Olivier Latorre - Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar
Oliver said he grew up in Nantes, a city in Western France, located on the Loire River 50 Kms from the Atlantic Coast. He attended university in Anjou and has a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently studying Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne with Prostheses as his speciality.
He gave an outline of his home city of Nantes which has the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany, trams, an historic Cathedral and an ornate three-tiered shopping arcade dating from 1843. He said Melbourne and Nantes both had a similar feel. He likes living in both cities. During his time here he has visited the Grampians, the Great Ocean Road, Cairns and Barrier Reef and particularly likes the Grampians. He has socialised with other Ambassadorial Scholars and become involved with Rotary activities including helping out with the Rotary Club of Keilor BBQ.
He gave a background on the history of prosthetics beginning with a wooden toe found in an Egyptian tomb, through to iron limbs made from the Romans through to the 19th century. US funding after WW11 gave the impetus for modern prosthetics leading to the first electric arm in 1965, the beginning of modern limbs, to 1991 the first artificial leg and in 2008 to the first mind controlled arm. Now research is on robotic limbs with the DARPA project funded by the US Army and Targeted Muscle Regeneration which is still in prototype phase. He said mind controlled limbs are not science fiction and there are amazing devices now available but with improvement to come and working towards affordable devices.