Biomedical Engineering Society 2011 Annual Meeting

University Of Connecticut Sch Of Med/Dnt, Farmington CT

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The BMES Annual Fall Meeting is a high quality, multidisciplinary scientific event conducted by the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). This year's Meeting is co-hosted by the University of Connecticut and Brown University and will be held in Hartford, Connecticut, from October 12-15, 2011, and will feature two one-day workshops, at least four plenary lectures, numerous research presentations, a variety of special sessions, and several valuable networking opportunities for members of the BME community. There will be a total of 14 parallel technical program sessions providing over 800 oral presentations and an additional 1,600+ in poster presentations. Special sessions will include a several distinguished BME lecturers and a "Meet the Faculty Candidates" session that will promote BME employment opportunities. The two pre-conference workshops will deal with important contemporary issues in Biomedical Engineering on technology transfer and commercialization including "BME-IDEA" and "Translational Biomedical Engineering". A record 3,500+ attendees are anticipated for the 2011 meeting. The potential record attendance is based upon the very high number of abstracts received for the 2010 meeting (i.e., 2,182, which is a 23% increase over the number of submissions in 2009) coupled with the fact that conference-friendly Hartford is very conveniently-located in the Northeast between New York City and Boston. The 2011 meeting currently has sponsorship commitments from four major sponsors. A booklet will provide program details to the participants of the conference. All technical presentations will be one-page, peer-reviewed abstracts, which will be compiled in CD format and distributed to all registrants. Copies of the CD will also be provided to all co-sponsoring societies. Currently, the CD is envisioned to serve as the only technical proceedings of the meeting due to the large number of high-quality abstracts accepted. At this conference, at least four extremely high-quality plenary speakers are scheduled during a time with no other activities so that all conference participants may attend these talks as well as the workshops. The budget request of $10,000 to NIH is to provide financial support, in part, to publish the Program Book and to cover the entire expense of constructing and burning the Proceedings on CD in a searchable PDF format. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This conference is an extremely high-quality scientific, intellectually stimulating, and interdisciplinary meeting. It is the premiere conference for Biomedical Engineering (BME) and brings together different BME communities including cell and molecular engineering, tissue engineering, functional tissue engineering, overall human engineering, etc. It also is co-sponsored by several prestigious BME related societies. In addition to more than 2,500 papers, 1,600 posters, and two pre-conference workshops, at least four distinguished speakers of high intellectual merit with international reputations for BME excellence are chosen by the BMES Awards Committee. These plenary lectures and the intellectual content of the meeting will provide important cross-fertilization of ideas, concepts, tools, and approaches, and will highlight the importance of Biomedical Engineering as the intersection of Biology, Medicine, and Engineering.