ESBiomech24 Congress in Edinburgh

Report on the ESB 2017 in Seville

 Report on the ESB 2017 in Seville

The 23rd Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics took place from 2nd to 5th July 2017 in Seville, Spain.  It was hosted inside at the Higher Technical School of Engineering in the Expo ’92 area just across the River Guadalquivir.  The meeting was organized by the European Society of Biomechanics and the Universidad de Sevilla. This was the first time that an ESB congress took place in Spain.

The Annual meeting of the Spanish Chapter of the ESB was incorporated in the general Congress, which led to an increase of Spanish delegates.

Opening ceremony (courtesy of the Congress organizers)

 

The Congress was attended by a total of 579 registered delegates.  Similar to past years, participation of students was high (263 registered students, i.e. 45% of the delegates).  This is also due to the effort made by the Society to contribute towards the attendance of young delegates with 19 travel awards.

Welcome reception and cocktail (courtesy of the Congress organizers)

 

Four pre-courses were organized on the first congress day: “Modelling of tissue regeneration” (Damien Lacroix, MªJosé Gómez-Benito, Ismael González), “Modelling the mechanical behaviour of soft tissues” (José Félix Rodríguez, Jorge Grasa, Estefanía Peña), “OpenSim: basic course”, and “OpenSim, advanced course” (Friedl De Groote, Ilse Jonkers, Mariska Wesseling, Sam Van Rossom).

Right after the opening ceremony, the welcome cocktail was a great opportunity catch up with old friends, meet colleagues, and get a first assay of the Spanish tradition for tapas.

Auditorium, during one of the Plenary lectures (courtesy of the Congress organizers)

 

A total of 777 abstracts were submitted and peer-reviewed: 585 were presented in 442 podium presentations and 140 flash and poster presentations.

All abstracts are available in open access through the ESB portal:

https://esbiomech.org/conference/index.php/esb2017/seville/schedConf/presentations

 

During the coffee and lunch breaks, the delegates had an opportunity to meet the colleagues, visit the sponsor booths with 13 sponsors, and discuss the posters with the authors.  A total of 13 perspective talks were given by prominent researchers opening several sessions with a comprehensive introduction, highlighting the results of many long-running international research programs, and a providing broader view of biomechanics research.

Lunch break (courtesy of the Congress organizers)

 

 

Each day of the congress, a keynote lecture was delivered in the Auditorium covering Musculoskeletal Biomechanics (“Do we need a new paradigm for muscle contraction?” bu Walter Herzog), Cardiovascular Biomechanics (“Combining in vitro and in silico approaches towards patient-specific cardiovascular studies” by Francesco Migliavacca) and Cellular Biomechanics (“The biomechanics of cell motility: integration of experimental and numerical models”, by José Manuel García-Aznar).

During the Congress, the ESB awards were presented: the Huiskes Medal Award (Lutz Claes), the ESB Award for the Best Doctoral thesis in Biomechanics (Lorenzo Grassi), and the ESB Student Award (finally awarded to Pim Oomen).

 

 

Apart from the scientific programme, delegates could enjoy the spirit of Seville, a city crowded with tourists at this season of the year. Though the scientific programme was quite busy, it still left time for a visit to the historical centre of the city (the organizers must be acknowledged for arranging acceptable air temperatures, even in July!).

 

The Student delegates enjoyed the Students party on Monday evening (and night) in La Raza Restaurant, next to María Luisa’s Park, close to Plaza de España.   On Tuesday evening we celebrated the traditional Gala Dinner in the gardens and the pavillion of Villa Luisa, a historical Palace close to María Luisa Park, with a traditional Andalucian food and an amazing flamenco show.

Student event, after a few drinks (courtesy of the Congress organizers)

 

Gardens of Villa Luisa, where the gala dinner took place (courtesy of the Congress organizers)

 

Gala dinner: entrance of the Gardens of Villa Luisa (picture by Luca Cristofolini)

Aperitif at the Gardens of Villa Luisa, during the gala dinner (picture by Luca Cristofolini)

 

 

Flamenco, during the gala dinner (courtesy of the Congress organizers)

 

All ESB members heartily thank the organizers for organizing such a fruitful scientific meeting, and an enjoyable social event.

 

 

By Luca Cristofolini, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna

 


Corporate members of the ESB:

AMTI force and motion logo
BERTEC logo
Beta CAE logo
BoB Biomechanics logo
Materialise logo
Nobel Biocare logo