Sharjah, Feb 22nd, 2011 (WAM)--His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, Supreme Council Member, Ruler of Sharjah and President of American University of Sharjah (AUS), opened at the AUS Main Auditorium today, the first Middle East Conference on Biomedical Engineering 2011 (MECBME11).
The opening ceremony was also attended by Sheikh Mohammad Bin Saqr Al Qassimi, Director of the Sharjah Medical District; Sheikh Salem Bin Abdulrahman Bin Salem Al Qassimi, Director of the Office of High Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdullah Al Thani, Director of the Office of the AUS President; Dr. Obaid Saif Obaid Al Hajiri, Chairman of the Sharjah Consultative Council; Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qatami, Minister of Education, Major General Humaid Mohammad Al Hudidi, Director General of the Sharjah Police; Brigadier General Ali Saeed Bin Sahouh, Director of the General Directorate of the Residency and Foreigners Affairs and Dr. Amr Abdelhamid, the Adviser to High Highness the Ruler of Sharjah for Higher Education. Also present were Dr. Peter Heath, AUS Chancellor; Dr. Thomas Hochstettler, the AUS Provost; Mr. Salem Yousef Al Qaseer, Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs, Dr. Moza Al Shihhi, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; George DeBin, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration; Ali Shuhaimy, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management; Dr. Yousef Al Assaf, Dean of the College of Engineering, other senior AUS Officials, faculty, staff, students and visitors. Organized under the theme "Connecting Professionals in Biomedical Sciences and Technology," the conference will run through Thursday, February 24. The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for academics, scientists and engineers engaged in research and development to assemble and present their latest scholarly work as well as applications in the field of biomedical engineering. Dr. Heath in his opening remarks thanked the Ruler of Sharjah for his continuous support and welcomed the audience and the participants who travelled all the way to attend the conference and invited them to see how magnificent AUS is. He also said, "I know the field is faced with some technical challenges and as you venture through your research you will also be faced with ethical problems. But we at AUS are glad that we can host this first Middle East Conference on Biomedical Engineering, through which we can find solutions to these issues." Chancellor Heath also said that we were standing at the brink of amazing discoveries "because engineering solves problems and collaboration between engineers and biologists will take us to the next level as far as our understanding of human life is concerned." Dr. Heath also expressed satisfaction over having participants from the private sector, "for they are the ones who will take these scientific discoveries and turn them into useful applications for our benefit,". In his remarks, Dr. Hasan Al-Nashash, Professor of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at AUS, who is also serving as conference chair, said, "Biomedical engineering is one of the fastest growing scientific fields. This conference provides a platform for key players in biomedical engineering-both from industry and academia to present their latest scholarly work and applications, and enhance collaboration." Following the opening ceremony, Dr. Nitish V. Thakor from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine delivered his keynote presentation, entitled "Revolutionizing Prosthesis through Brain Machine Interface." He told the conference that prosthetics, particularly upper limb prosthesis, have seen revolutionary advances in the past five years. Through a significant investment in research, prosthetics technology has advanced greatly and multi-fingered dexterous hands have now been developed. "As impressive as this technology is, the challenge still remains on how to provide intuitive human- like control," Dr. Thakor said. The conference will feature four keynote speakers, 21 regular technical sessions, industrial panels, tutorials and seminars. All sessions will take place in the main building of AUS.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2011.
