IEEE - CNSV: Designing an Artificial Heart: A Systems Approach to Building the Impossible

Tue, Feb 10 2026, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm PST

https://californiaconsultants.org/event/designing-an-artificial-heart-a-systems-approach-to-building-the-impossible/

What does it take to engineer a system that must run nonstop for years, without failure, inside the most hostile environment imaginable—the human body? In this talk, Ian Coll McEachern shares lessons from two decades designing Class III medical devices, surgical robotics, and most notably, contributing to the architecture and development of an artificial heart. Instead of focusing on any single invention, this talk reveals the methodology behind navigating extreme technical risk when dozens of tightly coupled subsystems must evolve simultaneously.

Ian will walk through a practical framework for managing complexity: identifying unknowns early, building parallel test beds, using simulation to reduce risk before fabrication, and validating assumptions through rapid physical prototyping. Attendees will see how constraints—size, power, fluids, mechanics, biocompatibility, and reliability—become a forcing function for innovation rather than a barrier, and how disciplined iteration beats brute force…