NEW ANNOUNCEMENT – July 2020

Given the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, it is unfortunately still impossible to predict whether the 30 years Anniversary Reunion of the Erasmus Patras BME Program (30PatrasBME) and the European Symposium on Biomedical Engineering (ESBME 2020) can actually be held on the 25th & 26th of September 2020.

Therefore, the combined event is postponed to a later date, when circumstances permit.

The 30PatrasBME has no sense under protective mask & 2m distance restrictions and cannot certainly be transformed to a web-based event!! We hope that the pandemic will pass and the right time will come soon.

Keep safe and healthy
The organizing team

IMPORTANT: Please note that participants who have already paid the registration fee will be fully reimbursed. Please send an email with your bank account.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

We are sad to announce that, due to the COVID-19 that continues to spread worldwide, leading not only to a serious health concern, but also to travel and meeting restrictions imposed in several countries, we have decided to postpone the 30 years Anniversary Reunion of the Erasmus Patras BME Program (30PatrasBME) and the European Symposium on Biomedical Engineering (ESBME 2020).

To be on the safe side, the combined events are planned for the 25th & 26th of September. 

IMPORTANT: Please note that participants who have already paid the registration fee and are not sure whether they will be able to attend the event in September will be fully reimbursed.

Welcome message

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The Erasmus program started in 1987 and celebrated its 30 years of existence, with 9 million participants, a couple of years ago. The launch of this great program gave Professor Vassilis Proimos the idea of creating a joint collaborative postgraduate program in Biomedical Engineering, between European Universities from all member states at that time. Participating Universities would contribute with both teachers and students coming from all over Europe. The idea was enthusiastically welcomed and a 30 years unique story started. The University of Patras was assigned to organize the program and a call for the first students with Erasmus scholarships was announced.

The program started in the academic year 1989-1990 and the first graduates received their degrees in 1990, exactly thirty years before. The idea to celebrate the 30 years anniversary with a Reunion event for Teachers, Alumni, Students and Associated Staff was enthusiastically received and that’s how this event takes place.

In addition, we felt that this important year would provide the perfect occasion to renew the tradition of ESBME events that started in 1998 and were held every two years until 2010, bringing together BME professionals and students from all over Europe. The upcoming European Symposium on Biomedical Engineering (ESBME 2020) will focus on Medical Technology and the role of Education.

The ESBME 2020 will therefore be combined with the 30 years Anniversary Reunion of the Erasmus Patras BME Program.

We are looking forward to meeting all of you again in Patras!

Prof. Nicolas Pallikarakis

Chairman of the event

A Short story of the Erasmus BME Program in Patras

The Erasmus Postgraduate Program on Biomedical Engineering was created in 1989 at the University of Patras as a joint effort of more than 20 EU Universities of the 12 member countries at that time. During his long travel the program is proud to achieve certain very important goals summarized in the following table.

Since 2015, a new Master Program in Biomedical Engineering that builds upon this long and successful tradition, was reestablished, by three departments of the Faculty of Engineering: Electrical & Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering & Informatics, and Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, and the School of Medicine of the University of Patras. This new MSc in BME is currently working on the re-establishment of a strong network of collaboration with other European Universities.

The importance of BME Education

Given the spectacular progress in Medical Technology during the last years and the even more critical role that this field is expected to play in the future, it becomes evident that BME education is of extreme importance. Biomedical engineers constantly have to face new requirements, demands and challenges. Therefore, BME study programs should keep pace with this impressive progress and provide students with all necessary knowledge and skills.

In addition, great emphasis is placed on the harmonisation of BME study programs in order for students to have not only similar curricula but also the possibility to do part of their studies in a collaborating university abroad. During the last decade, the University of Patras, represented by the Postgraduate Programme on BME, coordinated two major EU research projects, CRH-BME and BME-ENA, which aimed to the harmonisation of BME study programs in Europe.

The Institute of Biomedical Technology (INBIT) reviewed the study programs in Biomedical Engineering. A complete database with more than 340 undergraduate and postgraduate BME study programs currently offered in Europe is available here: https://www.inbit.gr/en/bme_programs/.

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