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• Tam Nguyen (PhD student): teaching biomechanics in Cambodia
• Australia joins great walking race
• Biomechanics expert launches joint movement research study
• Melbourne moves up key world university ranking

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Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Bio21 Australia Ltd seeks researchers in biomedical fields interested in offering casual positions to undergraduate students through the UROP scheme.

To gain experience in "real-life" research, students are employed by the host laboratory full-time during part of the long vacation and for 8 hours per week during semester.

The closing date for expressions of interest is Friday 29 September.

Students will be available to commence placements during the summer recess.
Bio21Australia Ltd co-ordinates recruitment and student selection. 
Funds are not available from Bio21 to support student positions.

For more information and application forms:

call 8344 2199 or email Elizabeth Johnson or Leonie Cullen

More information at: www.bio21.com.au/education.asp

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Australia joins great walking race

Geoff Maslen: The Age

From hip joints to missions to Mars, University of Melbourne research probing the musculoskeletal system may have far-reaching uses.

About the time of our first birthday, we take our first tentative steps and soon after walking becomes as natural as breathing. But believe it or not, says Professor Marcus Pandy, no one knows what our leg muscles actually do when we walk.

"We have no way of measuring the forces exerted by the muscles," he says. "We can't cut people's legs open and insert transducers on their tendons, so we've developed a computer model to evaluate how the muscles function."

The development of computerised models of the human skeleton and muscles using medical imaging data and movement analysis underlies new multi-disciplinary research being undertaken at centres around the world.

Professor Pandy, who joined the University of Melbourne's Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering last September, says the conventional way of measuring how people walk uses video cameras, but this is not accurate enough.

"I've been developing computer models of the body for 15 years and we now have a fairly sophisticated model that simulates people walking," he says. "We will be setting up a fluoroscopy system here that will use X-rays to non-invasively look through the skin and view the way bones move as people walk. This will enable us to monitor, with accuracy, the position of the bones in vivo."

Sub-millimetre accuracy is needed to appreciate the interactions between bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles around the knee joint, Professor Pandy says. Computer models that do this can help bioengineers and medical specialists better understand joint injuries and conditions such as osteoarthritis, where the protective cartilage around connecting joints wastes away. more

source: The Age

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Biomechanics expert launches joint movement research study

March 2005

Understanding why older people trip, what happens to the neck in whiplash, and how the design of knee and shoulder joint replacements can be improved, are among the goals of a new University of Melbourne biomechanics research program.

International biomechanics expert, Professor Marcus Pandy, who recently joined the University's Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, will spearhead an interdisciplinary research project aimed at developing improved diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders.

Professor Pandy, formerly at the University of Texas at Austin, says the main focus of the research is to develop computerised models of the human skeleton and muscles from medical image data and movement analysis. more

source: UniNews

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Melbourne moves up key world university ranking

The University of Melbourne has again been ranked among the 100 top universities in the world in the prominent Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s (SJTU) Academic Rankings of World Universities 2006.

The SJTU has ranked Melbourne at a clear No 78 – jumping from No 82 in 2005. Melbourne has been steadily moving up the rankings since it first appeared in the SJTU rankings in 2003 at No 92.

Melbourne and ANU are the only two Australian universities in the top 100. Harvard, Cambridge and Stanford have again taken the top three places. Melbourne was also ranked seventh in the Asia Pacific region with Tokyo University in top spot.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis welcomes Melbourne’s improved position in the SJTU rankings. “Melbourne aims to be one of the finest universities in the world. Our consistently improving position in such international rankings confirms we are on the way to realising this.”

Professor Davis says the challenge for under-resourced Australian universities is how to compete in such rankings with the well-resourced American, and even some Asian, universities. “The public and private resources available to these universities will ensure they consistently top the international ranking for many years to come,” he warns.

“Melbourne is taking up this challenge through its new Growing Esteem strategy, a key objective of which is to strengthen the University’s international academic and research reputation.”

SJTU’s rankings measure a range of factors such as the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly-cited researchers and articles in Science and Nature and citations indexes, and academic performance in relation to the size of the university.

source: UniNews