Focus Areas & Facilities

We have identified the following 4 focus areas:

A) Musculoskeletal Bioengineering
Musculoskeletal Bioengineering covers all engineering sciences that contribute to the understanding of body movements and postures, and the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of musculoskeletal and neuromotor disorders. Major clinical problems being tackled in musculoskeletal bioengineering include spinal disorders, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, bone fractures, foot disorders, etc. We study the etiology of the disorders at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels. We analyze the mechanisms of injuries of these load-bearing musculoskeletal tissues using tissue biomechanics, segmental, and whole body biomechanics. Treatment modalities well supported by bioengineering include all kinds of orthopaedic implants, surgical reconstruction, tissue engineering, biophysical stimulation, etc. In collaboration with clinicians, biomedical engineers innovate, develop, implement, and support strategic interventions at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, person, and community levels. The musculoskeletal system is a primary area of application for biomechanics and biomaterials.

This focus area would be well supported by the facilities in the Research Centre for Musculoskeletal Bioengineering (RCMBE). The RCMBE further comprises 10 laboratories including Bioinstrumentation Laboratory, Biomaterial and Biomechanical Testing Laboratory, Ergonomics Laboratory, Human Locomotion Laboratory, Prosthetics and Orthotics CAD/CAM Laboratory, Seating and Body Support Interface Laboratory, Health Technology Laboratory, Foot and Footwear Research Laboratory, as well as Biomechanics Laboratory.

Coordinator:
Prof. Kwok-sui LEUNG
Chair Professor in Orthopaedics and Traumatology
Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Vice Coordinator:
Prof. Daniel CHOW
Associate Head (Academic)
Department of Health Technology & Informatics
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

B) Medical Devices and Biosensors
Medical devices cover a wide spectrum of clinical purposes. They can diagnose and/or deliver interventions, which can be in the form of a drug or a biophysical stimulation. Among the important components in many medical devices are their biosensors, which quantitatively transduce the biomedical data they collect to often electrical signals for display or to control other device processes for clinical purposes. Biosensors can be electrical, optical, chemical or mechanical in nature; or more often in different combinations. They can be cell-based, namely they do measurements on a cellular level or even on a single cell. They can be molecular based, namely they probe responses at the molecular level. The underpinning science and technology for medical devices and biosensors are understandably wide. As such, this focus area requires multidisciplinary contributions and depending on the devices, collaborations among different expertises in life and engineering sciences.

This focus area would be well supported by the JUCBE facilities, such as our Medical Devices and Biosensors Laboratory, the Molecular and Cellular Engineering Laboratory, plus other supporting facilities in other life science and engineering laboratories at both universities.

Coordinator:
Prof. Y T ZHANG
Professor
Department of Electronic Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Vice Coordinator:
Prof. Alex WAI
Dean
Faculty of Engineering
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

C) Technology for the Elderly and the Disabled
The elderly and people with disability encounter challenges in their daily living. Technology for an elderly person or a person with disability employs engineering devices specially designed to enable the user to overcome specific functional challenges arising from the mismatch between the person’s functional abilities and the environmental demands. Technologies for the elderly and the disabled have significant similarities that they can share similar resources and some common technical foundation. Examples include mobility assistive technologies, communication devices, sensory aids, environmental control systems, and other daily living adaptive devices. This focus area requires contributions from a broad spectrum of engineering, such as computer, electronic, mechanical, materials, etc. This focus area provides many practical hand-on design problems for biomedical engineering students to tackle, with due consideration to the user-machine interface, particularly to the ergonomics of the elderly and the disabled.
This focus area would be well supported by the JUCBE facilities such as our Rehabilitation Engineering Design Laboratories, Biomechanics Laboratories, Medical Devices and Biosensors Laboratory, as well as the Jockey Club Rehabilitation Engineering Center & Clinic.

Coordinator:
Prof. Arthur Mak
Associate Vice President (Academic Development)
Chair Professor and Head
Department of Health Technology & Informatics
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Vice Coordinator:
Prof. Max Meng
Professor
Department of Electronic Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

D) Medical Imaging and Informatics
Modern medicine relies heavily on medical imaging for assessment and diagnostics. It provides the means to view changes inside our bodies without surgery. Medical Imaging is fast expanding, capitalizing on and expanding the capabilities of the existing clinical imaging modalities, such as digital x-ray, computer aided tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, positron emission tomography; and exploring new and emerging imaging approaches, such as optical coherent tomography and other molecular & metabolic imaging techniques. This focus area avails tremendous opportunities to students to apply their knowledge in medical physics, biosignal and image processing and analysis, and computer science to image anatomy and physiology, from the organ level all the way to the molecular level.

Many of these studies could be supported by the imaging and informatics facilities at PolyU and CUHK, including the JUCBE facilities – the Biomedical Ultrasound Facilities and the Medical Imaging Informatics Laboratory. The existing Pictures Archival and Communication System (PACS) infrastructure will be available to this focus area for research, teaching and clinical application.

Coordinator:
Prof. David Feng
Chair Professor of Information Technology
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Vice Coordinator:
Prof. James Griffith
Professor
Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Organ Imaging
The Chinese University of Hong Kong