. I started at Murata Vios as a Functional Apparel Designer, creating an ECG vest that would interface with our product. I worked on it for more than two years, researching the interaction of worn items with the body and experimenting with the creation of a sensing garment. When that project was put on pause, I pivoted to helping more with the design of our wearable device, as a Wearable Product Designer. By combining knowledge from my ECG vest research with skills gained in my product design courses, I was able to inform the team’s design which led to a reduction in the complexity and cost to produce the device. I also designed a disposable support product for our device that was so successful, it’s considered part of regular use now- How did I get started here? In 2017 my professor told the class about a local medical device start-up looking for prototyping help. They needed someone to construct ECG vest designs they were working on, and I jumped at the opportunity. In the interview, I told them I knew virtually nothing about electrical systems but I could make them anything they needed out of fabric. I started out just making what the product designer requested, and as I learned more about what they were doing I started making suggestions to improve it, eventually taking the lead on the project. When Vios Medical joined Murata in 2018, I joined a company of over employees as the only Apparel Designer they had ever hired. In my role I researched, designed, prototyped, and tested ECG vests to my heart’s content, and have even authored a patent, currently pending. Since working for Murata Vios, I’ve been able to get experience in other areas of product design as well i.e. producing engineering drawings, conducting inspections and testing of product, contributing to ideation of product improvements, constructing product mock-ups, 3D-printing prototypes, and creating images for product IFUs.