A two-day seminar “Biomedical Engineering 2" was held at the Faculty of Dental Medicine of MU–Varna, with the participation of international and Bulgarian lecturers. The forum was focused on metal materials with applications in medicine, medical mechatronic devices, new nano-coatings for enhancing biocompatibility of titanium implants, as well as modern equipment for investigating various types of alloys and coatings. The seminar was organized by Scientific Group “Customised Implants for Bone Regenerative Therapy" (PersIm) under project BG-RRP-2.004-0009-C02 “Enhancement of Translational Excellence Achievement in Medicine (MUVE-TEAM)", funded by the European Union–NextGenerationEU.
The seminar was opened by the Vice-Rector for Career Development Prof. Dr. Maria Negreva and by the Head of PersIm Scientific Group Prof. Eng. Tsanka Dikova. Prof. Negreva congratulated the participants on behalf of the Rector of MU–Varna Prof. Dr. Dimitar Raykov, DSc. Prof. Dikova presented the international guest lecturers – Assoc. Prof. Rasa Kandrotaite Janutiene and Eng. Darius Mazeika, PhD from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, Assoc. Prof. Vladimir Dunchev from Technical University–Gabrovo and Prof. Maria P. Nikolova from Ruse University “Angel Kanchev".
“The lectures are beneficial for the medical audience because they display an engineering approach to solving various medical issues," emphasized Prof. Dikova. She added that the topics were also within the scope of interest of the young personnel – Assistant Professors, PhD students, post docs, because they provided guidelines where and what kind of research they could do in their dissertation theses and future research activities.
Prof. Dikova also highlighted the progress of PersIm Scientific Group. “All planned equipment has already been purchased, and scientific research is being conducted with it. We are working in accordance with the plan, we are fulfilling our indicators of publication activity in prestigious scientific journals," underlined Prof. Dikova, and added that in September the new Metal 3D Printer was expected, on which personalized implants would be printed, as well as specialized software for the device, through which personalized implants would be generated. The people who would be trained with both the software and the Metal 3D Printer had already been appointed.
Assoc. Prof. Vladimir Dunchev introduced the audience to different techniques and equipment for investigating materials, which are applied in all spheres of industry, medicine, food industry, aircraft construction, pharmacy, and metallurgy. According to the specialist, this part of materials science and the study of the structure of metals and elements is very essential for the development of modern science. Assoc. Prof. Dunchev underscored that at present the studies on new materials, such as coatings, which provided a specific added value and a new characteristic of the product, were the most highly valued in the world science. “The Bulgarian contribution in this field is that our researchers are working on the study of alloys whose further processing would lead to the extension of life of these parts and elements, with the aim of economic benefit for the industry," pointed out the guest lecturer from TU-Gabrovo.
During the second day of the seminar the guests visited the University Dental Centre, the Dental Laboratory and the Laboratory for Hard Section Histomorphometry and Metallography. A round table discussion was also held to outline current trends in education and research at the universities, to exchange information on the research equipment available there and the opportunities for collaboration in future joint research and projects.
