This grant provides funding for a symposium, from the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM), that will bring together leading experts in cell biology, physiology, biophysics, applied mathematics, continuum mechanics, computational mechanics, bioengineering, and regenerative medicine to stimulate critical discussions and identify future challenges and opportunities in computational biomechanics. It has the potential to advance the field in the following directions: (i) mathematical modeling and computational simulation on the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels; (ii) characterization of the relevant biological, chemical, electrical, and mechanical fields; (iii) image-based, patient-specific design of computational models; (iv) verification and validation of computational models on the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels. The symposium will be held between August 29 and September 02, 2011 at Stanford University, California. It will feature five keynote speakers, approximately 40 invited speakers, and approximately 60 to 80 participants. This proposal will support undergraduates and young researchers to actively participate in the symposium through podium and poster presentations. Moreover, it will allow dissemination of their research activities in the hardcopy book of conference proceedings.
This IUTAM symposium will have direct academic, scientific, and educational impact. Academically, it will establish and broaden the computational biomechanics community, create synergies, and reach out to scientists who have not traditionally been part of this community. Scientifically, it will identify new research directions and push frontiers in computational biomechanics with results made available to the broad public in the form of a hardcopy book of conference proceedings and a multiple-author expert review paper on challenges and advances in computer models in biomechanics. Educationally, it will encourage the participation of undergraduates and young researchers from underrepresented groups and institutions that are traditionally short of funding which will be crucial to strengthen the computational biomechanics community now and in the future.
This grant has enabled travel and registration support for 22 undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and young assistant professors to participate in the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Symposium on Computer Models in Biomechanics at Stanford, California. This symposium has brought together leading researchers working on current challenges in modern computational biophysics. All scientists supported through this grant have actively participated in the symposium, either through a podium presentation or through a poster presentation. Thematically, the symposium has revealed a number of exciting new trends. Two new aspects have been discussed in detail, which distinguish living biological materials from standard engineering materials: the adaptive response in the form of growth and remodeling and the active response in the form of force generation and contraction. This International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Symposium had a direct academic, scientific, and educational impact: (i) academically, it has broadened the computational biomechanics community, created synergies, and reached out to world-leading experts who have not traditionally been part of the this community; (ii) scientifically, it has helped to identify new research directions and push frontiers in computational biomechanics with results made available to the broad public in the form of a hardcopy book of conference proceedings published through Springer; (iii) educationally, it has encouraged the participation of undergraduates and young researchers, which will be crucial to strengthen the computational biomechanics community now and in the future. Overall, the symposium has created exciting new synergies and novel collaborations, both across the scales and across disciplines.
