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This study aims to examine the anticipated and actual challenges encountered by occupational therapy and physiotherapy students during their first full-time professional placement and to understand the strategies they implemented to manage their multiple life roles.

Longitudinal qualitative research examined students’ anticipated and reported challenges with their first block professional placement and the strategies they implemented during it. In total, 22 occupational therapy and physiotherapy students were interviewed at two time points (pre- and post-placement), producing 44 interview data points. Transcribed interviews were analysed thematically using a hybrid approach.

Pre-placement, students perceived potential challenges related to the distance between their placement location and where they resided and their ability to maintain balance in their multiple roles. Post-placement, the main reported challenge was maintaining role balance, due to unexpected challenges and students’ unanticipated tiredness. Students implemented strategies to assist with managing multiple roles and reflected on the benefits and drawbacks of placements. They also considered the necessary future adjustments.

This study highlighted the importance of social support and the need for proactive recovery strategies to negate the tiredness that students experienced on placement.

This is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate how allied health students, on their first block of professional placement, balanced their multiple roles over time.

The aim of this study is two-fold: (1) to promote a model of youth participatory research and offer a window of understanding into how it can be enacted and (2) to understand youth perspectives on youth empowerment. This study asks: “how can youth help us understand youth empowerment?”

The study applies youth participatory action research (YPAR) and interpretative phenomenological analysis. The study illustrates how to enact a model of YPAR by engaging youth in the process of research in a youth-serving community non-profit organization.

This study sets out to make two important contributions, one methodological and one theoretical: First, the study contributes to our understanding of the opportunities and benefits of youth-engaged, peer-to-peer research. Specifically, this study promotes a model of youth participatory action research and knowledge making processes, and the associated social and formal benefits for youth. By extension, this study illustrates an approach to engage youth in formal contexts which has implications for both management and organizational studies and education. Finally, the study extends our understanding and conceptualization of the phenomenon of youth empowerment (as informed by youth perspectives).

The study offers insight into how to conduct youth participatory action research and specifically how to address two limitations cited in the literature: (1) how to authentically engage youth including how to share power, and (2) how to perform youth participatory action research, often critiqued as a black box methodology.

The purpose of this study is to produce a low-cost sheet metal forming mold made from the low melting point Bi58Sn42 (bismuth) alloy by using an open-source desktop-type material extrusion additive manufacturing system and to evaluate the performance of the additively manufactured mold for low volume sheet metal forming. Thus, it was aimed to develop a fast and inexpensive die tooling methodology for low-volume batch production.

Initially, the three-dimensional printing experiments were performed to produce the sheet metal forming mold. The encountered problems during the performed three-dimensional printing experiments were analyzed. Accordingly, both tunings in process parameters (extrusion temperature, extrusion multiplier, printing speed, infill percentage, etc.) and customizations on the extruder head of the available material extrusion additive manufacturing system were made to print the Bi58Sn42 alloy properly. Subsequently, the performance of the additively manufactured mold was evaluated according to the dimensional change that occurred on it during the performed pressing operations.

Results showed that the additively manufactured mold was rigid enough and proved to have sufficient strength in sheet metal forming operations for low-volume production.

Alternative mold production was carried out using open-source material extrusion system for low volume sheet metal part production. Thus, cost effective solution was presented for agile manufacturing.