In the third week of June, the ExcellMater team had the pleasure in organization of a joint event with the PREMUROSA project and welcomed lecturers and doctoral students at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade. More than 60 participants attended the event, which was also available by live streaming. The program can be found here =
The event started with the seminar titled “Regulations and clinical utilization of novel biomaterials”, which gathered along with the ExcellMater project participants, FTM and PREMUROSA doctoral students and professors, guests from the local partner scientific institutions and industry as well as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia. In addition to lectures on regulations for medical devices and applications of biomaterials in clinical practice the seminar also included a tour around FTM laboratories and acquaintance with the groups developing novel biomaterials. The last part of the seminar comprised a poster session at which the FTM and PREMUROSA doctoral students had the opportunity to present their research results and exchange ideas and experiences. High seminar attendance and the raised interest indicated the importance of this topic for the scientific community in Serbia and especially for young researchers in order to enhance translation of the research results to practical medical utilization.
Take a look at the seminar atmosphere:
The PREMUROSA Network school held on June 22-23, comprised the second segment of the event focusing on the area of development and utilization of biomimetic bioreactors. Presentations included an overview of the basic principles of bioreactor design and application in engineering of different tissues as well as some novel trends in development of bioreactors for tissue engineering of articular cartilage and intervertebral discs. This topic was complemented with fundamentals of mathematical modeling and simulation followed by the presentation of nanoindentation principles and demonstration of nanoindenter operation. Lecturers were from FTM and the PREMUROSA project, while, along with the lectures, the school included practical training of the students for sterile work and setting up the bioreactor “3D Perfuse” (Innovation Center of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Belgrade). Check out how all of this looked like and the tweet of Mari Lallukka, one of 13 doctoral students participating in the PREMUROSA project.
The last day of the event was dedicated to the Science Communication Workshop led by Dr Saša Novak from the PREMUROSA partner “Science on the Street” (Znanost na cesti), together with the journalist Petra Prešern. The workshop engaged the students in interactive exercises of presenting their research to different audiences using different communication channels and ended with the “press conference” involving also Kristina Bondžulić, journalist of the Danas daily magazine. The workshop provoked quite a few questions about current views of science from different perspectives, gave insights in understanding and non-understanding of the science language by wider public, presented different ways and extents of science communication, and stimulated lively discussion among participants. It was a very useful but also entertaining and enjoyable experience.
Take a look at the overview of the workshop by Kristina published in the magazine Danas (in Serbian): https://www.danas.rs/vesti/drustvo/opusti-se-i-pricaj-o-nauci-veza-javnosti-i-nauke-vazna-je-za-bolje-drustvo/
In addition to the working program, the ExcellMater team has organized various social activities such as getting together at cafes and the consortium dinner, visit to the Nikola Tesla Museum, guided tour around Belgrade and a special surprise, recreational training of Asian paddling in long boats with Beodragons, the Belgrade Dragon Boat Team (https://beodragons.rs/) at Ada Ciganlija Lake. This event particularly has generated the team spirit and drew together the ExcellMater and PREMUROSA doctoral students.
Take a look at the event at Ada Ciganlija Lake –
The Biomedical Engineering Group FTM had also the opportunity to entertain young guests by simple laboratory experiments. Science is proved again interesting and exciting, while we may have obtained several talented and dedicated future scientists!
At the end of the program, the participants received certificates of attendance but we hope that they attained much more than that, new knowledge and skills but also nice memories from Belgrade and new friendships and professional associations.
Have a look at the event overview at the PREMUROSA website – https://premurosa.eu/news/
