The project’s most recent meeting at the end of September 2013 saw the team gather in the beautiful lake district of Jyvaskyla, Finland. Hosted by Professor Ina Tarkka at the University of Jyvaskyla, the teams agenda was extremely busy over the 2 day meeting. Having recently received the results from the online questionnaire, the team were eager to sift through all the data and the input from our 5 key stakeholder groups. Overall, the questionnaire collected just under 500 responses, and the results were very encouraging for the ongoing development of the MSc. More information concerning the results of the online questionnaire will be released very soon.

Building upon the most recent meeting in Maastricht and the results from the online questionnaire, the team focussed on the development of the curriculum for the MSc. Programme competences were matched against the programmes modules and discussions were held between partners on the suitable learning/teaching approaches that would be taken for the programme. Partners split into various working groups as Professor Panos Markopoulos from Eindhoven University of Technology led the curriculum and delivery alignment workshop (see pictures below).

 Overall, the meeting was very productive and the work produced has opened some exciting prospects for the coming year of the project.

Ass. Professor Alessandra Pedrocchi.

MSc Electrical Engineering, Ph.D. Bioengineering

Alessandra Pedrocchi obtained a PhD in Bioengineering in 2001 from the Politecnico di Milano. Since June 2008, she has been an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the Politecnico di Milano where she teaches the MSc in Neuroengineering. Her research activities are carried on at the NearLab in the field of bio-mechanics in motor control, neuroengineering and neurorehabilitation (http://www.nearlab.polimi.it/). She is Project Manager of the MUNDUS project (FP7 ICT-2009.7.2) and the Politecnico investigator for the REALNET project (FP7 Obj ICT-2009.6) and for the Advanced Rehabilitation Technologies MSc project (LLP-1-2012-ERASMUS-EMCR).

Professor Panos Markopoulos.

BSc Electrical engineering and Computer Science, MSc, PhD Human-computer Interaction

Professor Panos Markopoulos studied electrical engineering and computer science in the National Technical University of Athens and human-computer interaction in Queen Mary University of London, where he did his Masters and doctorate. He has held research positions in Queen Mary, and Philips Research in Eindhoven and is currently a Professor in the Department of Industrial Design of the TU/e where he is also director of the graduate school. His interests extend in several areas of the fields of human-computer interaction and interaction design including ambient intelligence, interaction design for children, motivational technologies for behaviour change. Panos Markopoulos is a co-author of over 160 peer reviewed publications; first author of a book on evaluating children’s interactive products, published by Morgan Kaufmann in 2008, and co-editor of several volumes. He is a member of the editorial boards of 4 international journals and chief editor of the newly founded journal on Child Computer Interaction by Elsevier.

More information on Professor Markopoulos can be found here!

Prof Philip Rowe 

BSc Hons Mechanical Engineering (Birmingham), PhD Bioengineering (Strathclyde).

Professor Rowe obtained a BSc Hons in mechanical engineering from the University of Birmingham (1982) followed by a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Strathclyde (1990). For his PhD work he was awarded the European Society of Biomechanics, Clinical Biomechanics award in 1987. Following his PhD in he held various academic appointments at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK. where he pursued his own research and was also responsible for research development within the School of Health Sciences. He re-joined the Bioengineering Unit , Part of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Strathclyde in September 2005 and as part of the HealthQWest research consortium for which he was Head of the Function for Living research programme.

Professor Philip Rowe’s main research areas lie in movement analysis,functional analysis and biomechanics of the human body in motion and the development of technology to support rehabilitation. His research has helped elucidate the clinical outcomes of various musculoskeletal and neurological disorders such as Knee replacement surgery, Hip replacement surgery, Hip fractures, back pain, Hyper-mobility syndrome, Patello-femoral pain syndrome, stroke and aging. He is especially interested in the application of science and engineering methods in patient treatment and also their use to quantify and analyse the clinical effects of rehabilitation services. He is Professor of Rehabilitation Science and is the Inaugural Director of the Scottish Government Health Department funded “Scottish Centre of Excellence in Rehabilitation Research” at Strathclyde.

Dr Hans Savelberg

BSc Human Movement Science, PhD in the kinematics of carpal bones and the role ligaments play in controlling the movements in this complex joint.

Dr Hans Savelberg is associate professor at the department of Human Movement Science at Maastricht University Medical Centre (NUTRIM). His research has been focussed around three topics:

1) Structural, neuromuscular and functional adaptation of muscle to conditioning programs and the effects of manipulated muscle function on human motor performance in activities of daily living.

2) Ambulant analysis of human performance with a focus on upper limb functionality

3) The effect of too much sitting on health.

Dr Savelberg’s research has been supported by grants from ZonMw, the Dutch Diabetes Association (DFN) and Interreg. He is as supervisor involved in six Ph.D.-projects and is the director of studies for bachelor programme Human Movement Science and coordinated the master programme Biology of Human Performance and Health between 2001 and 2011.

Professor Ina M. Tarkka

Professor of Gerontology. PhD.

Professor Ina Tarkka is an international scientific lead in the neuroscience of human motor control and in development of neurological rehabilitation for people with cerebrovascular stroke working out of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Professor Tarkka is an expert in human neurophysiology and neurorehabilitation research. She is also an adjunct professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Eastern Finland. She is experienced in many aspects of stroke, dementias and movement disorders. Her special interests are in functional brain imaging using fMRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation and event-related potentials.

Dr. Mary Gobbi

PhD