Bogdan C. Simionescu, Romanian Academy

Polymer engineering focusing on drug/gene delivery and tissue engineering

Bogdan C. Simionescu obtained a polymer engineering degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Iasi (1971) and the PhD degree from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1975). Present position: Professor of polymer science (Department of Natural and Synthetic Polymers, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi), and senior researcher of “Petru Poni” Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of Romanian Academy, Iasi, Romania; director of the Centre of Excellence "Polymers" and of the Interdisciplinary Platform (education and research) "Multifunctional polymeric materials", "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi. Visiting/associate professorships/visiting scientist: Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Mulhouse, Mulhouse, France (1991); Universite du Littoral, Dunkerque, France (1995); Freiburger Materialforschungszentrum, FMF, Freiburg, Germany (1996); Society of Polymer Science, Japan (1996); Centre of Polymer Chemistry, Zabrze, Poland (2001, 2005); Universite Montpellier 2, LEMP/MAO, Montpellier, France (2001); Universite d'Angers, Angers, France (2005); Universite de Rouen, Rouen, France (2007); University of Czestochowa, Czestochowa, Poland (2014). Scientific interests: radical polymerization and copolymerization; unconventional polymerizations; combined polymer synthesis techniques; solution properties of ultrahigh molecular weight polymers; polysiloxanes and siloxane-containing block and graft copolymers; functional micro- and nanoparticles; macromolecular architectures; biomaterials Publications/ lectures: more than 350 papers; books and book chapters; more than 100 lectures in Europe, Japan, Canada, USA. Member of Romanian Academy (2000 - ); President of the Iasi Branch of Romanian Academy (2012 – 2014); Vice-president of Romanian Academy (2014 - ).

 
 
 

Thomas Martin Deserno, né Lehmann

IT Support for Clinical Trials Approving Biomedical Technologies

Thomas M. Deserno (born as Lehmann) received the Diploma in electrical engineering, the PhD in computer science, and the habilitation in medical informatics from the RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, in 1992, 1998, and 2004, respectively. Since 2007, he is full professor at Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, where he is leading the Image & Data Management Group at the Department of Medical Informatics. His research interests include medical image processing applied to quantitative measurements for computer-assisted diagnoses and medical research in controlled clinical trials, mobile health, as well as seamless workflow integration of image and signal analysis into the user’s workflow. He serves as Data Security Officer for the Clinical Trial center Aachen (CTC-A). Dr. Deserno is senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentations Engineering (SPIE), where he is member of the Program Committee of the annually International Symposium of Medical Imaging (both, CAD and PACS tracks). He serves on the International Editorial Boards of Den-tomaxillofacial Radiology, Methods of Information in Medicine, World Journal of Radiology, GMS Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (MIBE), Acta Informatica Medica, and he is Co-editor Europe of the International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics. In 2015, he became Associated Editor of SPIE Journal of Medical Imaging.

 
 
 

Rangaraj M. Rangayyan, PhD, PEng, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Computer-aided Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity

Rangaraj M. Rangayyan is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and an Adjunct Professor of Surgery and Radiology, at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He received the Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication in 1976 from the University of Mysore at the People's Education Society College of Engineering, Mandya, Karnataka, India, and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India, in 1980. His research interests are in digital signal and image processing, biomedical signal and image analysis, and computer-aided diagnosis. He has published more than 150 papers in journals and 250 papers in proceedings of conferences. He has been recognized with the 1997 and 2001 Research Excellence Awards of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the 1997 Research Award of the Faculty of Engineering, and by appointment as “University Professor” (2003-2013) at the University of Calgary. He is the author of two textbooks: "Biomedical Signal Analysis" (IEEE/ Wiley, 2002, 2015) and "Biomedical Image Analysis" (CRC, 2005). He has coauthored and coedited several other books, including "Color Image Processing with Biomedical Applications" (SPIE, 2011). He has been recognized with the 2013 IEEE Canada Outstanding Engineer Medal, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000), and elected as Fellow, IEEE (2001); Fellow, Engineering Institute of Canada (2002); Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2003); Fellow, SPIE (2003); Fellow, Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (2007); Fellow, Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (2007); and Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering (2009).

 
 
 

Raymond Lee

The ageing spine and healthcare technologies

Professor Raymond Lee is Dean of our School of Applied Sciences and holds a Chair in Biomechanics in London South Bank University. He won the British Council Fellowship to complete his PhD degree in Bioengineering at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He was also awarded the Association of Commonwealth Universities Development Fellowship, which supported his research work at King's College London. As the Dean of the School of Applied Sciences, Professor Lee is committed to provide leadership to establish the School as an internationally recognised centre of academic excellence. He brings substantial international experience with previous roles at the University of Sydney and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and has been involved in e-learning development throughout his career. His main research areas lie in biomechanics of the spine, kinematics and dynamics of human motions. His work has examined the biomechanical mechanisms underlying back pain, osteoporosis and ageing of the spine. He is interested in the applications of inertial sensor technologies in monitoring physical activity, human motions, spine posture, mechanical signal transmission in the body, and falls in the elderly. Externally, he has been invited to act as referee for national and international research funding bodies. He has served as member of the Research Sub-Committee of Arthritis Research UK, and a research grant panel member of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal.

 
 
 

Enrico G. Caiani

Cardiovascular signals acquisition and analysis using smartphones: potential, pitfalls and future perspectives

Enrico G. Caiani graduated in 1996 in Electronic Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, where he received in 2000 a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He was visiting Research Associate at the University of Chicago (Proff. RM Lang and V. Mor-Avi) in both 2000 and 2003. Since 2014, he is Associate professor at the Electronics, Information and Bioengineering Dpt. at Politecnico di Milano. His teaching activities include Biomedical Image Processing, Statistics and E-Health Applications. Since 2012, he is a member of the PhD board in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He is author of 4 book chapters and >70 peer reviewed papers in ISI international journals. In 2002, he received the Rosanna Degani Young Investigator Award (Computers in Cardiology Society) e in 2007 the Arthur E. Weyman Young Investigator Finalist Award (American Society of Echocardiography). In 2002 he qualified in the first three places in the Astronaut selection of the Italian Space Agency. Main topics of his research include cardiac image processing from several imaging modalities (eco 3D, MRI, CT), gravitational physiology (parabolic flight, bed rest, orbital research), and m-Health applications in cardiology. He serves on the International Editorial Board of the European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging and since 2014 he is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Centre for Computational Medicine in Cardiology, Universitá della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland. Currently, he serves as vice-Chairperson (Chairperson elected 2016-18) for the e-Cardiology Working Group of the European Society of Cardiology.

 
 
       
 
       
 
 

Florin Gorunescu, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova

Intelligent decision systems in Medicine -a short survey on medical diagnosis and patient management

Professor Florin Gorunescu holds the position of Professor of Mathematics, Biostatistics, and Informatics within the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Romania. He also taught courses in Data Mining within the Master in Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Craiova. He is a Ph.D. supervisor in Computer Science at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Piteşti, Romania. He has received the Ph.D. degree in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Bucharest in 1979. He was Visiting Professor at ULB-Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, University of Ulster, and University of Westminster, London, UK. Professor Florin Gorunescu is member of the following societies: Societe Francaise de Statistique, IEEE Computer Society, Association of European Operational Research, Romanian Society of Mathematical Sciences, Romanian Society of Probabilities and Statistics. He has published more than 100 papers (28 indexed Thomson-Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge, and more than 60 indexed BDI), and 11 books and chapters in books. He is the author of the book “Data Mining, Concepts, Models and Techniques”, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 2011, awarded with the “OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE 2011” from the American Library Association, and nominated for the Romania Academy Prize, 2013. He also held keynote speeches at many international conferences. Citation index h: Scopus = 12, Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge = 12, Google Scholar/Academic = 17. Present research interests include Data Mining, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Statistics.

 
 
 

Vladimír Rogalewicz, Charles University in Prague

Health technology assessment as a tool for medical devices management in hospitals

Professor Vladimír Rogalewicz graduated from Charles University in Prague (mathematics and statistics). Current research interests concentrate around health services research, economics and management of healthcare facilities, and especially health technology assessment. The main focus of his work is on economic aspects of medical devices. He has published more than 80 scientific papers in the fields of algebra, theoretical physics, plant genetic resources, chemical engineering, medicine, and health technology assessment, published e.g. in Pacific Journal of Mathematics, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Acta Anaestesiologica Scandinavica, Seed Science & Technology, and Value in Health. In 2007-2012, he was a vice-dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague responsible for research and international relations. He has served as the secretary general of the European Society of Engineering and Medicine (ESEM) since 2008 until 2015, especially actively participating in educational activities sponsored by ESEM. His wife and he translate books from English and German into Czech (George Orwell, Werner Lansburgh, Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises and others).

 
 
 

Mihail Popescu, PhD, University of Missouri, USA

Early illness detection in elderly using sensor networks with TigerPlace case studies

Mihail Popescu received his B.S. degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute in 1987. Subsequently, he received his M.S. degree in Medical Physics in 1995, his M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1997, and his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Science in 2003 from the University of Missouri. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Health Management and Informatics, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Nursing and an Adjunct Assciate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, USA. Dr. Popescu is interested in pattern recognition and medical decision support systems. His current research focus is developing decision support systems for early illness recognition in elderly and investigating sensor data summarization and visualization methodologies. He has authored or coauthored more than 120 technical publications. In 2011, Dr. Popescu received the IEEE Franklin V. Taylor Award of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. He is a senior IEEE member.

 
 
 

Fabrizio Clemente, PhD, Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging of National Research Council of Italy

Technical and technological perspective in tissue characterization by Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

Degree in Electronic Engineering with honours at University of Naples and PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Bologna. Now is senior research at Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging of National Research Council of Italy. He was active in the field of medical instrumentation and acquisition and processing of biomedical signal and data (Doppler ultrasound velocimetry, vascular echocardiography, pressure signals for cardiovascular applications, EMG, brain evoked potentials), He was also responsible of technology transfer and knowledge transfer projects and Founder and Chairman (2008-2009) of CNR spin off Timshel srl. Adjunct Professor of "Measurement for Quality Control" at University of Naples "Federico II", Faculty of Engineering (2003-2012). He joined CERN (Geneve, CH) LHC project User (AT-MEI-MM and AB-ATB-LPE groups) (2008-2009) His current research areas are Electrical Properties of Biological Tissues (electrical impedance myography, bone ingrowth, drug delivery) and Quality in Medicine and Health Care (Quality and safety in Home care and measure of performance in health system and in ICU).

 
 
 

Prof. Dr. Octavian Adrian Postolache, PhD, ISCTE-IUL Lisbon

Physical Rehabilitation Assessment based on Smart Training Equipment and Mobile APPs

Prof. Dr. Octavian Adrian Postolache (M’99, SM’2006) graduated in Electrical Engineering at the Gh. Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania, in 1992 and he received the PhD degree in 1999 from the same university, where he worked as assistant professor. In 2000 he became principal researcher of Instituto de Telecomunicações, Invited Professor of EST/IPS Setubal in 2001. In 2012 he joined ISCTE-IUL Lisbon where he is currently assistant professor. His fields of interests are smart sensors for biomedical and environmental applications, pervasive sensing and computing, electrophysiological signal processing, computational intelligence with application in automated measurement systems. He is vice-director of Instituto de Telecomunicações/ISCTE-IUL delegation, and he was leader of several collaboration projects between the Instituto de Telecomunicaçoes and the industry such as Home TeleCare project with Portuguese Telecommunication Agency for Innovation (PT Inovação), Integrated Spectrum Monitoring project with National Communication Agency (ANACOM). He is active member of national and international research teams involved in Portuguese and EU and International projects. Dr. Postolache is author and co-author of 10 patents, 7 books, 14 book chapters, more than 280 papers published in international journals and proceedings of international with peer review. He is IEEE Senior Membe, chair of IEEE IMS TC-13 Wireless and Telecommunications in Measurements, distinguished lecturer of IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, member of IEEE IMS and EMBS technical committees. He is member of Sensor Council and Associate Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal, and he served as chair or TPC chair of different IEEE, EAI and INSTICC conferences such IEEE MeMeA 2014 as general chair, ICST 2015 as TPC chair.