WORKSHOPS  (Workshops will be held on Wednesday, September 1, 2004)
To assure your spot please register by August 1.

To register for workshops, go to the registration link.

For professional development and industrial tutorials, click here.

Ethics in Biomedical Research (half day)
Organizer: Elysa Koppelman

The very practice of engineering is embedded with moral issues. This workshop will examine some of these issues and aims at providing participants with the information and skills to make sound moral choices in the course of their work. It will also include an opportunity for participants to learn how to teach and discuss these issues with others. Topics will include: the ethics of mentoring, ethical issues in nanotechnology, ethical issues in genetics and stem cell research. This workshop ties in with the themes on micro and nanotechnology and drug delivery and gene therapy, as well as the education theme.

Cardiorespiratory Variability: Models and Mechanisms
Organizer: Michael C. Khoo, University of Southern California

The purpose of the workshop is to provide a forum in which the latest findings related to autonomic cardiovascular control, sleep-disordered breathing and physiological rhythms are presented and discussed by experts whose perspectives encompass a variety of clinical, experimental and theoretical approaches. The presentations will focus specifically on contemporary research efforts to elucidate the physiological mechanisms that underlie respiratory and cardiovascular oscillations in health and disease, as well as the modeling methodologies employed to characterize these mechanisms. Variability of cardiorespiratory activity over a broad spectrum of time-scales (seconds to hours) will be discussed.
 Speakers and Titles (Final):
(1)    Nicola Montano, MD, PhD, University of Milan: "Autonomic mechanisms of cardiovascular variability in sleep-disordered breathing"
(2)    Simon C. Malpas, PhD,  University of Auckland: " The role of the sympathetic nervous system in generating and regulating oscillations in blood pressure; pitfalls and possibilities "
(3)    Thomas Penzel, PhD, Phillips University Marburg: "Monitoring peripheral arterial tone during sleep: methods and physiology"
(4)    Phyllis K. Stein, PhD, Washington University: "Diurnal rhythmicity of heart rate variability"
(5)    John S. Trinder, PhD,  University of Melbourne: "Effects of sleep-wake transitions on variability in respiratory and autonomic activity"
(6)    Sergio Cerutti, PhD, and Giuseppe Baselli, PhD, Politecnico di Milano: "Modeling cardiovascular variability: a signal processing perspective"
(7)    Elisa Magosso, PhD, and Mauro Ursino, PhD, University of Bologna:  "Mathematical modeling of cardiovascular variability and short-term pressure regulation"
(8)    Michael C. Khoo, PhD, University of Southern California:"Minimal closed-loop modeling of cardiovascular variability during sleep".

Individual and Population Biomedical Model Development: From Nonlinear Regression to Mixed Effects Models Through Case Studies
Organizer: Paolo Vicini, University of Washington

Actual data from peer-reviewed modeling journal articles will be used to walk participants through step-by-step practical applications of modeling analysis in various areas of biomedical research. We will focus on the transition from single-subject model development to modeling in a population of subjects, e.g. during a clinical trial or a dose escalation protocol.  The workshop will feature: model identifiability, development and testing; hands-on introduction to compartmental and numerical modeling using available software; individual and population models, population distribution, pharmacostatistical models; assigning initial parameter estimates for individual and population models; assessing goodness of fit and model order; approaches to population analysis based on likelihood approximations.  The understanding and especially the practical usage and implementation of these concepts will be reinforced through the extensive use of published data sets. Specific topics covered in this workshop will tentatively include: simultaneous and sequential pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling; analysis and modeling of imaging data; parent-metabolite modeling; Bayesian priors in compartmental models; simulation techniques.  Workshop participants should come with their own laptop computer and an Ethernet card. Attendance of the workshop is possible also without a computer, but it is greatly enriched by it. Software and workbooks will be provided.

Advances in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Organizer: Metin Akay, Dartmouth College

Speakers:
Steven E. Brenner, University of California, Berkeley
Phil Bourne, University of California, San Diego
Sandrine Dudoit, University of California, Berkeley
David Fenstermacher, University of Pennsylvania
Dan Gusfield, University of California, Davis
Chiara Sabatti, University of California, Los Angeles
This workshop is devoted to a review of recent advances in the emerging field of computational biology and bioinformatics. An emphasis will be placed on sequence analysis, genomics, and computational biology. A range of methodologies, such as probabilistic reasoning methods, clustering methods, dynamic system analysis, will be discussed. World-class experts in the areas will be invited to speak at the workshop and interact with the participants. This workshop will help stimulate interdisciplinary research and collaboration among biomedical engineers.

Level-Set Methods for Medical Imaging Applications
Organizers: Jasjit S. Suri, Case Western Reserve University,
                   Alessandro Sarti, University of Bologna, Itlay,
                   David Wilson, Case Western Reserve University,
                   Swamy Laxminarayan, Idaho State University

Level-set methods have become an effective tool for solving a range of imaging and image processing problems. Although the underlying theory and algorithms are well covered in engineering and computational literature, the treatment is often not very accessible to biomedical engineering students and practitioners. This course will provide a systematic discussion of level-set methods, including the theory, integration of region-based classifiers with level set algorithms, and various application examples covering several medical imaging modalities (e.g., 2D and 3D echocardiography, 3D fetal echography, CT, MRI, mole segmentation, Mammography and Digital Angiography)

Medical Infrared Imaging
Organizers: Nicholas Diakides, Advanced Concepts Analysis, Inc.                                      Ioannis Pavlidis, University of Houston
Presenters: Nicholas Diakides, Advanced Concepts Analysis, Inc.                                     Ioannis Pavlidis, University of Houston
                  Moinuddin Hassan, National Institutes of Health
                  Arcangelo Merla, University of Chieti, Italy 
                  Antoni Nowakowski, University of Gdansk, Poland
                  Boguslaw Wiecek, University of Lodz, Poland
Infrared Imaging both in medicine and biometrics has undergone a significant evolution driven by advanced technology, “smart” image processing and bioinformatics.  A series of presentations will define these technological advancements and the revolutionary manner in which these have transformed this imaging modality.  These will range from infrared physics, hardware, calibration, phenomenology, computational models for blood flow and other physiological variables that can be solved by providing infrared imaging as an input.  Recent biometric developments generated by Homeland Security research in thermal facial recognition as an alternative to the visual will be highlighted. Another topic will deal with the new NIH finding in the area of circulatory physiology which is expected to potentially expand the utility of modern infrared imaging systems.  Further, Functional Infrared Imaging (fIR) as used at the University of Chieti, Italy, allows minute temperature variations to be measured in real time, both with or without functional stimulus.  Its efficacy in several clinical applications will be demonstrated.  Another medical infrared quantitative method to be presented is the Dynamic Imaging technique which provides reliable information on hemo-dynamics (microcirculation). Advanced infrared image processing for thermal and visual sources mainly for application in medicine and biology will be demonstrated.  This will cover linear and non-linear image filtering; wavelet transform for thermal images; statistical signatures and image histograms; including asymmetry measures and image features selection and classification.  State-of-the-art detector and camera (uncooled and QWIP) technologies as applied to infrared imaging will be presented.  

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Organizers: Zhi-Pei Liang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
                   Douglas Noll, University of Michigan
                   Steven Wright, Texas A&M University
                   Joe Zhou, University of Illinois at Chicago

Since its inception in the early 1970’s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has developed into a premier tool for imaging of structures, metabolism and functions of biological systems. This short course will provide a systematic discussion of the basic concepts, principles, and techniques underlying MR image acquisition, image reconstruction, and contrast manipulation. It will also discuss recent technology developments (e.g., fast imaging, and parallel imaging using phased array coils) and some important application issues and examples (e.g., functional imaging and cancer imaging). The course is aimed to provide entry-level graduate students and/or biomedical engineers with an introductory understanding of MRI principles and applications.

Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics: Scientific and Technical Foundations of a new Interdisciplinary Field for Research, Medical Application and Industry
Organizers: Dr. H.F. Machiel Van der Loos, VA Palo Alto Health Care System Rehabilitation R&D Center
                   Prof. Paolo Dario, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

Biomedical applications of robotics are attracting increasing attention by the community of Robotics and Automation, but also by other research communities, such as the Biomedical Engineering community. After more than fifteen years of intense efforts, very important milestones have been reached and a number of medical robotic systems have become industrial products and are used in clinical practice. However, the overall field is now facing the opportunity for a major leap ahead, provided that some fundamental engineering problems are better identified and addressed.  The objectives of the workshop are, first, to introduce the overall field and state of the art by presenting and classifying in a unifying manner the wide range of topics (theoretical, technological and applicative) that contribute to form the broad area of Bio-Robotics; and, second, to discuss in depth the fundamental engineering problems that should be addressed to allow a more systematic and rapid growth of the field. This effort requires a very detailed knowledge of the various aspects of the field, as well as a vision of the future. The invited speakers are all experienced researchers, and possess the interdisciplinary knowledge required to introduce and guide a thorough discussion on the field.  In particular, the workshop will address three main application domains: surgical robotics, rehabilitation robotics and bio-inspired robotics.  The speakers, belonging to the research communities of Biomedical Engineering and Robotics & Automation, will bring contributions from different scientific areas relevant to the field, and the experience deriving from the biomedical and the robotics points of view. This approach is intended to help establish the basis for a deeper and more systematic collaboration between the two communities, also in preparation of the next joint IEEE EMBS-RAS Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, that aims at becoming the elective site for discussing and developing new engineering theories and technologies for Bio-Robotics.

Medical Image Analysis: Principles to Recent Advances
Organizers: Atam P. Dhawan, New Jersey Institute of Technology
                   Andrew Laine, Columbia University
                   Lionel Zuckier, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)

Radiological sciences in the last two decades have witnessed a revolutionary progress in medical imaging and computerized medical image processing. The development and advances in multi-dimensional medical imaging modalities such as X-ray Mammography, X-ray Computed Tomography (CT), Single Photon Computed Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Ultrasound, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) have provided important radiological tools in diagnosis and treatment evaluation and intervention of critical diseases for significant improvement in health care. The development of imaging instrumentation has inspired the evolution of new computerized image reconstruction, processing and analysis methods for better understanding and interpretation of medical images. The image processing and analysis methods have been used to help physicians to make important medical decision through physician-computer interaction. Recently, intelligent or model-based quantitative image analysis approaches have been explored for computer-aided diagnosis to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the radiological tests involving medical images.  Medical imaging in diagnostic radiology has evolved with the significant contributions from a number of different disciplines from basic sciences, engineering, and medicine. A number of computerized image reconstructions, processing and analysis methods have been developed for medical imaging applications The application-domain knowledge has been used in developing models for accurate analysis and interpretation.  In this workshop, the principles and fundamentals of medical imaging and image reconstruction, processing and analysis will be presented. The recent development in medical imaging modalities including Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasound will be discussed by the experts in the respective areas. Also, advanced image processing and analysis methods will be presented for multi-modality image registration, analysis and visualization.

 

Microanalytical Devices for Bioprocessing

Organizer:  Abraham Lee, University of California, Irvine

Lecturers:   John Wikswo, Vanderbilt University
                  Scott Manalis, MIT
                  Luke Lee, University of California at Berkeley
                  Abe Lee, University of California at Irvine
                  Robin Liu, Combimatrix Corp.

 

This short course will introduce the various chip-scale devices that enable the probing and manipulation of biological cells and molecules.  It is increasingly evident that the integration of sensors and actuators on microfluidic chips enable the interrogation of large scale biological events and shed light on the cell signaling processes in real-time.  Much like their biological counterparts, these transducers can be electrical, optical, mechanical, or fluidic in nature.  They can also match each other in scale and impedance to maximize the signal transduction sensitivity to form hybrid biological-synthetic devices.  Applications include rapid detection of pathogens, high resolution compact imaging systems, controlled release drug particles, cellular physiology tests, and cell signaling interfaces.  The recent improvement in integration complexity will allow one to dynamically stimulate and probe biomolecular interactions and understand the underlying mechanisms of healthy and unhealthy physiological states.  This short course will include an overview of the principles of operation of the various biomolecular transducers, the integration platforms that can enable multi-functional analytical measurements, and the applications in biology, biotech, and biomedicine.  The targeted audience includes scientists and engineers in the biotech and biomedical device industry, as well as academic researchers interested in a condensed overview of the state-of-the-art technologies in this exciting field.