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On 23 January, the Division of Science and Technology (DST) held two lectures, which were about cardiovascular disease prediction systems and 3D printing technique on cardiovascular bio-engineering. The guest speakers were Professor Nari Kim and Dr Jungjoo Kim, both from the National Leading Research Laboratory for Innovative Cardiovascular Engineering, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Centre, Inje University, located in Busan, Korea.

Prof Nari Kim and Dr Jungjoo Kim

The first lecture was titled ‘Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis of Carotid Artery Stenosis’ and was given by Prof Nari Kim. The second lecture that followed was an ‘Overview of Cardiovascular 3D Printing’; which was presented by Dr Jungjoo Kim.

Prof Sookja Chung and Prof Nari Kim

Prof Sookja Chung and Dr Jungjoo Kim

General Education Office (GEO) Professor, Prof Sookja Chung, welcomed the guests, and shared her enthusiasm about these topics. Other members of the audience included Dean of DST Prof Stephen Chung and Director of the Innovation Centre Dr Amy Zhang. Students in the computer science department also joined the lecture.

Prof Sookja Chung

Prof Nari Kim discussed about specifically on atherosclerosis, a disease in which the arteries fill up with plaque. She talked about how there are different types of “force” that happens inside the arteries, terms like “shear stress” and “pressure” symbolizes these different forces. With computational fluid dynamics (CFD), she is able to look at an anatomic area of interest, while incorporating the needed variables and conditions, and see the flow of blood. She also mentioned how this “fluid dynamic” can also be applied for calculating aerial dynamics, such as air passing through a jet engine or air affecting a race car.

Dr Jungjoo Kim elaborated on how different machines create different kinds of 3D printing models. The examples that Dr Kim gave included chocolates, shoes, and 3D sheets, such as a replica of someone’s head. However, he specified Bio-3D printing as a certain kind of 3D printing that could help people medically. Bio-3D printing is used to create artificial human organs and tissues using material that is compatible with bio-material. From here, it can be used for cardiovascular application in humans.

Dr Amy Zhang and Prof Stephen Chung

Prof Sookja Chung mentioned after the lectures about how her research included working with stem cells with patients that have Parkinson’s disease. She discussed how the application of stem cells has to be injected through the nose so that the stem cells will go to the correct part of the brain, but to ensure accuracy, they use 3D printing of a head for tests and research.

Gifts being presented to the guest speakers