Spanish Society for Biomedical Engineering (SEIB)The Spanish Society for Biomedical Engineering (SEIB) was formed in 1978 under the name of the Spanish Association of Bioengineering (AEB), and was renamed the SEIB in 1994, following the international trend. Since its foundation, four presidents (G. Ferraté, F. Fernández, J.L. Monteagudo and J.M. Ferrero) have managed the society. Organisation Seven members, chosen for a period of four years, comprise the Executive Board. The current composition of the board is shown in the table below. The society currently has approximately 150 members, most of them coming from the university field, although they also comprise students and professionals from the fields of industry and medicine. Some of the reasons why the number of members is low are summarised below:
Currently, the SEIB is formed by the main Spanish research groups from different areas such as bioelectronics, bioinformatics, biomechanics, physiologic systems modelling, digital signal processing of biosignals, telemedicine, etc., together with other members from various health and industrial bodies. The table at the foot of this page gives some web addresses of the research groups belonging to the SEIB.
Objectives The main SEIB objectives are:
Activities The main activity of the SEIB is the organisation of an annual congress where scientific communications are presented, allowing research groups, students, professionals and associate bodies to learn in detail of the advances achieved during the year. At the same time, the General Assembly of the Society is held. In addition, every four years, one of the research groups affiliated to the SEIB takes responsibility for arranging an International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering. To date, seventeen meetings of the national congress and six meetings of the international congress have been held. There has been a remarkable increase in the number of participants at the congresses organised by the society in the last three years, exceeding 100 presentations at the national meetings and 250 at the international ones. The 6th International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering took place in Barcelona from 30 May to 2 June 1999, at the same time as the 5th Conference of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine. It was organised in collaboration with the European Society for Engineering and Medicine (ESEM), the Spanish Society of Telemedicine (SEP) and the International Federation of Biomedical Engineering (IFMBE). The next National Congress will take place in Cartagena in September 2000. SEIB publishes an electronic bulletin, which is accessible through its web page, with information on the agreements taken in the General Assemblies, summaries of the congresses of the society and other news of interest for the partners. It also provides its members with continuous information via email. More information on the organisation, members, research groups, publications, etc. can be found at http://seib.uv.es/bioing.html Biomedical engineering education in Spain As was mentioned earlier, there is no official biomedical engineering (BE) degree in Spain. To overcome this, the SEIB is seeking to promote biomedical engineering education. Some universities include biomedical engineering subjects in other related degrees (generally engineering), in PhD programs, in postgraduate courses or masters programs. Approval of an official biomedical engineering degree should increase the activity in the field in the mid-term. There is also some collaboration with university centres from other countries, especially in Latin America, allowing an important number of foreign postgraduate students to study at Spanish universities. More information on the educational courses relating to biomedical engineering can be found on the web pages of the research groups of the SEIB.
Dr Juan F. Guerrero Dpt Electronic Engineering. University of Valencia, Spain. Email: Juan.Guerrero@uv.es |
||||||||||||||||