Metin AKAY, Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Houston

Engineering High-Throughput Brain Cancer Chip for Precision Medicine

Prof. Metin Akay is currently the founding chair of the new Biomedical Engineering Department and the John S. Dunn professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Houston. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey in 1981 and 1984, respectively and a Ph.D. degree from Rutgers University in 1990. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the Biomedical Engineering Book Series published by the Wiley and IEEE Press and the Wiley Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering. He is also the editor of the Neural Engineering Handbook published by Wiley/IEEE Press and the first steering committee chair of the IEEE Trans on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. He established the Annual International Summer School on Biocomplexity and Biodesign from Gene to System sponsored by the NSF and the IEEE EMBS and was the founding chair of the IEEE EMBS Special Topic Conference on Neural Engineering. He is also the chair of the IEEE EMBS Neuroengineering Technical Committee. He was the program chair of the International IEEE EMBS 2001 and the co-chair of the Annual International IEEE EMBS 2006 and the program co-chair of the Annual International IEEE EMBS 2011 conference held in Boston. Dr. Akay is a recipient of the IEEE EMBS Early Career and Service awards as well an IEEE Third Millenium Medal and is a fellow of IEEE, the Institute of Physics (IOP), the American Institute of Medical Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). His Neural Engineering and Informatics Lab is interested in developing a novel 3D in-Vitro platform for personalized cancer intervention, an intelligent wearable system for detecting coronary artery disease. In addition, his lab is investigating the effect of nicotine on the dynamics of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neural networks.

Due to unforeseen problems related to his academic life (an important accreditation of his university undergraduate program in bioengineering), prof. Metin Akay is very sorry to not attend EHB 2017, and sends greetings and appropriate wishes to all participants.

 
 

 

Grigore BURDEA, Rutgers University, USA

How Virtual Reality Proved Medicine Wrong

Prof. Dr. Eng. Grigore Burdea graduated Valedictorian of the Technical University of Bucharest in 1980. Seven years later he obtained a PhD in Applied Science/Robotics from New York University and since 1988 is a faculty member at Rutgers University (USA). Burdea's research is in the area of force feedback for virtual reality and its medical applications, as well as therapy at a distance. In 2002, together with Professor Daniel Thalman (Switzerland) he started the International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation series. In 2008 Burdea founded the International Society on Virtual Rehabilitation (www.isvr.org ), now with members in 15 countries. Burdea is the author of the Virtual Reality Technology, a textbook used at 120 universities in the world. In 2017 he received the very prestigious IEEE Virtual Reality Career Award.

 
 

 

Enrico G. CAIANI, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

e-Health and patient empowerment

Enrico G. Caiani (MS 1996, PhD 2000) is Associate professor at the Electronics, Information and Bioengineering Dpt., Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he teaches the classes of “Biomedical Image Processing Laboratory” and “E-health: methods and applications”, and he is member of the PhD Board in Biomedical Engineering. In 2000 and 2003 he was Visiting Research Associate at the Dept. of Medicine, Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging Laboratories of the University of Chicago, IL, USA (tutor Proff. RM Lang and V Mor-Avi). In 2002, he received the Rosanna Degani Young Investigator Award (Computers in Cardiology Society) e in 2007 the A.E. Weyman Young Investigator Finalist Award (American Society of Echocardiography). In these years, he has been involved in several Italian, EU, ESA, and other international agencies funded research projects. Currently, he serves as Chairperson (16-18) for the e-Cardiology Working Group of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), he is part of the Advocacy group of ESC, and represents the ESC at the European Commission eHealth Stakeholder group. His main research interests include e-health solutions and m-health applications in the field of cardiology, and space physiology.

 
 

 

Thierry GLORIANT, Professor at Institute of Chemical Sciences of Rennes, INSA Rennes, France

Titanium alloys in the human body: from those implanted today towards the design of the new functional alloys of tomorrow

Thierry Gloriant is Professor at the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Rennes (INSA Rennes), France. He is head of the Metallurgical-Chemistry Laboratory of the ISCR CNRS 6226 Unit. After a Ph.D Thesis in Materials Science at the University of Lille, France, he was post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK, in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy. During his career, he was visiting scientist at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and at the National Institute for Materials Science at Tsukuba in Japan. T. Gloriant research interests concern the structural metallurgy of different class of alloys with a predilection for those elaborated far from equilibrium (metallic glasses, nanostructured alloys, metastable states…). One of the main research activities carried out by Prof. Gloriant concerns the development of new functional alloys for biomedical applications. In this research field, many collaborative research projects have been set-up under his supervision in association with biologists, clinicians and industrial partners developing metallic biomedical devices such as orthopedic prosthesis, cardiovascular stents, orthopedic staples, dental implants… At the national level, Prof. Gloriant is president of the “Materials for Health” commission endorsed by the French Society of Materials and Metallurgy (SF2M) and by the French Association of Ceramics (GFC).

 
 

 

Eduardo FERNANDEZ, University Miguel Hernández and CIBER-BBN, Spain

New neural interfaces: Current status and challenges

Eduardo Fernandez is Professor of Cellular Biology, Director of the Visual Rehabilitation and Neuroprosthesis Unit at the Bioengineering Institute of the University Miguel Hernandez (Spain) and Director of the Neural Engineering Laboratory of CIBER-BBN. He received a M.D. degree from the University of Alicante (1986) and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 1990. He has been visiting professor at the University of Utah (USA), University of Oldenburg (Germany), Beth Israel Medical Deaconess Center (USA) and University of Vienna (Austria). His main interest is to develop innovative solutions to the problems raised by interfacing the human nervous system and on this basis, develop a two-way direct communication with neurons and ensembles of neurons, which could be applied to enhance the life of people that are affected by visual impairments or to treat several neurodegenerative diseases more specifically and effectively. In the latest years he has been coordinating the CORTIVIS Project which tries to demonstrate the feasibility of a neuroprosthesis, interfaced with the occipital cortex, as a means through which a limited but useful sense of vision could be restored to profoundly blind. His group has a wide experience on histological and electrophysiological techniques to assess the response to implantation and general biocompatibility issues regarding intracortical microelectrodes as well as on the instrumentation, data and signal processing for bi-directional communication with neurons and groups of neurons. He is also working on brain plasticity and reorganization in severe vision loss and developing non-invasive methodologies for the selection of appropriate candidates for the implantation of a cortical visual prosthesis using fMRI and TMS techniques

 
 

 

Horia IOVU, University Politehnica of Bucharest – Department of Bioresurces and Polymer Science, Romania

Smart controlled drug release systems based on hybrid materials

Horia Iovu, 55 years, full professor of polymer science and technology, chemist engineer, specialization in Composite Materials (Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K., 1994-1995), PhD in Chemistry and Technology of Polymers (1995); full professor since 1999 (University Politehnica of Bucharest – Department of Bioresurces and Polymer Science); Member of the National Council for Research in Higher Education (CNCSIS) (2005-2011); Member of the National Council for awarding the universitary titles in Romania, the field of Chemical Engineering (since 2006); Vice-Rector / Director of Council for Doctoral Studies (since 2012). Professional experience: elastomers synthesis by polymerization of dienes with lanthanide-based catalysts, composite materials-synthesis and design, nanocomposite materials based on polymer matrices reinforced with silicates, nanocomposite materials based on polymer matrices reinforced with carbon nanotubes / graphene, carbon nanotubes – modification and compatibilization, biomaterials for scaffolds, collagen-HAP-synthetic polymers composites, polymer-based drug delivery systems. Scientific activity: Group leader for the research group The Advanced Polymer Materials Group (since 2005) devoted to synthesis and characterization of new nanocomposites based on various polymers and reinforcing agents (www.tsocm.pub.ro/APMG) for various applications including bioengineering, author / coauthor of more than 145 papers published in ISI – rated journals, 6 books published at national level (1 extensive book on Composite Materials- Ed. Tehnica, 1999) and 5 book chapters at international level (1 in Wiley, 1 in Elsevier), h index – 15 (ISI Web of Science), citations – 758, director/coordinator of 25 national projects of research and 3 international projects, Reviewer for various international journals (Polymer International, Materials Chemistry and Physics, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Composites Part B, etc.), Editor-in-chief “Materiale Plastice” ISI-rated journal.

 
 

 

Alexandru MOREGA, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania

Numerical Modeling of Bio-Heat Transfer

Alexandru M. Morega (M’90, SM’2007, IEEE-EMB, IEEE-IAS) was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1955. He received the B.E. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania (1980), the doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (1987), and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Duke University of Durham, North Carolina, USA (1993). In 1983, he joined the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest as an Assistant Professor, and in 1998 he became Professor. He was the director of the Department of Bioengineering and Biotechnology (UPB, 2002-2012), one of the founders of the Faculty of Medical Engineering (UPB, 2012) and of the IEEE-EMB national chapter (2007). His current research interests include electromagnetism, heat and mass transfer, field-substance interactions, energy conversion and sources, structural optimizations, multiphysics modeling. He is Member of the American Soc. of Mechanical Engineers (ASME, M’90) and Chair of the IEEE-EMB national chapter.

 
 

 

Mihail POPESCU, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA

Employing eldercare technologies for over a decade in TigerPlace: what worked and what didn’t

Dr. Popescu is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Adjunct Associate Professor of Nursing and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA. His research areas are pattern recognition, biomedical decision support and eldercare monitoring systems. In the patient activity monitoring process, a large amount of data (big data) is produced. He is currently developing new summarization and visualization methodologies to address the healthcare big data problem and improve chronic disease management. Dr. Popescu published over 130 referred publications (h-index=20), two books and he holds two US patents. He is a senior IEEE member.

 
 
 

Saeid SANEI, Imperial College London, UK

Cooperative Learning for Biomedical Signal Processing and Recognition

Saeid Sanei received his PhD in Biomedical Signal Processing from Imperial College London, UK. He has been a member of academic staff in Iran, Singapore, and the UK. He has published three monographs, a number of book chapters, and over 330 papers in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. His research interest is in adaptive filtering, cooperative learning, multi-way, multimodal, and multichannel signal processing, and compressive sensing with major applications to biomedical and physiological signals and images. He has served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Signal Processing Letters, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, and Journal of Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience. Currently, he is with University of Surrey, UK, and is a Visiting Academic in Digital Health to Communication Signal Processing Group, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of Imperial College London. He is also a co-founder of Verenigma Research Company pursuing homecare technology development. Dr Sanei was Technical C-Chair of EUSIPCO 2016 and is the General Chair of IEEE ICASSP 2019 in the UK.