Schlagwort: ‘RWTH Aachen’
‘Colloquium Biomedical Engineering and Related Fields’ – Invitation to the current lecture
The lecture, entitled ‘Mobility in older adults‘, will be moderated by Professor Steffen Leonhardt, Chair holder of the Medical Information Technology (MedIT) at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, on Thursday, 30 January 2025.
Professor Wiebren Zijlstra, Head of the Institute of Movement and Sport Gerontology at the German Sport University Cologne, will deliver a presentation on factors which underly age-related changes in mobility based on experimental laboratory-based studies as well as studies of real-life mobility.
In the abstract that precedes the lecture, Professor Zijlstra outlines the various challenges presented by mobility in daily life, such as finding the way to a target location, while ensuring safe progression by continuously perceiving the environment and adapting locomotion if needed, e.g. in order to avoid potential collisions with obstacles, other pedestrians, or traffic. Such adaptive control of locomotion requires physical and cognitive functions and, even without overt pathological conditions, age-related changes in functioning may cause older persons to show a reduced mobility and an increased fall risk. Mobility limitations are associated with reduced quality-of-life, a plethora of negative health outcomes, and an increased morbidity and mortality. According to Professor Zijlstra, it is important to understand factors that contribute to an age-related reduction in mobility and when possible develop effective interventions.
„Results of recent studies show that physical capacity alone is poor in predicting older adults’ mobility performance in real-life. Other studies show that age-related changes in cognition, especially the so-called executive functions, are associated with a reduced mobility and an increased fall-risk,“ the specialist points out.
Executive functions are crucial for adaptive locomotion, as they enable a person to monitor behaviour in relation to the environment and to adapt behaviour when necessary. By focusing on two key components of executive functions (cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control), this talk will also present recent results from studies that aim to better understand the role of cognitive control during mobility-related tasks.
Despite an abundance of mobility studies and increasing insight in factors that negatively impact on mobility in older persons, it is yet unclear to what degree the combination of these factors predicts real-life mobility, Professor Zijlstra continues in his apstract. Only a limited number of recent studies considered various potential mobility determinants by combining measures from physical, cognitive, and psycho-social functioning.
„These studies showed that real-life mobility cannot yet be predicted very well. Taken together, these findings necessitate more well-focused studies of real-life mobility in various groups of older adults, as well as experimental studies of older adults’ performance of complex mobility tasks which resemble daily life conditions,“ he concludes.
The ‘Colloquium on Biomedical Engineering and Related Areas’ is a regular series of events organised by RWTH Aachen University. The objective of the series is to facilitate interdisciplinary education in these fields and to encourage the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas.
A cordial invitation is extended to all students, clinicians, engineers and scientists to attend this illuminating lecture and engage in discourse with experts in the field of biomedical engineering.
The event will take place from 5 to 5:45 pm at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 20, 52074 Aachen, Germany, seminar room 2.70. It will be coordinated by Prof. Dr. Klaus Radermacher, Chair of Medical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University. For further information please contact the secretariat at meditec@hia.rwth-aachen.de or call +49-(0)241-80 23870.
Otto Junker Prizes 2024
Wolfgang Bleck (on the left), Udo von Berg (on the right) and Ulrich Rüdiger (second from right) extended their congratulations to the award winners Jan Krusenbaum (second from left), Gerrit Ipers (third from left), Daniel Baggen (fourth from left) and Moritz Diewald (third from right). ©Andreas Schmitter
At this year’s Otto Junker Award ceremony, two outstanding young talents, Daniel Baggen and Gerrit Ipers, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, were honoured for their outstanding academic achievements.
Daniel Baggen, born in Aachen in 2000, commenced the Bachelor’s degree programme in Electrical Engineering, Information Technology and Computer Engineering at RWTH Aachen University following the completion of his Abitur at Städtisches Gymnasium Herzogenrath. He completed his Master’s degree with a thesis on “the design and commissioning of a highly integrated DC-DC converter for the production of green hydrogen” at the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives under the supervision of Professor Rik W. De Doncker. Since November 2023, Baggen has been working as a doctoral student in the field of power electronics.
Gerrit Ipers, aged 27, was born in Viersen. Subsequent to his graduation from the Liebfrauenschule Mülhausen in Grefrath, he first completed a Bachelor’s and thereafter a Master’s degree in industrial engineering, with a specialisation in electrical power engineering, at the RWTH Aachen University. He authored his master’s thesis, entitled “Rapid Prediction of Electro-Chemo-Mechanical Degradation of Li-Ion Batteries for End-of-Life Options”, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. Prior to this, he completed the T.I.M.E. double master’s programme at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He was supervised by Professor Dirk Uwe Sauer, also from the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives at RWTH Aachen University. Since May 2023, Ipers has been employed as a technical project manager at a Swedish automotive supplier.
Moritz Diewald, from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering, impressed the jury with his Master’s thesis, in which he investigated sub-stoichiometric combustion as part of multi-stage flameless oxidation, using both numerical and experimental techniques. In the same department, Jan Krusenbaum was honoured for his Master’s thesis entitled “Thermal conditioning of Li-ion battery shredders as part of a novel recycling process: Effects of the process gas atmosphere and other determinants on the recovery of the critical element lithium”.
The awards were bestowed at a celebratory ceremony. Udo von Berg, Chairman of the Otto Junker Foundation, and Ulrich Rüdiger, Rector of RWTH Aachen University, presented the awards. Professor Wolfgang Bleck, who holds the title of Professor Emeritus and serves as Chairman of the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board, extended congratulations on the occasion.
The awards, which are named in honour of the foundation’s founder, Dr. Otto Junker, are bestowed annually upon the most distinguished graduates of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and the Materials Science and Engineering Group, which is part of the Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering. The foundation, which was established in 1970, is dedicated to the advancement of young scientists and provides substantial support for a multitude of individual research projects.
The exceptional accomplishments of these four graduates not only exemplify their individual excellence but also reflect positively on RWTH Aachen University as an institution of higher educations that nurtures outstanding individuals. We would like to extend our sincerest congratulations to Daniel Baggen, Gerrit Ipers, Moritz Diewald and Jan Krusenbaum on this well-deserved recognition. We wish them continued success in their promising careers.
New lecture in the series ‘Colloquium Biomedical Engineering and Related Fields’
© Andreas Endermann
Professor Steffen Leonhardt, holder of the Chair of Medical Information Technology (MedIT) at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, will moderate the new lecture: ‘Continuous In-Vehicle Health Monitoring Enabled with Multimodal Signal Fusion’ on 11 July 2024.
We are delighted to welcome Dr Joana M. Warnecke from the Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics at the Technical University of Braunschweig and the Hannover Medical School. Dr Warnecke will present her pioneering research into continuous health monitoring in vehicles. Her work focuses on the development of a redundant sensor system that enables reliable measurement of heartbeat and respiration rate. These systems use a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based architecture for data fusion and take into account additional sensors such as steering wheel angle and acceleration to improve signal quality.
“Our findings indicate that over half of the driving time can be utilized for in-vehicle heartbeat and respiratory rate monitoring, highlighting the efficiency and practicality of the proposed approach,”
states Warnecke.
This technology could make a significant contribution to the early detection of cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases by being seamlessly integrated into everyday life.
The ‘Colloquium on Biomedical Engineering and Related Areas’ is a regular series of events organised by RWTH Aachen University. The aim of the series is to provide an interdisciplinary education in these fields and to promote the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas. All students, clinicians, engineers and scientists are invited to attend this exciting lecture and exchange ideas with experts in the field of biomedical engineering.
The event will take place from 5 to 5:45 pm at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 20, 52074 Aachen, Germany, seminar room 2.70. It will be coordinated by Prof. Dr. Klaus Radermacher, Chair of Medical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University. For further information please contact the secretariat at meditec@hia.rwth-aachen.de or call +49-(0)241-80 23870.
