Generally, Biomedical Engineering deals with human body modelling and biomechanics, static/dynamic structural analysis, biomaterials, modelling of biological systems, tissues engineering, biosensors, medical informatics, medical electronics, medical imaging investigations, design and manufacturing of medical devices.
Biomechanics combines the field of mechanical engineering with the fields of biology, physiology, and medicine. In biomechanics, the principles of mechanics are applied to the modelling, conception, design, development, and analysis of medical devices and systems in biology and medicine. The modelling of biomechanical systems contributes to the development of medical diagnosis and treatment procedures.
The main purpose of the Modelling of Biomechanical Systems course is to develop the theoretical basics of the biomechanical studies in front of the engineers and researches who work in the Biomedical Engineering field.
Kinematic modelling of biomechanical systems deals with bones, joints, and their motions. One of the most used conventions for geometric and kinematic modelling is Denavit-Hartenberg convention. Based on this convention, human limbs are modelled.
Static modeling of biomechanical systems deals with equilibrium of biomechanical systems (bones, muscles, ligaments and connecting joints). Based on the principles of mechanics, human limbs equilibrium is studied.
Dynamic modelling deals with the laws of motion of material bodies subjected to the action of a force system. The fundamental characteristics and general theorems are presented and applied in order to study the human locomotion.
The implants can be used as replacement of damaged or diseased part of the anatomy (e.g. total joint replacement), to aid in healing of tissue (e.g. fracture plate) or to correct deformity (e.g. a plate used after osteotomy). Several implants for long bones and head skeleton are presented. Also, basic knowledge of biomaterials used for implants manufacturing is essential.
Finite Element Method is considered as the dominating and leading numerical technique in research and engineering practice in the mechanics of solids and structures. Also, FEM represents one of the most important and interesting approach in Tissue Engineering. Thus, the FEM part of the course consists of basics of FEM theory, general ANSYS specific capabilities and steps to solving any problem in order to predict the strain and stress fields within a solid body (a certain tissue) subjected to external forces, and several examples using ANSYS program.
Today's data communication is widely characterized by the use of insecure public networks. To protect the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of transferred messages, methods of encryption, signing, etc. have to be used.
The objective of this course is the procurement of basic knowledge in the field of data encryption and data integrity especially in network communications.
Course Outline:
We will give a short introduction to the protocols used in internet communications (TCP/IP) and their basic principles and operation. We will analyze the security aspects of these protocols practically with a network analyzer.
In the second part we discuss symmetric and asymmetric encryption methods and their application in data communication. Furthermore we will present tools to use modern asymmetric encryption methods in everyday internet communication.
| DAY | COURSE SYLLABUS |
|---|---|
| 1st day | Introduction to TCP/IP; application protocols; network analysis; security aspects |
| 2nd day | Encryption basics; symmetric and asymmetric methods; signing; tools (PGP,GnuPG) |
This module will be organized in two sessions during two days. Each session will have theoretical and practical sessions.
Topics to be covered during module:
Theoretical sessions will be in classroom with multimedia facilities and powerpoint slides. In practical sessions, exercises and different quizzes will be produced by students.
The replacement or augmentation of failing organs with artificial devices has been an important task in health care for few decades. Such devices like dialysis to replace failing kidneys, mechanical heart valves to replace diseased human valves, heart assist devices for a weakened human heart are common in clinical practice. Each of these artificial organ systems will be described in detail in separate sections of this lecture. This course will provide the students an understanding of the art and science involved with engineering a replacement for the native heart, lung, kidney and blood vessels. A short tutorial for each module will include basic cardiac, vascular, renal and pulmonary physiology; biomaterials used for building artificial organs undergraduate physics, basic fluid mechanics; and mass transfer. Complimentary modules will be presented for each organ system. Each organ system module will begin with a detailed presentation of the anatomy and physiology of the organ system followed by an overview of the disease processes that limit their function. Next the basic design criteria and the physical laws that need to be taken into consideration for a suitable replacement or temporary assist device will be discussed. Class will be supported with multimedia animations and videos from operations such as open heart surgery. We will discuss the practical considerations in artificial organ design and will debate on topics related to biocompatibility challenges, complications and limitations of existing technologies, market shares, regulatory issues and cost related problems.
Course Outline:
Cardiac organ replacement, Vascular organ replacement, Pulmonary organ replacement, Renal system replacement.
Themes of the course:
Introduction to product development process / methodology
Introduction to efficient product development tools
Case studies of biomechanical applications
Product and design requirements for biomechanical applications
Learning by doing -> product development work in teams.
Goal of the course is to introduce students to product development of biomechanical applications by showing participants several real-life product case-studies and letting the students perform product development tasks in teams. Teachers of the course are professionals in product development and development of biomechanical applications.
Medical devices for image acquisition:
Image processing fundamentals and object recognition:
The course has theoretical as well as practical parts.
The main objective of the course is to deliver some theoretical and practical knowledge related mainly to the project planning, scheduling and budgeting. The module starts by defining the project and differentiating project management from general management. The project manager’s role, the project life cycle and the elements of project plan are also briefly discussed. The common formats of schedule the Gantt-charts and PERT/CPM networks, some methods of budgeting and cost estimating are also covered. Based on these techniques students will be able to participate in project planning and implementation.
Student teams will prepare a report and give a presentation on a special project. The purpose of this assignment is to deepen your knowledge on planning projects and to share that knowledge with the rest of the group. The topic of the project will be selected by the students.
Since the first report on laser radiation by Maiman (1960), many potential fields for its application have been investigated. Among these, medical laser surgery certainly belongs to the most significant advances of our present century. Actually various kinds of lasers have already become irreplaceable tools of modern medicine.
One of the problems in surgery is that of access: often overlying tissue must be cut simply to gain access to the target organ. On the other side fiber optics has enabled the development of endoscopes, which allow access to most sites within the body, leading to the development of minimally invasive therapy.
Course contents:
In this ever changing world safety and security is a major issue. And this issue is changing everyday as our knowledge is growing. In these sessions European Directives (90/385/EEC, 93/42/EEC, 98/79/EC) concerning medical apparatus, standards and the ALARA (as low as reasonably accepted) and ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable) principle will be discussed. There will be an overview of how directives and standards are related while the main emphasis will be put on the IEC 60601-1, ed3 (Medical electrical equipment-Part 1: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance) and how it differs from earlier editions. The “new” idea of risk management (ISO 14971), which has become mandatory, will also be discussed.
Today microcontrollers have been used in many electronic machines; as well they became an integral part of biomedical devices. This course discusses the programming model and basic features of a microcontroller and the application of microcontrollers to biomedical instrumentation. Lectures and laboratory experiments cover the basic principles of hardware and software design for a microcontroller based system and interfacing biomedical sensors to microcontrollers are emphasized.
Course Outline:
Overview of PIC microcontroller, Basic MikroC programming for PIC microcontroller, Interface of sensors and I/O devices to microcontroller chips, Design of microcontroller systems for medical use such as design of a heart beat monitor and/or a digital thermometer.
| DAY | COURSE SYLLABUS |
|---|---|
| 1st day | Introduction to microcontrollers and embedded design. |
| 2nd day | PIC microcontrollers and MikroC programming language. |
| 3rd day | Programming PIC microcontrollers and designing simple microcontroller applications. |
| 4th day | Analog to digital conversion using microcontrollers and digital thermometer application. |
What is biomechanics and tissue engineering?
Many tissues and organs in the body have either a direct load-bearing function, or fulfil their functions while under considerable mechanical loads. Biomechanics is the science of investigating the effects of forces on biological tissues, organs and systems. It thus covers a wide field, ranging from the application of statics and dynamics to analyse forces and moments in the body, to the application of mechanics of materials to analyse the mechanical behaviour of cells, tissues and organs in the body.
Biomechanics helps to understand why tissues, organs and systems have the structure and shape they have, and provides basic knowledge for designing medical devices. Over the last years, biomechanics has become more relevant since many research groups throughout the world try to help patients using “tissue engineering”. Tissue engineering is the attempt to “engineer” tissue such as bone in the laboratory; this tissue can then be used to treat patients who have lost bone.
What will I do during the four days?
Mornings of day 1-3 (lectures)
Afternoons of day 1-3 (practical)
In groups of about four persons, you will design a testing machine, build it, and use it to compare the quality of various orthopaedic bone screws.
Day 4
In the morning, there is time to write a report on the practical. In the afternoon, there will be a multiple choice exam. You can bring all your handouts and notes to the exam.
What do I need to know in advance?
The course is designed to be interesting for mechanical engineering students as well as for students in other engineering disciplines. Simply bring your brain and enthusiasm!
Assignment:
A non-invasive blood pressure monitor will be built during this course and signal analysis is done on the computer.
In this one-week course the students will have an introduction on how to measure non-invasive signals from the body and how to use measuring devices like oscilloscopes and multimeters. Signals tend to be weak and disturbed by noise, so they have to be filtered and amplified. How this can be done by using operational amplifiers and filtering techniques will be part of the course. Necessary medical background about blood pressure measurement and the used electronic components is presented. Existing software will be used to analyze and interpret the recorded signals.
The course consists of theoretical sessions in the morning and practical (group) workshops in the afternoon. Theory and practice seamlessly coming together in this course. The test is to show an operating blood pressure monitor with correct signal analysis.
Sensors and transducers are the eyes and ears of modern measurement instrumentation and control system. Many types of machines and also medical instruments depend on transducers and sensors to provide input data about the environment. Sensors represent both one of the oldest segments of the electronic industry and one of the most modern. Widely used in both analog and digital instrumentation systems, sensors provide the interface between electronic circuits and “real world” where things happen.
The goal of this course is to provide a representative overview of sensors, how they work, how they are applied and what basic electronic circuits are needed to support them.
Course Outline:
Sensor technologies, Basic transducer principles, Thermo resistive and thermoelectric transducers, Electrets and capacitive transducers, Piezoelectric, pyroelectric and piezo resistive effects, Hall effect and magnetic transducers, Radiation based transducers, Electrochemical transducers, related electronics and biomedical applications.
| DAY | COURSE SYLLABUS |
|---|---|
| 1st day | Transducer, sensor and signal processing Amplifier basics and grounding |
| 2nd day | Resistive, capacitive and inductive transducers Temperature sensors |
| 3rd day | Temperature sensors Piezoelectric, pyroelectric, Hall effect and some applications |
| 4th day | Electrochemical sensors Some selected application examples |
To design a new product there are a lot of possible methods and activities.
In this course we will show you the different aspects of the design process. In general the design process is: think and find a best solution for a need. The thinking can be done in different ways. This difference is related to the complexity of the design process. A designer has to fulfil a lot of different requirements, for example:
In this course "Cultural Design Aspects" we will introduce you to a method for design related to these aspects.
The design process depends on the designing person. The designing person has his own background, based on culture and personality. Therefore we will also look at the differences between cultures and we will find out what the basic behaviour is of each person. It is important to recognise the differences between people and to their solutions for a given problem.
It is important to know what is acceptable during design. To show you what is acceptable or not, you will be introduced in ethics. The introduction consists of 3 basic principles. Each principle will be discussed. Part of it is the theory of argumentation.
After a design has been chosen, you have to check the design for its safety aspects. In this course we will introduce you a method of checking the safety of the design by "Failure Mode and Effect Analysis" (FMEA)
Of course it is important to have the best solution for a product. Therefore it is possible to check the functions in relation to the costs of that function. We will introduce you the system of Value Analysis / Value Engineering (VA/VE).
The testing of equipment is very important. When is a test valid? We will see what is important to check during the performance of a test.
Besides lectures, we will work in projects as companies in real life work in projects. So feedback is important, because it is the basic of good communication. An introduction in feedback is scheduled.
During the last century, interest in biomaterials has grown from mere curiosity to routine clinical use, saving lives and improving the quality of life for millions of people. Today, biomaterials and medical devices are a $100 billion industry. This course will cover many fundamental areas such as:
Course Outline:
Material science and relation between medicine. Properties of polymeric, metallic and ceramic biomaterials. Natural biological materials. Artificial biologic materials. Applications of material sciences in biomedical engineering. Mechanics, corrosive and surface properties, tissue reactions of biomaterials. Medical applications of researches in material sciences. Synthesis of nanomaterials, nanoparticules and biomedical applications. Nanostructured coatings.
| DAY | COURSE SYLLABUS |
|---|---|
| 1st day | Introduction to the Material Science & Engineering Biomaterial Science Bulk properties - chemical bonds - surface energy Classifications & advanced biomaterials |
| 2nd day | Polymeric, metallic & ceramic biomaterials |
| 3rd day | Composite biomaterials performance of biomaterials; Mechanical and biological tests |
| 4th day | Introduction to the nanotechnology Fundamentals of synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials Nanostructured coatings; Plasma polymerisation technique nanosensors; NEMS and MEMS Carbon nanotubes |
The application of microtechnology to chemistry and biology – summarized in the name “lab-on-a-chip” – is a rapidly increasing field of activity with many applications in biomedical engineering. In this course the following topics are covered:
In the practical part of the course the students design simple micro fluidic structures, build them by different manufacturing methods, characterize the structures and test them.
During this course we will go into the user’s side of design, we will explore who and what the ‘bleep’ we, designers, are working for.
Now, we realize that anything can be made by now, and if not technologically doable today, it will be tomorrow. This makes that the ‘consumer’ industry in refocusing from technology driven design towards user-centered design. Yes, sustainability is also a buzzword these days, but think about it, does sustainable only mean degradable or reusable? No, of course not! If things need to be sustainable it means also that these products are used well and to the satisfaction of the customer / user.
The course will contain these four topics:
Usage scenario / LCA writing – a workshop in which the use and usage of these simple yet powerful tools will be explored through different stages of the design process.
Beyond usability; what the user really wants, but has not even thought of yet – lecture and workshop in which you will try to think the thoughts of your targeted user.
Criteria specification with anthropometric data – an interactive lecture that aims to show how the scenario serves to complete the list of criteria and how anthropometric data can be used to make certain criteria operational / of use to designers.
Collages and mood boards – lecture on the use and the do’s and don’ts, plus a workshop for the practice and to show you that an image can say more than many words. (In case making Collages is known to most of the group, we will alter plan and go for an inspiring session of Creative Problem Solving)