Advancing biomedical R&D

After finishing his Master in Electro-Mechanical Engineering, Wilfried Vancraen worked for 4 years as Research Engineer and Consultant at the Research Institute of the Belgian Metalworking Industry (WTCM-CRIF). In July 1990, Wilfried Vancraen founded Materialise NV and to this very day, he is managing director of the company. In 15 years time he developed Materialise into a worldwide organization with presence on all continents employing over 600 people.

Materialise was established as the first Rapid Prototyping Service Bureau in the Benelux countries. Immediately after its start up, the company concentrated on researching and developing solutions for the data transfer to Rapid Prototyping machines. This resulted in the commercialisation of the products Magics and Mimics. Mimics is the market leading tool to link medical imaging and RP&M machines and branched out to becoming a key tool for medical image based biomechanical engineering.

Wilfried Vancraen is inventor on several patents relating to RP&M technologies and its technical and medical applications. He is also the driving force behind the humanitarian RP4Baghdad project and has been elected in 2007 as 0ne of the 25 most influential people in the RP world by the renowned international TCT magazine.

Prof. Jos Vander Sloten (°1962) obtained his MSc and PhD in mechanical engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1985 and 1990 respectively. From 1985 to 1999 he held positions as research assistant and post-doctoral researcher of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, specialising in musculoskeletal biomechanics. Currently he is full professor and chair, Division of Biomechanics and Engineering Design at K.U.Leuven. He also chairs the Leuven Medical Technology Centre (L-MTC). His teaching assignments are mechanics, problem solving and engineering design, computer integrated surgery systems. He is the programme director of the master of Biomedical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering.
His research interests are computer applications in musculoskeletal biomechanics and computer integrated surgery. He is member of the council of the Belgian Society for Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, and a former council member of the European Society of Biomechanics. In the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science (EAMBES) he served as secretary-general (2003-2004) and president-elect (2005) and president (2006). He is now appointed as vice-president.

Mr. Christensen received his B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1996. He has been actively involved in the medical device industry since 1992 and in 1996 was hired to manage Medical Modeling, then a small medical rapid prototyping service bureau. Since that time he has been involved in over ten thousand individual patient cases for surgical planning, implant design and surgical navigation. Medical Modeling is a world leader in the growing field of “tactile medical imaging” and has core competencies in the areas of image processing, digital design and rapid manufacturing. At Medical Modeling traditional RP techniques such as stereolithography, 3D Printing (Z Corp. 3DP) and PolyJet function alongside of Electron Beam Melting, a novel direct-to-metal rapid fabrication technique - all with a focus on medical applications. Mr. Christensen actively presents nationally and internationally at both industrial and surgical meetings and is the author of several articles and book chapters on the use of the technology. He is currently President of Medical Modeling Inc., Golden, Colorado, USA

Professor Han Sung Kim works at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Yonsei University in the Republic of Korea. He obtained a B.S and a MS. at the Department of Machine Design & Production Engineering at the Hanyang University at Korea. His PhD was obtained at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mechanics at the UMIST (UK).

From 1990 until 1994 Professor Han Sung Kim worked as a Research Engineer at the Institute for Advanced Engineering (Korea). From 1994 until 1996 he held the same function at Hyundai Mobis Research Center (Korea). When he moved to the UK to study he was Postdoctoral Research Associate at the UMIST. When Han Sung Kim moved back to Korea he worked as a Principal Engineer and he has been director of the Medical Engineering Education and Training Center of the Yonsei University. It is at this same University that he holds the function as Professor since 2002.

At this moment professor Han Sung Kim is member of the Korean Society of Medical and Biological Engineering, of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering and of the Korean Society of Biomechanics. He has been Expert Committee Member of the The International Expert Committee of Mechanical Virtual Human of China and he still holds the position of Director of Korean Microgravity Society.

John Middleton has BSc and MSc degrees in Engineering from Swansea University, Wales, UK and a DSc from Riga Technical University, Latvia. He joined Swansea University in 1976 developing expertise in applying the finite element method to engineering problems and moved into the area of computational biomechanics during the 1990’s.

In 1999 he was appointed Professor and Director of Biomechanics at Cardiff University Dental School and since then has concentrated on computational simulation applied to dental biomechanics and design and analysis of medical devices. He has completed over 60 major UK/EU projects within the clinical and biomedical fields these being funded by EPSRC, EU, Dept. of Trade & Industry, NATO and the National Physics Laboratory as well as providing expertise for companies such as ARUP, Glaxo Smith Kline, Sultzer and Smith & Nephew.

He is the founding editor of the Journal of Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, published by Taylor & Francis, and Chairman of the international symposium series of the same name. He is a member of the Institution of Structural Engineers and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has ongoing international university, industrial and society links.