Our School runs a research seminar series to which all interested parties are invited to attend.

The usual seminar time is 1-2pm Tuesday in Room 1.05, Civil & Mechanical Engineering Building.

Please contact Pawel Podsiadlo if you or your colleagues would like to give a talk.

Past seminars

1. Hydroxyapatite Scaffolds on Load-bearing Zirconia Cores Tissue-Engineered for Bone Implant Applications.
2. Neuroimage as a biomechanical model: computational biomechanics without segmentation or meshing.
3. Starting on the wrong foot: 21 ways in which we accidentally mislead our
   Students about engineering practice
4. Responsive polymeric systems for personal care and related applications

Hydroxyapatite Scaffolds on Load-bearing Zirconia Cores Tissue-Engineered for Bone Implant Applications.

      15 March 2011 1.00pm - 2.00pm

       Winthrop Professor Xiaozhi Hu, School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, University of Western Australia

Abstract

The seminar addresses the common requirements and problems of HA scaffolds for bone replacement implant applications. A new HA scaffold design and processing method will be presented together with recent experimental results. Future developments including ARC Discovery research and fabrication of sizable 3-D implants will also be discussed.

About the speaker

XZ Hu’s main research interests have been fracture mechanics, testing and modelling of layered dental composites and carbon fibre composites with close to 200 international journal publications. He has been CI for 8 successful ARC Discovery Grants at UWA (first CI for 4) for the past 19 years.

Around two years ago, he made a strategic decision to change his main research interest to processing of bio-ceramics for dental and bone implant applications, with hardly any equipment support and funding, and with very limited knowledge in the field.

The group now has one successful ARC Discovery Grant from 2011 – 2013, and are preparing one more ARC and NHMRC in 2011 for 2012-2014.

One objective of the seminar is to show it is possible to start a new research area even in the current environment, and to be successful. “New and inexperienced” staff and researchers can make positive contributions towards UWA’s international ranking if we can keep our focus on the key issues of a University.

Neuroimage as a biomechanical model: computational biomechanics without segmentation or meshing

      22 March 2011 1.00pm - 2.00pm

      Winthrop Professor Karol Miller, Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory, School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, University of Western Australia

Abstract

Computational mechanics has enabled technological developments in virtually every area of our lives. One of the greatest challenges for mechanists is to extend the success of computational mechanics to fields outside traditional engineering, in particular to biology, biomedical sciences, and medicine. By extending the surgeon’s ability to plan and carry out surgical interventions more accurately and with fewer traumas, Computer-Integrated Surgery (CIS) systems could help to improve clinical outcomes and the efficiency of health care delivery. CIS systems could have a similar impact on surgery to that long since realized in Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM).

However, before this vision can be realized the following two challenges must be met:
Challenge 1. Real-time (or near-real-time) computations.
Challenge 2. Efficient generation of computational grids from medical images of human organs.
Addressing these challenges will be discussed in this seminar.

About the speaker

Karol Miller was born and educated in Warsaw, Poland. After two years in Japan, he has been with UWA since December 1996. Prof. Miller is a specialist in the area of modelling and computer simulation in biomechanics. He is the founder and director of the Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory at The University of Western Australia that currently has 15 members. Prof. Miller’s contributions include mathematical models of brain deformation behaviour (the world’s most frequently cited) and close-to-real-time finite element and meshless algorithms. Prof. Miller is the editor of Australian Journal of Mechanical Engineering and sits on editorial boards of major journals in the areas of biomechanics and numerical methods. His book “Biomechanics of the brain”, Springer NY  – the world’s  first comprehensive reference in this area of research – is currently in press.

Starting on the wrong foot: 21 ways in which we accidentally mislead our students about engineering practice

• 8 March 2011, 1.00pm - 2.00pm
• Winthrop Professor James Trevelyan, Engineering Learning and Practice Research Group, School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, UWA

Abstract

This talk is based on analysis of texts that introduce students to Engineering or prescribe engineering education. These texts, on the whole, reflect widespread notions about engineering in the minds of engineering faculty.

The analysis reveals that we mislead our students’ right from the start about fundamental issues and assumptions on which engineering is based. We also mislead our students about the kinds of tools and methods that practising engineers use. I shall introduce 21 different ways in which we do this and examine some in detail.

Then I propose ways in which we can adapt our existing approaches to teaching and the practice assignments we set for our students. It should be possible to significantly improve their education and also their ability to create useful value for their employers soon after they start working by making relatively small changes, and introducing them step-by-step.

 

Responsive polymeric systems for personal care and related applications

• 15 February 2011, 10.30am-11.30am
• Professor Michael Tam, Department of Chemical Engineering and Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo
  

Abstract

Nanotechnology is anticipated to be the next technological wave that will drive many of the innovations in science and engineering. This talk will describe various novel polymeric nanomaterials, such as pH-responsive nanogels, and renewable nano-cellulosic based materials that could find new applications in personal care and other related product formulations. Specific focus will be devoted to the interactions between these nanomaterials and surface active agents.

About the speaker

Michael Tam obtained his B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical engineering from Monash University, Australia in 1982 and 1991 respectively. He spent 18 months on a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University Canada, and subsequently taught at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for 15 years. In June 2007 he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo as a tenured full professor. His research interests are in colloids, self assembly systems, polymer-surfactant interactions, and drug delivery systems. He has published more than 200 journal articles in various fields of polymer science and engineering.