ESB Newsletter – Online Sessions, Elections & More

ESB Online Sessions 2020

13 July (session 14:00-16:00, CEST)

Student Award 14:00-15:00 (for details, see text below)
Clinical Biomechanics Award 15:00-16:00 (for details, see text below)

14 July (session 14:00-16:00, CEST)

Best Doctoral Thesis in Biomechanics Award 14:00-15:00 (for details, see text below)
Important Announcements 15:00-16:00 (including award winners and Council election results)

The webpage of the ESB Online Sessions 2020 can be found here. A link to join the webinars in a virtual platform will be sent closer to the date.

STUDENT AWARD

The ESB Student Awards were instituted in the 1998 Congress, with the purpose to honourr the excellence of early career researchers in biomechanics. Every year, one Best Student Award and three runner up Awards are given to four students. This year, we received 62 applications, all of very high scientific quality. The decision was based on a short list from the peer-review scores, and on an additional round of evaluations by the ESB Award Committee (10 independent reviewers, covering different areas of biomechanics). The following four were selected as finalists (alphabetic order):

Asgharzadeh, Pouyan (University of Stuttgart) “Deep learning analysis of bone structure in osteogenesis imperfecta using HR-PQCT images”
Barrasa-Fano, Jorge (KU Leuven) “Novel and accessible 3D Traction Force Microscopy applied to an in vitro vascular disease model”
Rapagna, Sophie Kate (Flinders University) “Cartilage thickness is correlated with in vivo knee joint loading indices in osteoarthritic tibia”
Soodmand, Ehsan (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin) “Mechanically driven cellular self-organization as a mechanism driving large bone defect healing”

The finalists will present theirwork in a Student Award webinar, on 13 July, 2020. Following their four presentations, the Student Award Committee will indicate the winner.

CLINICAL BIOMECHANICS AWARD

The ‘ESB Clinical Biomechanics Award’ was established with the purpose to fosterclinical applications of Biomechanics, and it is assigned every even year. Eleven submissions were received. The Clinical Biomechanics Award committee (10 members from different fields and with wide geographical coverage) assessed the papers and the reviewers’ scores. Both clinical relevance and scientific quality were considered. The four finalists are (alphabetic order):

Ingmar Fleps (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), “FEM-derived femoral strength is a better predictor of hip fracture risk than BMD in the Ages RS cohort”
Hans Kainz (University of Vienna, Austria): “Botulinum toxin injections do not alter musculoskeletal loading and bone growth in children with cerebral palsy”
Luigi La Barbera (Polytechnique Montréal, Canada) “In silico patient-specific optimization of correction strategies for thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis”
Marzieh Ovesy (ARTORG Center for Biomedical Research, University of Bern, Switzerland), “Explicit finite element simulation of uncemented total hip arthroplasty: implant insertion and loading”

The finalists will present their workduring the Clinical Biomechanics Award webinar, on13 July, 2020. The Clinical Biomechanics Award Committee will attend the webinars, and select the final winner.

BEST DOCTORAL THESIS IN BIOMECHANICS 2020

This year, we received 10 excellent applications for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Biomechanics award all of very high scientific quality. All applications were reviewed by six independent reviewers anda winner and two runner-ups were selected.

The 2020 winner is: Alberto Sensini (University of Bologna) with the thesis entitled “Electrospun biomaterials and structures for the regeneration of tendons and ligaments: development and biomechanical validation”.

The two runner-ups are:

Mirko Bonfanti (University College London)
Antoine Falisse (KU Leuven)

The winner will present his work during the Best Doctoral Thesis in Biomechanics webinar, on 14 July, 2020. The two runner-ups will record a video for the ESB YouTube channel.

Council Elections 2020

We have received nine applications for the six ESB Council positions that will become vacant in July 2020.

Three current council members stand for re-election:

David Mitton
Jérôme Noailly
Mark Thompson

The six other ESB member candidates are:

Aurélie Carlier
Michele Conti
Pushpdant Jain
Ilse Jonkers
Stefan Scheiner
Ted Vaughan

For each candidate, a short biography, information about their past and proposed future engagement with the ESB, as well as links to detailed CV are available here (“Member login” is required to view the CVs).

Voting will take place online, and the voting system will be open between Monday June 29th and Monday July 13th (until 23:55 CET), 2020.

Mobility Award

The ESB Education and Student Committee invites PhD students and Postdocs to apply for the Mobility Award 2020 that funds visits to laboratories abroad for performing a collaborative biomechanics research project. The deadline for submitting applications is June 30th and details about eligibility and application process can be found here:
https://esbiomech.org/student-section/esb-mobility-award/

Corporate Member news

Synopsys – Simpleware

New AI-Based Heart Segmentation and Many New and Improved Features

We are excited to announce Simpleware Release Q-2020.06, which includes two new modules: “Simpleware AS Cardio” and “Simpleware Design Link”. In addition, the latest version of Simpleware software includes many new features and improvements, including support for importing 4D DICOM.
Simpleware software provides a complete 3D image processing software (MRI, CT…) environment for generating models for CAD, CAE, and 3D Printing.
The latest addition to the growing Simpleware Auto Segmenter family, AS Cardio provides an easy-to-use tool to automatically segment the cardiovascular system. In this specific release, we focus on automatically segmenting the heart blood pool and muscle, and automatically placing key landmarks.