Our Students

PHD STUDENT

Ahmed Sewify

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“Automatic Advanced Ultrasound Imaging-Based Tomographic Dynamic Tracking of Shoulder Bony Structures”.

 

Ahmed is currently undertaking his PhD within the Training Centre, based at QUT’s Faculty of Health.

Ahmed graduated with a Master of Engineering (Electrical) and Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Mechatronics) from QUT. He has real-world experience as a Mechatronics Engineer at five different companies (BiVACOR, AOS, KIW, QUT and Netaware) working on task automation, computer vision, AutoCAD, GUI designs, web development and product design. His current project is focused on improving the availability, quality and understanding of 3D physical body structures, in particular the shoulder, by reconstructing 3D ultrasound images directly from raw channel transducer array data. Ahmed hopes to employ ultrasound imaging in a way that revolutionizes existing medical imaging techniques, increasing their field of view, speed, safety and dynamism.

Project Video

Ahmed Sewify Project Flyer

PHD STUDENT

Arthur Fabre

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Arthur is a PhD student within the School of Nutrition and Exercising Science in the Faculty of Health at QUT.

He obtained his Master of Engineering and Human Movement Sciences from the University of Paris-Saclay. His current research focuses on the development and validation of an Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) system to assess the kinematics of the shoulder and upper limb. This technology aims to better evaluate and understand upper limb movement deficiencies and explore the efficiency of approaches to reduce these impairments.

Project Video

PHD STUDENT

Amine Lagzouli

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“Development of a Deep Learning-Based Automated Segmentation, Registration, and Analysis Tool for Bone Remodeling and Adaptation Assessment” 

 

Amine is currently conducting a joint PhD at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the University of Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC). His research is focused on developing artificial intelligence methods for medical imaging, particularly in creating a deep learning-based pipeline for the segmentation, registration, and analysis of high-resolution bone imaging. His work is geared towards automating bone assessment for both biomechanical research and clinical orthopedic practices. Before undertaking his PhD, Amine completed his Engineering degree in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science from The National Higher School of Arts and Crafts Meknès.

PHD Student

Amy Ma

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“Transcranial magnetic stimulation and neuromuscular control of the shoulder.”

 

Amy is a PhD student in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the Faculty of Health & Behavioural Science at the University of Queensland and has a Bachelor of Physiotherapy from the University of Canberra. Her current research is focused on using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Electromyography (EMG) data, to explore the central mechanisms of neuromuscular control in patients with healthy and/or pathological shoulders.

Project Video

Amy Ma Project Flyer

MPHIL STUDENT

Anna Moyle

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Shoulder kinematics and muscle function pre and post- reverse shoulder arthroplasty: a 3D motion capture and electromyographic study to guide clinical practice

Anna joins the team with a strong physiotherapy background working for the Queensland Orthopaedic Clinic based at Greenslopes Private Hospital. Her project at the centre will provide essential understanding of effectiveness of shoulder arthroplasty surgery. This is essential knowledge for guiding clinical practice from surgery to rehabilitation.

 

PHD STUDENT

Asawari Parulekar

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“Exploring the role of mechanotransduction in producing inferior surgical outcomes for aged patients with Rotator Cuff Tears (RCTs)”.

 

Asawari is currently undertaking her PhD with ARCITTC-JB at UQ. She entered the fields of biomechanics & regenerative medicine as a research assistant during her time as an undergraduate Chemical and Biological Engineer. Her current research in interfacial tissue engineering investigates the complexities of attaching mechanically mismatched, soft (tendon) and hard tissues (bone) from a cell biological lens. Her project focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which cells respond to mechanical cues in the context of ageing tissues within the human shoulder.

Project Video

Asawari Parulekar Project Flyer

PHD Student

François Bruyer-Montéléone

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“Development of a musculoskeletal modelling platform for simulating pathological conditions of the shoulder joint.”

 

François will conduct his PhD within the School of Mechanical, Medical & Process Engineering at QUT with Prof Peter Pivonka. His research is focused on developing a musculoskeletal modelling platform for simulating pathological conditions of the shoulder joint with an aim to better understand the effect of muscle architecture changes on shoulder kinematics & kinetics after surgical intervention.

Project Video

François Bruyer-Montéléone Project Flyer

PHD STUDENT

Giacomo Nardese

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“Neurophysiological adaptations to shoulder injuries: cortical function of shoulder muscles and motor control implications”

 

Giacomo graduated with a Master of Science in Sciences and Techniques of Preventive and Adapted Physical Activities at University of Bologna (ITA) and with a Mater of Research in Spinal Pain at University of Birmingham (UK). 

His last project focused on understanding whether experimental pain associated to movement might elicit different kinematic and muscular adaptations in healthy participants when compared to a constant experimental pain.

His current project will focus on mapping shoulder’s muscles in people with and without shoulder pathologies using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and whether differences in those heatmaps might be related to shoulder’s motor control. 

Project Video

PHD STUDENT

Morgan Windsor

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“High precision robotic surgery for the shoulder”.

 

Morgan is currently undertaking his PhD within the Training Centre and QUT’s Centre for Robotics.

Morgan completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) at QUT and has a background in industry as an electrical engineer. Morgan’s research interests include developing enabling technologies to provide tools to assist surgeons in precisely executing preoperative plans.

Project Video

Morgan Windsor Project Flyer

Phd Student

Sepideh Shemshad

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Sepideh is currently undertaking her PhD with ARCITTC-JB at UQ. Her project aims to develop a delivery platform for controlled release of biochemical signals for rotator cuff tissue regeneration. Sepideh completed her Master of Science at Iran University of science and Technology in Biomaterial Engineering, where her research was focused on Fabrication and Characterization of Scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.

Moreover, she worked as a Research Assistant at Sabanci University in Turkey, where she focused on fabrication of polymeric nanofibers and nanotubes for sustained and targeted drug delivery.

Project Video

Sepideh Shemshad Project Flyer

PhD Student

Stephanie Belen Michelena Tupiza

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Development of multicomponent, multimodal scaffolds for enhanced rotator cuff repair

 

Stephanie joins the centre in support of Program 3: Engineered Tissue Scaffolds. After previously completing her masters at the University of Queensland (UQ), she returns to pursue her passion in bioengineering and anatomy.

Project Video

MPHIL STUDENT

Veronica (Yubo) Chen

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Trustworthy Deep Learning for Fracture Detection

 

Veronica joins us as a capstone project student from QUT’s School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering. Under the supervision of Prof. YT Gu, Dr Laith Alzubaidi, and Dr Harshala Gammulle (School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics) Veronica aims to develop robust and accurate deep learning algorithms for use in the orthopaedic industry that are trustworthy and improve patient clinical outcomes.

 

PhD Student

Xiaolong Fan

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Xiaolong is our PhD student in shoulder biomechanics at QUT. He takes a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses the modelling and experiment to support surgery selecting suitable implant for independent patients basic on CT image. He holds master’s degree from QUT which focused on understanding of biomechanical properties of red kangaroo shoulder humeral cartilage.’

 

Xiaolong Fan Project Flyer

PHD STUDENT

Yilan Zhang

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“Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols and analysis pipelines for automated reconstruction of shoulder anatomy.”

 

Yilan is a first-year PhD student in biomedical engineering at UNSW. Her main research interest centres around image-based anatomical modelling of human shoulder muscles. Her PhD project aims to develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols and analysis pipelines for automated reconstruction of shoulder anatomy. Using statistical shape modelling techniques, population-representative three-dimensional shoulder models will be generated that can be used in computational models of the shoulder.

Project Video

Yilan Zhang Project Flyer

Affiliate Students

AFFILIATE (MASTERS)

Alessia Bartali

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Alessia is a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Pisa, where her  academic journey has provided her with a strong foundation in several key areas. Most notably, she has immersed myself in the study of biomechanics, which involved an extensive curriculum covering the modelling of the human body to assess its responses to external perturbations. Additionally, her program has placed a significant emphasis on two other critical domains: the prototyping of medical devices and the application of robotics in surgical and rehabilitation contexts.

 

Alessia’s primary research interest lies within the field of biomechanics, with a specific focus on developing computational models for analyzing the behaviour of the human body when prosthetics are introduced. Her current capstone project centers on the creation of a finite element model designed to predict the stability of an inverse shoulder implant, while also conducting a comparative analysis of different surgical approaches.

Affiliate PhD

Alex Lee-Medland

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Alexander is a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at QUT. His research aims to investigate the quality of bone through a range of scanning techniques such as qBEI, micro-CT and Raman to assess multiple properties of bone. This research aims to assess the effects of drug treatments on the quality of bone.

 

Alex Lee-Medland Project Flyer

AFFILIATE PHD

Alireza Mahavarpoor

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Biomechanical investigation of revision reverse shoulder arthroplasty surgery using FEA and AI algorithms

Alireza joined the team in Nov 2023 and is undertaking his Phd within the school of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering under the supervision of Prof. YuanTong Gu. He holds a master’s degree in the field of mechanical engineering from University of Tehran, Iran. He is interested in conducting first-hand research projects that play a key role in facilitating human life and assisting people with health problems. His main focus is in computational models as well as artificial intelligence algorithms.

AFFILIATE PHD

Hamid Reza Jarrah

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“Investigation the effects of surgical variables on loosening in Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty (RSA)”

 

Hamid joined the team late last year under A/Prof Saulo Martelli, with joint supervision from the team at Metro North Health‘s Herston Biofabrication Institute.

In Australia, over 80% of total shoulder arthroplasty procedures performed in 2019 were RSA. A study of 4124 shoulders with RSA reported a complication rate of 16.1%. Through his research, Hamid hopes to investigate the surgical variables to eliminate prothesis loosening to reach the best performance for the implementation of medical implants and prostheses.

 

Hamid Reza Jarrah Project Flyer

AFFILIATE UG STUDENT

Lisa Mazouzi

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Lisa Mazouzi is a fourth-year student at Centrale Marseille General Engineering School in France.  Given her interest in developing skills in the field of biomechanics, she is currently undertaking a six-month internship at QUT on computational modelling of bone adaptation under centre Deputy Director, Prof Peter Pivonka.

AFFILIATE UG STUDENT

Maggie-May Hornigold

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Capstone project student. Penultimate year of an undergraduate dual bachelor’s degree in engineering (Medical) and Business (Management).

 

Project Title: 

Auto-segmentation of shoulder muscles from MRI using deep learning.

 

Project Description: 

This project involves the utilisation of previously segmented MRIs depicting shoulder anatomies of asymptomatic patients to formulate an automated segmentation pipeline. This involves the training of an existing deep learning (DL) framework, nnU-Net, through the provision of a dataset containing segmented images. This serves as the foundational input to facilitate the automatic configuration and customistion of a U-Net-based segmentation pipeline. The approach enables clinicians to seamlessly apply novel patient images to the framework, advancing the attainment of highly precise segmented images and models.

 

Affiliate PhD

Natali Uribe Acosta

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“Statistical shape and appearance model of the proximal femur to develop a parametric finite element model.”

 

Natali has a Bachelor and Masters of Biomedical Engineering from the Universidad de Antioquia Colombia and the Universidad EIA Colombia. Her research aims to develop a SSAM of the proximal femur. For these generated models to be useful, the model will generate FE meshes that are suitable for Finite Element (FE) calculations that will help to study the mechanical changes in the bone during physical exercise, taking into account how variations in the mechanical conditions of the human bones may be related to geometry or bone distribution during daily activities.

 

Natali Uribe Acosta Project Flyer

Student Alumni

PHD STUDENT

Arun Jolly

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“Relating anatomy, laxity and stability of the glenohumeral joint”.

 

Arun is currently undertaking his PhD within the Training Centre, based at QUT.

Arun is a Mechanical Engineer with postgraduate degree in Mechanical Design Engineering from Deakin University, Australia and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mahatma Gandhi University, India. He has experience in numerical modelling and experimental studies for various different mechanical engineering applications. Arun’s PhD project focuses on exploring the relationship between anatomy, laxity, and stability of the glenohumeral joint across the population to assist with developing improved shoulder reconstruction planning, surgical procedure and rehabilitation.

 

Arun Jolly Project Flyer

AFFILIATE UG STUDENT

Ashleigh Westmoreland

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Microsegmentation of tibia and fibula using microCT and CT images

 

 

Ashleigh is a 3rd year medical engineering and biology student interested in developing biomechanical skills to carry into post-graduate research. Her Work Integrated Integrated proeject with the centre focuses on the manual microsegmentation of microCT and CT images of tibia and fibula of mice that have undergone various mechanical loading and medical stimulus.

AFFILIATE PHD

Corey Miller

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Corey studied a Bachelor of Medical Engineering at QUT and graduated in 2019 with First Class Honours. In 2020 he started a PhD in Biomechanical Engineering, investigating cortical bone’s adaptive response to mechanical loading and drug therapies in the mouse tibia model and developing a novel simulation platform to predict this response by combining beam theory mechanics with cell population dynamics. This project has helped developed his knowledge and skills in mechanical engineering within the context of human anatomy and biology, as well as computational programming with a focus on modelling and simulation. His work has been presented at conferences held in Australia and Europe, including the 11th Clare Valley Bone Meeting (2020) and the 26th Congress of European Society of Biomechanics (2021), and has been published in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

PHD STUDENT

Hossein Ahmadi

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Hossein is a PhD candidate in the Prince of Wales Clinical School at Neuroscience Research Australia, University of New South Wales. His project aims 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 stability. With a MSc degree at University of Tehran focusing on Injury Biomechanics, He joined University of Technology Sydney as a Research Assistant working on Inertial Microfluidics with the potential application in disease diagnostics.

 

He has a strong foundation and high level of expertise in Computational Modelling and Simulation across different industries.

 

Hossein Ahmadi Project Flyer

PHD STUDENT

Jinshuai Bai

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Jinshuai is a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Yuantong Gu at QUT. He has finished his master by research degree at QUT, majoring in data-driven computational mechanics.

Currently, he is investigating the possibility of combination of deep learning techniques and computational mechanics for biomechanics applications. Jinshuai has been working on computational mechanics for many years. He has solid foundations for mechanics and good experiences in various computational methods.

 

Jinshuai (Luka) Bai Project Flyer

Affiliate PHD

Miss Laura Meszaros-Beller

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Laura is pursuing a PhD with the Biomechanics and Spine Research Group at QUT after receiving the BSc and MSc degree in Medical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart/Tübingen, Germany. Her research is focused on the multibody modelling of spine biomechanics.

During her PhD candidature, Laura developed a simulation pipeline for neuro-musculoskeletal forward-dynamics and inverse-dynamics simulations of the spine for the assessment of functional spinal stability and load-sharing between active and passive soft tissues.

Investigating Team

Marco Branni

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Marco was a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at QUT and has since gained employment with medical start-up company Akunah at our clinical partner, Greenslopes Private Hospital where he continues his research. His research aims at understanding the contribution to support of cortical and trabecular bone structures using high-resolution images of human femurs, microstructural finite-element modelling, and bone loads caused by physical activity.  Before his PhD, he completed his B.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering and M.Sc. in Biomechanics Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy). Marco commenced researching in orthopaedics during his visiting student program at the Université libre de Bruxelles and Ghent University Hospital (Belgium), where he was actively involved in biomechanics projects working with horses, sheep, and human knees specimens. 

AFFILIATE MASTERS STUDENT

Stan Haanen

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Stan embarked on an exciting internship journey at Queensland University of Technology, bringing his expertise from the Technical University of Eindhoven, where he is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. Under the mentorship of A/Prof Saulo Martelli, Stan has joined the research community for joint biomechanics at QUT to further his studies in the field of joint biomechanics.

His research is focused on knee biomechanics. Using MRI and CT data combined with techniques such as finite element modelling (FEM), he aims to simulate the intricate biomechanical behaviour of healthy human knees. These simulations contribute to ongoing efforts to better understand and improve knee function.

AFFILIATE PHD

Miss Yuanyuan Wei

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Yuanyuan is a PhD candidate in the School of Design at the Queensland University of Technology. Her current research focuses on the human-centred design (HCD) framework for the design of wearable devices for home-based rehabilitation of shoulder movement.

She completed the Master of Interaction Design from the University of Queensland and the Master of Fine Arts from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. Her research also spans the areas of Mixed Reality and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).