The strategic goals of the ITTC-JB are to train and develop future leaders, advance the field of digitally informed joint biomechanics and personalised orthopaedic treatment, and to facilitate the translation of knowledge and technologies through meaningful collaboration. To contribute to these three goals, a Seed Grant scheme was proposed back in July 2022 to empower the future workforce of our Centre (PhD students and Post-doctoral Fellows) to independently develop a project proposal, communicate their idea, and carry out a project.
With a total of 15,000 AUD on offer to launch a key research project that would harness the strengths of each of our 4 program streams (Computational methods to assess shoulder function – Program 1, robot assisted testing and surgery – Program 2, Optimised tissue-engineered scaffolds, with a focus on bioengineered scaffolds to assist in the repair of rotator cuff tears – Program 3, and In vivo assessment of upper limb movements, physiology and rehabilitation – Program 4), the teams developed their project ideas, team membership, grant application writing skills and pitching skills across a series of 4 workshops.
On November 25th 2022 at the ARC Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics’ Annual Research Symposium, four teams pitched their grant submissions to our esteemed panel of judges Mr. Massoud Shahi (Zimmer Biomet), Prof. Yi-Chin Toh (QUT (Queensland University of Technology) University of Technology), Prof. Kevin Tetsworth (MQ Health), and Prof. Peter Pivonka (QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in a short but concise 5 minutes.
After much deliberation, we are proud to award 2 successful applications:
‘Biomechanical characteristics of the human supraspinatus tendon in vivo under physiological loading.’
Lead investigators: Dr. Bart Bolsterlee, Dr. Eleonore Bolle, and Dr. Wolbert van den Hoorn; with co-investigators Dr Freek Hollman, Miss Yilan (Olivia) Zhang, Miss Asawari P., and Miss Sepideh Shemshad. Industry mentors: Prof. Lynne Bilston (University of New South Wales) and Adj. Prof. Ken Cutbush (Ken Cutbush Clinic – Brisbane Private Hospital).
‘Toward precision tracking of the shoulder joint using ultrasound tomography.’
Lead investigator: Dr Dermot O’Rourke; with Mr Arun Jolly, Mr Ahmed Sewify, Miss Natali Uribe, Dr Roberto Pareyon, Mr Maxence Lavaill, and Mr xiaolong fan. Academic mentor: A/Prof Saulo Martelli.
We want to thank our unsuccessful teams with the following submissions:
‘Explainable Deep Learning approach for shoulder abnormalities detection.’
Lead Investigator: Dr Laith Alzubaidi; with co-investigators Mr. Jinshuai Bai, Dr. Asma Salhi, and Dr. Freek Hollman. Industry mentors: Prof. Yuantong Gu (QUT), Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Akunah), and external collaborator Prof. Amin Abbosh (University of Queensland).
‘Non-invasive assessment of rotator cuff function’
Lead Investigator: Dr. Wolly van den Hoorn; co-investigators: Dr. Eleonore Bolle, Dr. Roberto Pareyon, Mr. Francois Bruyer-Monteleone, and Miss Yuyao (Amy) Ma. Industry mentors: Prof. Francois Hug from the Université Côte D’Azur, A/Prof Kylie Tucker (University of Queensland), and Adj. Prof Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Akunah).
We wish the winners all the best for their multi-disciplinary projects, with further developments to come.
