Outreach

Our aim is to promote bioengineering both nationally and internationally for the benefit of students, researchers, clinicicans, medical technology and industrial participants and patient healtchare with a focus on bioengineering for better health.

TCBE TRANSITION YEAR PROGRAMME
As part of the TCBE Outreach, a one week transition year programme was organised. Pictured left are 5 of the transition year students who completed the TCBE Transition Year programme with Dr. Ciaran Simms. The programme gave them an excellent insight into all TCBE research themes and hands on experience in the labs. Pictured right shows a transition year student participating in an EEG lab as part of their introduction to Neural Engineering.

BIOENGINEERING...in IRELAND 19

The 19th Annual Conference of the Bioengineering Section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (RAMI) took place in Johnstown House Hotel, Co. Meath on 18th and 19th January 2013. The aim of the conference is to promote Bioengineering in its many facets by bringing together the clinical, engineering and scientific communities thus providing a platform for new and advanced researchers alike. The programme for this year's gathering featured over 100 presentations with papers being delivered on a broad spectrum of research being conducted in the Irish Higher Education sector including Biomaterials, Cardiovascular Biomechanics and Devices, Orthopaedic Biomechanics and Devices, Tissue Engineering and Neural Engineering.

This multidisciplinary research event brought together over 180 leading biomedical engineers and scientists covering a broad range of clinical engineering issues. Dr. Daniel Kelly, Director of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering (TCBE), chaired this year's extremely successful event. The event was preceded by a Medical Device Industry-Academia workshop that was co-chaired by Dr. Kelly and Dr. Bruce Murphy.

Professor Richard Reilly from Trinity College Dublin delivered the Samuel Haughton lecture for which he received the RAMI silver medal. In addition Professor Robert Mauck, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Professor Damien Lacroix, of the University of Sheffield presented plenary lectures. The conference was also host to the Engineers Ireland Biomedical Research Medal competition, sponsored by Boston Scientific, won by PhD student Stefaan Vergruggen (NUI Galway) for making a significant contribution to the field of biomedical engineering research.

The RAMI Bronze medal was awarded to Caroline Curtin (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and TCBE) for the best overall paper. A number of PhD students from the TCBE also received prizes, including Eamonn Sheehy (Best Presentation - Tissue Engineering), Alanna Gannon (Best Presentation - General Bioengineering) and Amy Lynch who received the Depuy Plate for the best young student presentation and poster. Tanya Levingstone (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and TCBE) won the Established Researcher award.

TCBE WINTER SYMPOSIUM
The TCBE Winter Symposium was held in December 2012 in the Knowledge Exchange in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. This key event was the platform for the launch of the Dublin Biomedical Engineering Research Initiative (DBERI). There was also a poster display showcasing the latest ground-breaking discoveries from TCBE researchers.

ESEM International Summer School: For three consecutive years from 2009 to 2012 Trinity Centre for Bioengineering hosted an international summer school for medical and engineering students igniting enthusiasm and passion among the students for the challenges and opportunities in bioengineering. 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 established 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. Many of the students returned to Trinity College Dublin to pursue further studies in the Bioengineering arena.