Society news
Italian Chapter
Motivated by its mission of fostering research in the science of biomechanics in Italy, ESB-ITA is supporting the organization of two main upcoming events: 1) the annual meeting of the chapter; 2) the first edition of the ESB-ITA thematic conference.
Following the positive interaction in 2014, the VI ESB-ITA annual meeting is organized in collaboration with the National Bioengineering Group (GNB) and it will take place in Naples on Wednesday 22 June; the meeting program foresees two oral sessions and one poster session. This will be a nice opportunity for young researchers to present their on-going activities and to plan together the next actions of the chapter. More into at http://www.esb-ita.it/meeting/6-meeting-capitolo.html
The first edition of ESB-ITA thematic Symposium will take place in Palermo on 8-9 September. ESB-ITA is supporting the organization of the Symposium (Frontier Biomechanical Challenges in Cardiovascular Physiopathology), lead by ISMETT (Dr. S. Pasta) and Università di Palermo (Prof. M. Zingales), which will deal with advances in cardiovascular biomechanics from both engineering and clinical point of view. In fact, there will be keynote presentations by expert clinicians followed by those of prominent scientists in the field of biomechanical engineering research. More info at http://www.esb-itathematic.it/index.php
Such initiatives are positively contributing to the growth of the chapter. In fact, ESB-ITA is proud to communicate that total number of its members is constantly growing (+10% approximately this year); currently there are 160 members (131 working in Italy and 29 abroad).
Spanish chapter
The Spanish National Chapter successfully held its fifth meeting in Madrid on 20th November at the Escuela Técnica superior de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). The meeting’s main objectives were: to put in touch professionals with researchers in the field of biomechanics, to enhance collaborations between universities, hospitals and companies and also to encourage dissemination and promotion of studies in this field throughout Spain. On the day before, 19th November, different courses took place. This year, courses were focussed on the use of the program Slicer3D about image segmentation and visualization and of the finite element software free package FEBio. More information can be found in the Meeting web page (http://vps170.cesvima.upm.es/wp/).
The meeting continued fomenting high quality science in a friendly and familiar ambience. During the GA, elections took place and a new Executive Committee was elected: María José Rupérez (Chair) from Universitat Politècnica de València, Josep Maria Font from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and Joaquín Ojeda from the Universidad de Sevilla.
The Spanish Network of Research in Biomechanics led by Maria Angeles Pérez Anson from Universidad de Zaragoza, which includes 10 PIs from 10 different Spanish institutions of the CAP-ESB, funded the travel costs for one participant from each institution belonging to the network, pointing out the capability of the network to support the efforts of the CAP-ESB and strengthen existing links among members. In addition, the V Meeting of the CAP-ESB served as host for the second meeting of the network, where more specific actions were defined.
There was a scientific award for the best work, as in previous meetings. The Scientific award recognized the quality and novelty in the scientific field, focusing on the methodology, hypothesis, multidisciplinarity, etc. This work was:
- Miguel Ángel Ariza-Gracia “¿Pueden ayudar los modelos numéricos a planificar y entrenar las cirugías refractivas. Aplicación de cirugía incisional del astigmatismo corneal”
The finalists were:
- Miguel Ángel Lago “Metodología basada en algoritmos genéticos para la caracterización in-vivo de los tejidos de la mama especificos de cada paciente”
- Ismael D. González-Valverde “Modelado y Simulación del Comportamiento Mecánico de una Monocapa Celular”
- Juan Mora-Macías “Variación espacio-temporal de las propiedades mecánicas del hueso inmaduro durante el transporte óseo”
Thanks to a recent collaboration agreement signed between the Spanish Chapter and the Sociedad Española de Ingeniería Biomédica, the awarded abstract and the finalist abstracts have been invited to be presented at the annual congress of this society. These invited presentations will take place during a special session on biomechanics, organized by the Spanish Chapter. This session will include two keynote lectures from Spanish ESB members.
Finally, the attendees to the meeting of the Chapter were informed about the state of the organization of the next ESB2017, which will be held in Sevilla, Spain.
