Special Sessions

NanoBiotechnology Commercialization

Organizer: Esmaiel Jabbari (USA)

The invited presentations in this session highlight recent advances and challenges in commercialization of nano-medical technologies and devices from innovation to protection of intellectual property, fund raising mechanisms for product research and development, regulatory process for technical and clinical evaluation of nanotechnologies, and business models for commercialization of nano-biomedical devices. This symposium covers fundamental concepts in commercialization of medical devices as well as the development and commercialization of novel nanomaterials and nanomedicine for applications in pharmaceutical industry and regenerative medicine.

NI & LabVIEW help paraplegics to walk

Organizer: Hangil Cho (South Korea)

Developing a system that can handle complex control algorithms to capture data remotely from various sensors simultaneously and perform real-time control of multiple actuators for a wearable robotics device for walking assistance can be very challenging. This session will provide how LabVIEW RIO platform including a CompactRIO embedded system and a real-time controller with FPGA control architecture could solve the challenges by showing case studies of Hyundai & Sogang University.

Recent Progresses in Computed Tomography: From Data Acquisition to Quality Evaluation

Organizers: Seungryong Cho, Xiaochuan Pan, Namkug Kim, Lifeng Yu (Korea, South)

As technologies advance in both hardware components and software parts in computed tomography, unseen performances at much less radiation dose and applications with richer information are under active exploitation. Innovative sampling techniques, high performance iterative image reconstruction, deep learning based image analysis, and clinical assessment of image quality would be some examples of recent progress in CT. Inviting the leading experts of this field to form a special session would provide a focused opportunity to the speakers to provide an insightful review of the recent advances in the field and to disseminate their seminal findings. The audience would be able to have a time to look back at and forward to the cutting edge technologies in a well-rounded manner and to participate vigorously in the discussion.

Healthcare Innovation: Inspiring Global Open Consensus Standards

Organizers: Carole C. Carey (USA), Bill Ash (USA), Young Lae Moon (Korea, South)

Novel technologies, in both medical and consumer devices, generally evolve faster than the development of standards. Rapidly expanding knowledge in science and biomedical engineering has in part led the speed in innovation of new personal and medical health devices. Next generation image-guided systems; advanced non-invasive brain-computer interfaces; wearable health devices for monitoring; and, display visualization techniques are some examples to name a few. IEEE and its standards development arm, the IEEE-SA, draw on the expertise of its technical societies to bring people and technology together. Industry consensus standards are developed in an open process based on input from interested parties worldwide. This session will highlight and provide current standardization information on specific technology areas, such as standards for 3D-based medical device applications, health informatics medical device communication, AR/VR (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality), and the field of neurotechnologies. The dialogue will provide an opportunity to share best practices, identify additional gaps for future standards development as well as stimulate active involvement to help reduce the lag between technology and availability of standards.

Restoration of Vision via Neuromodulation – Challenges and Proposed Solutions

Organizers: Gregg Suaning*, James Weiland (Australia)

Visual neuroprostheses – so-called ‘bionic eyes’ – have recently become a therapeutic option in the treatment of some degenerative disorders of the retina and ultimately seek to include all forms of visual impairment. Initial results are promising, although it is clear that significant improvements in patient outcomes will be necessary before the bionic eye becomes a mainstream clinical solution. In this Special Session we will explore the challenges faced by this field of research in both the laboratory and the clinic. Speakers will be asked to offer solutions to these challenges and set the direction of the field for the next decade.