ESEM Erasmus Mundus Master’s accepted! The ESEM grant application for an Erasmus Mundus Master’s course, called CEMACUBE (Common European MAster’s CoUrse in Biomedical Engineering) is accepted! This Master’s is organised by a consortium of 6 universities: the Universities of Groningen (The Netherlands), Aachen (Germany), Dublin (Ireland), Ghent, Brussels (Belgium), Prague (Czech Republic). In summary, the goal of this 2-year European Master’s in Biomedical Engineering is to prepare students from Europe and outside Europe to: · work in interdisciplinary (engineering – medical) teams · work in international and thus intercultural (European) teams · communicate effectively with experts in (bio)medicine and technology and with lay people · perform fundamental research in Biomedical Engineering. · design innovative devices to improve diagnostics and treatment of patients · follow a post-Master’s training in Biomedical Engineering · perform a PhD-study · train themselves continuously (life-long-learning) Students that followed this European Master’s course are trained with a European view, experienced in intercultural and interdisciplinary teamwork, have a broad overview of the entire field of BME. During the first year (semester 1 and 2), a student will follow lectures on all biomedical engineering subjects at one of the six universities, the 3rd semester (s)he will move to one of the participating universities to follow lectures on a specific topic, like medical imaging, tissue engineering or artificial organs. The fourth and last semester, a Master’s project will be performed on this specialisation at one of the 6 participating universities. Each student will receive a double degree. Students can do a Master’s project or traineeship at seven associate members: ETH Zurich (Switzerland), Universities of Calabria (Italy), Aalborg (Denmark), Compiègne (France), Strathclyde (UK), Patras (Greece), Academy of Sciences in Warsaw (Poland). And we have several societies as associate member: · EAMBES, the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science, active in harmonising educational programmes in BME in Europe, · ESEM (of course) · Syntens, a Dutch organisation that reinforces the innovative capacity of enterprises. They are partner of EEN, Enterprise Europe Network that promotes contacts between universities and SME-companies and contacts with innovation networks. Admission criteria are: a Bachelor in engineering and good knowledge of English, a convincing motivation letter and letters of reference. The first edition will start in September 2010. We are now building a website with all relevant information: www.biomedicaltechnology.eu ESEM summer school in Dublin 27 engineering and medical undergraduate students from across Europe designed next generation medical devices at the Trinity Centre for BioEngineering as part of the International ESEM Summer School, financed by an Erasmus IP grant. This was the first cooperation in Europe between seven of the leading universities in biomedical engineering and medicine. Current healthcare challenges, such as the ageing of Europe’s population as well as big killers such as cardiovascular disease, require multidisciplinary approaches for diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, the focus of this unique summer school is to establish a platform of cooperation between medicine and engineering across Europe already starting at an undergraduate level. With different working cultures and educational backgrounds, the aim of the Summer School at Trinity College has been to teach students how to work together efficiently by getting small groups designing new, novel medical devices targeting specific medical and clinical problems. These include the design of a total replacement for a degenerated ankle, solutions for revascularisation of the lower limbs, technologies to monitor the elderly and the design of artificial ventilation systems. To have the educational basis to undertake this challenge, the students have taking courses delivered by the European leading Professors of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine who also came to Trinity College. The medical students were instructed in bioengineering methods (materials science, biomechanics, mathematics), necessary to successfully work in biomedical engineering while engineering students were instructed in anatomy and physiology. Both group of students are taught design methodologies for furthering their understanding and capability to understand, analyse and successfully conceptualize innovative medical device concepts using a multidisciplinary team approach. “We want future biomedical engineers and clinicians to understand both disciplines” mentioned Professor Bart Verkerke of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University Medical Center Groningen and ESEM President. Professor Richard Reilly of the Trinity Centre of BioEngineering also explained that “the impact of this summer school has been to ignite enthusiasm and passion among undergraduate engineers and medical students for the challenges and opportunities in bioengineering”. He went on to explain that given that there are currently over 11,000 medical technology companies in Europe, exporting €65B worth of products annually and employing 500,000 people, “it is critical we can demonstrate to these students that engineering innovation and creative design can meet the challenges in healthcare, continue the growth of medical device sector and the delivery of the best medical care possible”. The outcome of the collaboration will lead to continued interaction of the students throughout their undergraduate career through the network established by ESEM and the novel project outcomes will be published on the society’s website (www.esem.org) to further disseminate to the medical device industry and wider community. New activities of ESEM ESEM started new initiatives for our members: • Specialist topic workshops at medical and biomedical conferences • Scholarly articles in Journal of Technology & Health Care • Blogs on topical Biomedical Engineering issues • Data base of member expertise In the next newsletters we will inform you more about these initiatives. Upcoming ESEM events - Biomedical Optics Conference, fall 2009, Poland - ESEM-workshop on electrovoice during the EGFL-congress, 23-24 October 2009, Lisbon (http://www.egfl2009.com/) - ESEM-workshop during the Hypertension congress, December 17, 2009 (Patrick) - The Seventh IASTED International Conference on Biomedical Engineering (Co-sponsored by ESEM), 17 – 19 February 2010, Innsbruck, Austria (http://iasted.org/conferences/home-680.html) - Congress on Technical Medicine, 2010, Enschede, The Netherlands - ESEM Summer School, August 2010 - Start of the European Master’s on Biomedical Engineering, September 2010 |