A mathematical study group in biophysical modelling
On the 17th to 21st June 2024, researchers working in mathematical modelling, computational modelling and engineering came together at The University of Glasgow to spend five intensive days working on three Industry and Clinical problems.
The three problems were presented by :
BREAS Medical Ltd, by Toby Stokes and Michelle Chatwin
Dr Emily Fraser and Mathew Bulpett, Oxford University Hospitals
Dr Ran Wang, University of Manchester.
They wanted solutions to problems with medical device design, how to better diagnose breathing pattern disorder using Structure Light Phlethysmography and how to account for environmental contaminants in exhaled breath samples.
On day 1, the problems were presented and we were lucky enough to have two demonstrations of the medical devices being investigated. The participants chose the challenge they were most interested in tackling and two groups were formed. We were also able to accommodate online participation by using Microsoft Teams to store data, share ideas and make regular video calls with participants and challenge owners.
By day 5, the groups had worked extremely hard together and had tried lots of different avenues to solve the problems presented. They presented the outcomes of their work to the challenge owners who joined us in person and online.
Throughout the week the participants relaxed in the evenings enjoying the culinary offerings of Glasgow, watching the Euros Football in the fan zone in Glasgow city centre and at the local pub for the England game.
Demo of SLP device
Ashley Johnstone, University of Glasgow Children’s Hospital joined us on day one to demo the SLP device. The SLP device is owned by PneumaCare Ltd, a lung imaging company based in Cambridge who supported it’s arrival into Glasgow. Mathew Bulpett, a physiotherapist based at Oxford University Hospitals Trust, is helping participant, Dr Eric Hall have his breathing pattern measured.
Professor Peter Stewart also arranged for the group to visit their VR suite where we each got the opportunity to try out their interactive VR experience of the heart developped by SofTMech researchers. You could slice the heart, watch the heartbeat and muscles contract in a fully immersive way. It was certainly inspirational for our own lung VR experience we are looking to develop.
Demo of the heart VR experience at the ARC-XR suite, University of Glasgow
Our study group participants visited the XR suite to explore the heart in a fully immersive way. The participants found the experience very enjoyable, and it’s great the programme is built on research in the SofTMech group.
The participants will now spend the next couple of months completing a technical report which will be made openly available online.
We thank The SofTMech team for hosting us in Glasgow, Innovate UK Business Connect for supporting this initiative and the participants for their time, effort and enthusiasm. We look forward to supporting onward activity initiated at this event.