it is a pleasure for me to offer you the first issue of the SEMI newsletter. With biannual periodicity, we intend this newsletter to be a means to bring the activities of our society to the members and sympathizers, both Spanish and international. The newsletter will be written in English, given the large number of sympathisers we have in the IACM community, and the growing number of researchers in training who, with foreign origin, are doing their doctoral thesis in the field of computational mechanics and engineering in our country.
In this first issue, the newsletter includes a summary of the congress on Numerical Methods in Engineering, held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in September 2022. The conference was a success and I would like to thank David Greiner and the whole group from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for their organisational work.
On the other hand, the newsletter includes a summary of the activities carried out by the SEMNI Young Researchers section. Our young people form a very dynamic community and I would like to thank them for all the work done to bring SEMNI closer to our younger members.
Finally, the newsletter includes a contribution from Dr. Iulen Cabeza, the last SEMNI prize winner for the best thesis of 2022. Dr Cabeza’s work deals with the modernisation of the behaviour of the human cornea. I am sure you will enjoy the application of computational mechanics to such a fascinating field.
I hope you enjoy the newsletter. We are open to publish collaborations from our members that serve to bring the activity of our community closer to the rest of our members and supporters. Do not hesitate to send us your contributions.
Best regards and best wishes for a well-deserved rest during the summer holidays, which are just around the corner.
The Congress of Numerical Methods in Engineering (CMN-2022) (https://congress.cimne.com/cmn2022/) of the Spanish Society of Computational Mechanics and Computational Engineering (SEMNI) and the Portuguese Association of Theoretical, Applied and Computational Mechanics (APMTAC), was held from September 12 to 14, 2022, at the Palacio de Congresos de Canarias – Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, organized by the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Numerical Applications in Engineering (SIANI) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Civil Engineering and the School of Industrial and Civil Engineering (EIIC), of the ULPGC.
On Monday, September 12 at 2:00 p.m., its inauguration took place in the chamber room, with the presidency of the Rector of ULPGC, Luis Serra Majem, the President of APMTAC, José César de Sá, the President of SEMNI, Elías Cueto, the local representative of APMTAC, Gil Andrade Santos, and the Chairman of the organizing committee, David Greiner.
Inauguration of the Congress of Numerical Methods in Engineering (CMN-2022).
The CMN Congresses of the Spanish society began to be organized by SEMNI (then called Spanish Society of Numerical Methods in Engineering) also in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1990), followed by editions in La Coruña (1993), Zaragoza (1996), and Sevilla (1999). Afterwards, the conference follows a joint biennial organization with APMTAC in Madrid (2002), Lisbon (2004), Granada (2005), Porto (2007), Barcelona (2009), Coimbra (2011), Bilbao (2013), Lisbon (2015), Valencia (2017) and Guimarães (2019). This CMN-2022 edition has been held one year later than the initially scheduled date (2021) due to the incidence of the Covid-19 pandemic, this being the first CMN Congress after the change of name of the Spanish Society, although its acronym SEMNI remains the same.
In this congress there were six Plenary Speakers: Karen Willcox (University of Texas at Austin, USA), Antonio Huerta (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain), Carlos Pina (National Laboratory of Civil Engineering LNEC, Portugal), Renato Natal (University of Porto, Portugal), Paulo Flores (University of Minho, Portugal) and Ricardo Vinuesa (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden); a Session in Tribute to the former president of SEMNI Manuel Casteleiro, and a Session to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of Jacques Periaux (first president of the ECCOMAS society). The participants in the congress were able to present their research papers in twelve proposed thematic sessions and a general program distributed in four parallel sessions, covering the main areas of computational mechanics and computational engineering, with a total of more than 150 contributions accepted after scientific peer review (coming from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Chile, the United States, Canada and Australia). The book of proceedings is available on the website of the CMN-2022 congress for download, including both the accepted abstracts and full papers.
In addition, during the CMN-2022, other complementary activities were held, among which the following stand out: a) Science-Chat, on the terrace of the Las Arenas Shopping Center, adjacent to the congress, on Tuesday afternoon; b) Career Forum, during lunch on Wednesday, where Juan José Ródenas, David Pardo, Emilio Martínez-Pañeda and Matteo Giacomini acted as mentors; c) a Tutorial / Short Course of «Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and its application in Computational Fluid Dynamics», taught by Ricardo Vinuesa; d) a round table on «European and National Research Funding: Projects and Human Resources», moderated by Irene Arias, with the participation of Juan Alberto Corbera and Aridane González, respectively, director of research human resources, and director of research and technological development, both attached to the Vicerrectorate for Research and Transfer of the ULPGC, and the success cases of ERC Starting Grants: Marcos Latorre (Polytechnic University of Valencia) and Irene Arias (Polytechnic University of Catalonia); and, e) meetings of the executive committees, and of the annual assemblies of the SEMNI and APMTAC societies. The social program included a visit to the «Casa de Colón» Museum of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, located in the historic neighborhood of Vegueta, next to Plaza de Santa Ana and the Cathedral of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, prior to the Congress Gala Dinner. During it, the 2021 and 2022 research prizes of the SEMNI and APMTAC societies were awarded.
Finally, it is necessary to thank everyone, the invited speakers, the members of the organizing committee, scientific committee and local organizing committee, the reviewers of the abstracts and papers, the organizers and chairs of the sessions, the awardees, the speakers and attendees, as well as the technical secretariat of CIMNE congresses, and the staff of the Palacio de Congresos de Canarias – Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, for their participation in this Canarian edition of CMN-2022. In it we lived and enjoyed magnificent days, also accompanied by good weather and atmosphere, both meteorological, scientific and human.
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A Numerical Exploration of the Crystalline Lens: from Presbyopia to Cataracts and Intraocular Lenses
Dr. Cabeza-Gil developed various computational methodologies to aid in the treatment of cataracts and enhance our understanding of presbyopia, the two most common eye conditions which are associated with the aging of the crystalline lens.
Presbyopia is a condition that makes it difficult to focus on nearby objects and typically begins around the age of 45, with a prevalence of 100% after the age of 55 1,2. Currently, an estimated 2 billion people worldwide suffer from presbyopia. It is not a medical emergency, but it is a condition that greatly affects people’s quality of life, including reading, computer tasks, etc. On the other hand, cataract surgery is the most frequent surgical procedure performed in developed countries, with 95 million operations annually 3. Cataracts refer to the clouding or loss of transparency of the eye’s natural lens, which is typically replaced during cataract surgery with an artificial intraocular lens.
A better understanding of presbyopia
Dr. Cabeza-Gil developed computational models using the finite element method to better understand the accommodation mechanism (Fig. 1) and conducted ex vivo studies to comprehend the loss of near-focus ability associated with presbyopia. These models, compared with experimental data, allowed the researchers to gain a better understanding of how the crystalline lens changes shape based on its mechanical properties 4,5. For example, the researchers verified that the main cause of presbyopia is the stiffening of the crystalline lens nucleus. They also modeled the active behavior of the ciliary muscle, which is responsible for the accommodative system (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1: Outline of the mechanism of accommodation involving the main elements (lens, zonules and ciliary muscle) in the unaccommodated (left) and accommodated (right) state. The far sight is the unaccommodated state whilst the accommodated state is used to near vision tasks.
The influence of the ciliary muscle on presbyopia is still unresolved. To address this question, Dr. Cabeza-Gil conducted research at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (University of Miami, US), where he worked with one of the most powerful groups in the field of presbyopia and obtained more in vivo data about the ciliary muscle. His initial studies suggest that the ciliary muscle continues to function in presbyopic subjects, and that the primary cause of presbyopia is the crystalline lens, as seen in numerical studies. Thanks to the automatic biomedical image segmentation methodologies developed by Dr. Cabeza-Gil in the group 6, large-scale studies could be conducted to determine whether changes resulting from other ocular anatomies, such as the ciliary muscle or sclera, affect presbyopia.
Fig. 2: 3D finite element (FE) model of the accommodative system: lens, zonules, ciliary muscle, iris, sclera and cornea. The arrangement and orientation of the ciliary muscle fibres, longitudinal (yellow), radial (orange) and circumferential (red), is shown on the right.
Towards Personalizing Intraocular Lens Implants in Cataract Surgery
During cataract surgery, an intraocular lens (IOL) is implanted inside the eye to perform the functions of the healthy crystalline lens. The patient’s final visual quality depends on the implanted optical design and the mechanical stability of the IOL inside the capsular bag (Fig. 3a). Small geometric variations can alter optical quality. Dr. Cabeza-Gil developed various computational methodologies experimentally validated to aid in the IOL design process 7. The IOLs must pass various ISO standards tests, including being compressed between two clamps and measuring their biomechanical markers, which are related to the optical performance. Dr. Cabeza-Gil developed a validated finite element model to perform this test (Fig. 3b), which made IOLs safer and enabled manufacturers to check whether their designs behave correctly. Based on this finite element model data, Dr. Cabeza-Gil developed methodologies based on the method design of experiments and deep learning to customize the haptic design based on a patient’s characteristics 8,9. Therefore, given a patient’s characteristics, the IOL with the best mechanical performance could be implanted within the capsular bag.
During his thesis, Iulen also managed to simulate and compare the behavior of the IOL within the capsular bag with experimental data (Fig. 3c) 10. By combining both models and methodologies, they make a very effective and robust tool to be used in improving the efficiency of cataract surgery. These methodologies could, for example, be combined with clinical efficiency-enhancing tools such as SMARTCataract (Alcon, Switzerland) to further improve this surgery. Currently, these implants do not restore the accommodative ability of the eye, but new implants are being developed that require the use of the precise technology developed during Dr. Cabeza-Gil’s thesis to ensure the effectiveness of the surgery.
We hope that you have enjoyed this newsletter on the research conducted by Dr. Iulen Cabeza Gil and his team. Stay tuned for more updates on this fascinating topic!
Fig. 3: (a) Illustrative image of the IOL inside the eye. (b) simulated IOL during the ISO 11979 test. (c) simulated IOL inside the capsular bag.
References
1. Berdahl J, Bala C, Dhariwal M, Lemp-Hull J, Thakker D, Jawla S. Patient and Economic Burden of Presbyopia: A Systematic Literature Review. Clinical Ophthalmology. 2020;Volume 14. doi:10.2147/opth.s269597
2. Fricke TR, Tahhan N, Resnikoff S, et al. Global Prevalence of Presbyopia and Vision Impairment from Uncorrected Presbyopia: Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Modelling. Ophthalmology. 2018;125(10). doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2018.04.013
3. Liu YC, Wilkins M, Kim T, Malyugin B, Mehta JS. Cataracts. The Lancet. 2017;390(10094). doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30544-5
4. Cabeza-Gil I, Grasa J, Calvo B. A validated finite element model to reproduce Helmholtz’s theory of accommodation: a powerful tool to investigate presbyopia. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics. Published online 2021. doi:10.1111/opo.12876
5. Cabeza-Gil I, Grasa J, Calvo B. A numerical investigation of changes in lens shape during accommodation. Sci Rep. 2021;11(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-021-89145-z
6. Cabeza-Gil I, Ruggeri M, Chang YC, Calvo B, Manns F. Automated segmentation of the ciliary muscle in OCT images using fully convolutional networks. Biomed Opt Express. 2022;13(5). doi:10.1364/boe.455661
7. Cabeza-Gil I, Pérez-Gracia J, Remón L, Calvo B. Effect of haptic geometry in C-loop intraocular lenses on optical quality. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2021;114:104165. doi:10.1016/j.jmbbm.2020.104165
8. Cabeza-Gil I, Ríos-Ruiz I, Calvo B. Customised Selection of the Haptic Design in C-Loop Intraocular Lenses Based on Deep Learning. Ann Biomed Eng. Published online October 2020. doi:10.1007/s10439-020-02636-4
9. Cabeza-Gil I, Ariza-Gracia MÁ, Remón L, Calvo B. Systematic Study on the Biomechanical Stability of C-Loop Intraocular Lenses: Approach to an Optimal Design of the Haptics. Ann Biomed Eng. 2020;48(4). doi:10.1007/s10439-019-02432-9
10. Cabeza-Gil I, Calvo B. Predicting the biomechanical stability of IOLs inside the postcataract capsular bag with a finite element model. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2022;221:86-94. doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2022.106
https://semni.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Imagen-7.png6002129ecuetohttps://semni.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/SEMNI.jpgecueto2023-07-01 13:02:172023-07-01 13:03:33SEMNI 2022 best thesis award: Dr. Iulen Cabeza
Sometime before the successful CMN2022 congress held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the current president, prof. Elías Cueto, requested that we form a small group of young people belonging to SEMNI to support the realization of recreational-scientific activities in said congress. From that call we created a group made up of Alba Muixí, Rafel Perelló, Beatriz Moya, José Manuel Navarro and Enrique Nadal.
In the CMN2022 congress, different activities were organized such as:
• Scientific course: «Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and its application to Computational Fluid Dynamics». Speaker: Ricardo Vinuesa.
• Round table: “European and National Funding: Projects and Human Resources (with success Cases)”. Where the financing possibilities and two European financing success stories were described: Marcos Latorre and Irene Arias.
• Career Forum. Where some mentors told their personal experience to the young SEMNI researchers
• Science Chat where José Manuel and Beatriz talked with Jacobo Ayensa about artificial intelligence. Finally, the audience was challenged to solve a scientific quiz.
We want to take this opportunity to thank all the collaborators who contributed to the success of these activities!! THANK YOU!!
Weare proud to say that this first challenge was faced successfully, and as a result we have been «forced» to formalize the young researchers section of SEMNI, yes, with enthusiasm. We are currently immersed in the process of drawing up a series of rules and statutes to make it official into SEMNI and to establish an election process for the young researchers section among SEMNI members. There is still work to do!!
The objectives that we have in mind are focused on attracting and retaining new and young researchers to SEMNI through recreational-scientific activities, providing useful information for young people, creating groups and networks among the youngest and, why not, organizing conferences and/or scientific congresses focused on the youngest (or those who feel young) at SEMNI, in addition to establishing ties with other sections of young European researchers.
We are aware that there is a long way to go, but we are going to face it with great desire and enthusiasm!
All the best,
Section of young researchers of SEMNI
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The 9th International Conference on Self-Healing Materials (ICSHM2024) will take place from June 24th to June 26th 2024 in Madrid. The 9th ICSHM continues the long-standing tradition of this biennial conference focused on advances in self-healing material science, engineering and technological applications. Since its first edition (Noordwijk, NL – 2007) and followed by 7 successful ICSHM events organized by leaders in the field (Chicago, USA – 2009; Bath, UK – 2011; Ghent, Belgium – 2013; Durham, USA – 2015; Friedrichshafen, Germany – 2017; Yokohama, Japan – 2019 and Milan, Italy – 2022) the mission of this well-stablished conference remains unchanged.
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Nos complace anunciaros que el próximo día 5 de junio de 2023 le será entregada la Medalla al Mérito Profesional del Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos al prof. José María Goicolea, de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
El profesor Goicolea es un destacado miembro de nuestra comunidad, habiendo sido vicepresidente de la misma hasta el año 2016.
Nuestra más sincera enhorabuena por este galardón.
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prof. Riccardo Rossi is sending us three job openings within the GECKO project. Please circulate them among potentially interested people: https://gecko.cimne.com/job-openings/
Best regards.
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me es muy grato anunciaros los premios SEMNI 2023, que fueron acordados por la Comisión Ejecutiva de nuestra Sociedad en su sesión extraordinaria celebrada ayer, 10 de marzo.
Por lo que se refiere al Premio a la mejor tesis defendida en 2022, la comisión para la selección del premio ha estado formada por: – Marcos Latorre (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia) – María José Gómez (Universidad de Zaragoza) – Emilio Martínez-Paneda (Imperial College) – Héctor Gómez (Purdue University) – Joan Baiges (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, presidente, actuando en representación de la Comisión Ejecutiva)
En primer lugar, los miembros de la comisión quieren expresar la muy alta calidad de las tesis presentadas, todas ellas con importantes contribuciones científicas y numerosas publicaciones en revistas internacionales de reconocido prestigio. La tesis seleccionada para el premio SEMNI 2022 ha sido «A Numerical Exploration of the Crystalline Lens: from Presbyopia to Cataracts and Intraocular Lenses», por Iulen Cabeza Gil y dirigida por Begoña Calvo Calzada, de la Universidad de Zaragoza. La tesis realiza un estudio exhaustivo de los fenómenos que rigen el funcionamiento del cristalino y las causas de la aparición de la presbicia. El trabajo incluye también el análisis numérico detallado de la estabilidad de las lentes intraoculares, utilizando modelos constitutivos complejos, y validados mediante técnicas experimentales. Por último se desarrollan también metodologías de Deep Learning para la síntesis de los resultados y su uso en la práctica clínica en tiempo real. La comisión ha valorado la contribución de la tesis a la comprensión de los fenómenos estudiados, la calidad de los trabajos científicos publicados en revistas internacionales, así como la variedad de técnicas numéricas y experimentales utilizadas para la realización de los mismos, y la relevancia de los trabajos en el campo biomédico.
Por lo que se refiere al Premio Juan Carlos Simó a Jóvenes Investigadores 2023, la comisión estuvo formada por
Fehmi Cirak (Cambridge University)
Jean François Molinari (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
Anna Pandolfi (Politecnico di Milano)
Zhenjun Yang (Wuhan University)
Irene Arias (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), presidenta, actuando en representación de la Comisión Ejecutiva
La comisión destaca el elevado nivel científico de los candidatos en el ámbito de la mecánica e ingeniería computacionales, que son un orgullo para SEMNI y una muestra del potencial de nuestra Sociedad.
Tras poner en común las valoraciones relativas a cada uno de los candidatos, la comisión propone a Rogelio Ortigosa como ganador del Premio Juan Carlos Simó 2023. Se ha valorado la trayectoria sólida y coherente de este joven investigador, que presenta una notable producción científica en el campo de materiales electroactivos, incluyendo contribuciones significativas en aspectos tan variados como los fundamentos teóricos y matemáticos de los modelos materiales en grandes deformaciones, el desarrollo de algoritmos numéricos y su aplicación al diseño, optimización y control de dichos sistemas.
Por último, por lo que se refiere al Premio SEMNI O. C. Zienkiewicz, la más alta distinción que otorga SEMNI, la Comisión Ejecutiva en pleno decidió otorgarlo al prof. Xavier Oliver, destacando en él su altísimo nivel científico, que le ha llevado a ser una figura a nivel internacional en nuestro ámbito, pero también, y de forma destacada, por su papel como mentor de nuevas generaciones de investigadores del más alto nivel y por su servicio continuado a nuestra Sociedad, de la que ha sido presidente.
Quiero transmitir a todos ellos mi más sincera enhorabuena y mi ánimo para enfrentar futuros retos.
Dear colleague,The State Research Agency (AEI) has published the call for PhD contracts to be performed at Severo Ochoa Excellence Research Centers or within the research projects funded in the call of 2022. The application period will be open from Jan 12th, 2023 to Jan 26th, 2023 at 14:00h CET. All applications must be submitted through the submission service.
The program is open to students of any nationality.
Contracts will be 4-year long and those PhD Students that defend their thesis before that period will be issued a postdoctoral contract up to the end of the 4-years grant. This grant can also fund the doctoral course tuition fees and predoctoral mobility (up to 6,860€ in total).
Incorporation in Sept 2023 or Sept 2024. The BCAM PhD contract will start when the selected candidate has finished the Master’s program.
Una vez completadas las votaciones de la segunda vuelta de desempate se han contabilizado 46 votos válidos.
El escrutinio ha quedado como sigue:
Juan José Ródenas 19 votos
Esteban Ferrer 16 votos
Riccardo Rossi 10 votos
y una abstención.
Por tanto, resultan elegidos para ocupar los 6 puestos de la Comisión Ejecutiva Elías Cueto, Pedro Díez, Rena Chengxiang Yu, Francisco Javier Montáns, José París y Juan José Ródenas.
Muchas gracias a todos por vuestra participación. Aprovecho la ocasión para desearos muy felices fiestas.
Un abrazo,
Irene Arias
Secretaria General de SEMNI
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