The Biomedical Electronics Foundation supports the Orange Trophy in its action for Dance4Life and Miep and Christy of Team DrivingCrazy
in particular. On May 3, 2012, Miep (at left) received the donation
from Wouter (at right) and fixed two stickers of the Biomedical
Electronics Foundation on both sides of the car.
Posted in General
Iris Sommer, Professor in psychiatry at the UMC Utrecht describes in a video at www.volkskrant.nl/akademie a schizophrenic man who told her about the terrible voices in his head. To figure out what happened in his brain during these hallucinations, she made several MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans. It turned out that in patients with hallucinations also the language areas in the right half of the brain become active. In healthy people usually only those areas in the left half of the brain are active.
She further explains that these areas and the voices in the head can be influenced in a variety of ways, e.g., by means of TMS, transcranial (through-the-skull) magnetic stimulation. Unfortunately, TMS is not always effective and psychiatrists are on the lookout for alternatives.
I would say that this is another area where neurostimulation can come to the rescue. In the (often successful) treatment of tinnitus, patients are first exposed to TMS to check whether neurostimulation, in this case, electrical stimulation of the auditory cortex, can possibly be an effective treatment for them. Once indeed the level/severity of tinnitus can be influenced by TMS, neurostimulation becomes a logical next step for permanent treatment of the tinnitus.
Now it is just a matter of convincing the other voices in my head that this is indeed the right way…
Wouter
Exactly 364 days ago, we had the second edition of the ELCA festival, the annual music and cultural festival hosted by the ELCA group, with a rather large participation of the members of the Biomedical Electronics group. Soon thereafter, as witnessed by browsing back in time on this weblog, the first pictures appeared on the weblog, and a little later even the BME YouTube channel was created.
8 days ago, the 3rd edition of the ELCA festival took place in a fully booked /Pub. If you’d ask me, this was the best edition ever, especially due to the enthusiastic response from the audience. However, where are the pictures and where are the additions to the YouTube BME Channel? I had a couple of Alumni asking for it and all they got was this lousy paragraph, so far.
So, guys and gals of the BME group, hold your horses, stop staring at that Cadence screen for a while and bring the world something to remember. We need another pint of MOSFET song, Gambatte Ne, Price Tag, Chinese Song, AC/DC. We need you now.
Wouter
My best guess is that the following presentation will be in Dutch.
Unfortunately, they forgot to invite us to participate in the presentation, as we are the only groep in the Netherlands that actually does research on Chips for the Brain.
Wouter
—
CHIPS VOOR HET BREIN
Op vertoon van je studentenpas is de toegang gratis.
Volledig verlamd en gezond van verstand, je hersenen zijn intact maar
je kunt niet communiceren. En niemand die je kan helpen.
Neurowetenschapper Nick Ramsey heeft een plan, hij werkt met zijn team
aan een miniatuur computer die direct met de hersenen in verbinding
staat. Hij wil die neuroprothese gaan implanteren bij verlamden zodat ze
kunnen twitteren, en apparaten kunnen aanzetten met alleen hun
gedachten. Tijdens de NIHC-publiekslezing geeft Ramsey de belofte van
hersenimplantaten prijs. Hij is er klaar voor, bent u dat ook?
Nick Ramsey is als hoogleraar cognitieve psychologie verbonden aan
het Rudolf Magnus Instituut en aan de afdeling neurochirurgie van het
Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht. Hij brengt de specifieke
hersenfuncties in kaart. In 2006 ontving hij voor zijn onderzoek een
prestigieuze ‘Vici-subsidie’ ter grootte van 1,25 miljoen Euro. Sinds
2009 is hij coördinator van de onderzoekspijler Gezondheid van het
NIHC-onderzoeksprogramma Hersenen en Cognitie: Maatschappelijke
Innovatie.
Over NIHC
Het Nationaal Initiatief Hersenen en
Cognitie (NIHC) is een regieorgaan waarbinnen onder anderen
taalwetenschappers, ICT-ers, psychiaters, neurologen, biologen,
psychologen en pedagogen samen wetenschappelijk onderzoek doen naar de
hersenen en hun invloed op menselijk gedrag en de maatschappij. Het NIHC
streeft naar excellent onderzoek voor een beter begrip van hersenen en
gedrag, maar ook naar toepassing van die onderzoeksresultaten binnen
concrete maatschappelijke vraagstukken. Het Nationaal Initiatief wordt
ondersteund en gecoördineerd door de Nederlandse Organisatie voor
Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO). Meer over NIHC op
www.hersenenencognitie.nl.
In a previous post I reported about the recently founded Biomedical Electronics Foundation. It supports talented students and junior scientists in the field of biomedical electronics, an exciting field as you are undoubtedly aware of if you follow the posts on this blog regularly.
More information on the Biomedical Electronics Foundation can be read on: http://stichtingbme.nl.
You, your family and friends can help! If you have a paypal account, please click the ChipIn! button in the widget below. If you have Facebook, you can add the widget to your Facebook. Simply click on the Copy tab in the widget. There you can aso find other ways of distributing the widget and thus collect donations for the foundation.
Of course you’re also welcome to make a donation in any other way. Please visit the web site for more information.
On behalf of the beneficiaries, many thanks!
[object:flash:http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/8360745729f7029a width:250 height:250]
BELEM is an Erasmus intensive training program labeled by the EU for 2012. BELEM addresses the field of BioMedical Engineering (BME), with a specialization in BioElectronics.
BELEM supports multi-disciplinary research and helps young engineering researchers, in the early phase of their research project, bridge the gap with life sciences. BELEM intends to bring them the necessary background and methods to conduct efficiently multi-disciplinary research through a deep and broad integration of engineering and biology.
BELEM recruits PhD or future PhD students holding a Masters degree in Bioengineering or Electronics Engineering.
Candidates are expected to hold already more than 18 ECTS credits on electronics design, micro-technologies, sensors, and signal processing. Up to 24 students are recruited in 12 European institutions. During the selection process, all students complete a consortium application form and write a motivation letter: the students are selected taking into account the academic record to date, the motivation letter and a reference letter from their PhD supervisor. ICT tools (including e-learning) are used in the preparation and delivery of the programme.
Belem Intensive Erasmus Program – 2012 – March 26th – April 6th
All lecturers are researchers with a long experience in multi-disciplinary collaborative projects at the international level, aware of the needs and constraints of multi-disciplinary of biomedical and electronics engineering research. Together with clinicians who also participate in visits and round tables, they help students acquire an understanding of biomedical and physiology domains, and the capability to use advanced electronics engineering to solve problems at the interface of engineering and biology. Practical tutorials and hands-on projects (prepared before the 2-weeks stay in Bordeaux) are organized in small groups. The IP includes lectures and discussions with researchers in reliability, quality control, risk and safety, and representatives of high-tech biomedical companies, in order to educate students about technology transfer and health industry. In addition to a high-level education in state-of-the art research and innovation in BioElectronics, thanks to its intensive format BELEM will provide students a unique opportunity to create interactions with other junior and senior researchers and promote future collaborative activities.
For information on how to register, please click here.
Posted in General
Yesterday, Job Cohen announced he will resign as the leader of the
Labour Party (PVDA), effective immediately. And of course, immediately thereafter everybody started speculating about who should become his successor. One of the names mentioned was the one of Ronald Plasterk.
I honestly don’t think this is the right man for the job.
Ronald Plasterk was Minister
of Education, Culture and Science from February 22, 2007 until February 23,
2010 in the Cabinet Balkenende IV. During his tenure he was responsible for the declining quality of education at various levels of education. One of his proposals was cutting the allowance for students
and raising the fees for universities and for this he has been rightly strongly criticized by the students unions. It is my strong conviction that Plasterk, who advocates himself as a strong believer in individual excellence, just tries to mimic the American educational system without taking into account the unique features of the Dutch culture, and observes the world from his own ivory tower. He is a politician, and by definition, not interested in the truth, what is right or wrong, but just in the way you present it to the public.
A Chinese proverb says: "He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not
know". This definitely applies to Mr. Plasterk. Above, you see him in a chearful pose, pretending to play the guitar. But every self-respecting guitar player, and surely those heroes that will perform at the upcoming ELCA festival on March 9, knows that this is not the way to play guitar and that there either must be a CD playing in the back or there must be a real guitar player behind those doors, whose name we will never know and who probably would do a better job when it comes to leading a political party, too.
The PVDA needs a frontman that understands that the Netherlands has no cheap labor, no big market of its own, no raw materials (apart from a little gas near Groningen) and thus only can manifest itself as one of the leading countries in the world by exploiting the unique things it has: an open culture and high-level knowledge. The Netherlands is leading in water management, probiotics, wafer steppers, and many more. This unique position has been slowly created over the last 30 years and is rapidly crumbling. From a country that once belonged to the world top when it comes to investments in education and research, we now are doing below average and many countries have surpassed the Netherlands, a.o. Finland and Ireland.
Of course, it is not only Plasterk who is to blame for all this, which has been a process of quite some years. However, he did not understand and pick up the challenge, either. Rather he pretends, just as on the picture above.
PVDA, please be smart; choose among your midst a leader who understands the needs of your party and our time, whether you will make it into the government next time or not. But please, no more Ronald Plasterk.
Wouter
It is with some pride that I introduce you here the official opening of the Biomedical Electronics Foundation.
The Biomedical Electronics Foundation aims at the improvement of education, research and valorization in the field of biomedical electronics, the discipline of electronic engineers, who, in close collaboration with doctors, hospitals, manufacturers and industry, work on the next generation of devices for medical diagnostics, monitoring and therapy. Examples of such devices are:
Important medical breakthroughs in the 21st century are the results of improved medical devices and thereby better insight into the workings of the human body and better diagnosis and treatment methods. The Biomedical Electronics Foundation aims at speeding up the development of medical devices and the development of the field of biomedical electronics by, a.o.:
The Biomedical Electronics Foundation has been registered at the Chamber of Commerce (KvK No. 45288517) and is being supported by donations, gifts and legacies.
The most direct way to support our work is by making a donation to bank account no. 555947203, attn. St. Biomedische Elektronica, Leiden.
Please visit the web site at: http://stichtingbme.nl
Posted in General
It is with deep regret and shame that I have to read in the news today in the Telegraaf of January 24, 2012, that the Board of Directors of Delft University of Technology appears to have declared more than the maximally allowed costs for reimbursement for many years in a row. According to the newspaper (not the best in the Netherlands, but still…): "Together, the three directors declared more than 1 million Euro (!) between 2008 and 2011."
What makes matters even worse is that, instead of showing remorse and promising to improve on themselves they state that such an offense would be "common practice for all employees." This is so untrue! As dedicated and committed professor I have never ever in my whole life travelled business class, even not on long-distance flights. Whereas companies such as Analog Devices allow their employees to travel business class on long-distance flights.
When I travel by train, I save money for my university by putting my personal 40% discount card (‘kortingskaart’) to good use.
And when I travel by car, even when my car is stuffed with students, I get only 19 cents per kilometer. Parking costs and tollway costs are not reimbursed. Last Friday I went to the Erasmus Medical Center to visit the Neuroscience Department. We went by car as this was the cheapest and the fastest. Parking costs were 6 Euro; the distance: 15.6 km. When my travel expenses will have been processed I will receive only 5.89 Euro, which is even less than the actual and factual parking costs.
I knew it. I should have never become a university professor but a university director instead.
Wouter