Our 2022 Research Symposium was a fantastic event for all academic nodes of the training centre to meet.

For the first time on the 24th of November we welcomed our UNSW post-docs and PhD students Miss Yilan (Olivia) Zhang, Mr Hossein Ahmadi, and Dr. Bart Bolsterlee to campus.

Yilan’s PhD project aims to develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols and analysis pipelines for automated reconstruction of shoulder anatomy, whilst Hossein’s PhD project is to develop a 3D finite element model of the shoulder muscles to examine the effects of soft tissue tensioning and muscle activation on joint loading and joint stability.

This visit marked the second time the teams were able to connect and collaborate in person above the monthly team meetings and workshops held online, after our centre’s initial visit in March 2022 from our QUT (Queensland University of Technology) team (Ms Maddie McIntyre, Dr Wolbert van den Hoorn, Mr Maxence Lavaill and Prof Peter Pivonka) to NeuRA and UNSW for the first time.

As intestate travel restrictions lifted and borders opened up after a lengthy closure due to the worldwide pandemic, it was a wonderful opportunity for the team to meet and attend the Shoulder & Elbow Society of Australia (SESA) Biennial Conference (Sydney) together.

With many collaborative projects underway, we hope to further collaborate with Prof. Lynne Bilston who is also co-lead of Program  2 on surgical robotics and the rest of the NeuRA and UNSW team, particularly on the recently awarded seed grants where Dr Bart Bolsterlee was successfully awarded as a grant CI.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next team meeting and training workshop in 2023.