7th Annual Conference of the IFESS, Ljubljana 2002

The idea of establishing the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS) and organising an annual meeting of the Society was born at the 1993 Ljubljana FES Conference. The Society was successfully founded in 1995. The first IFESS conference was held in Cleveland the following year, beginning a series of successful conferences in Vancouver (1997), Lucerne (1998), Sendai (1999), Aalborg (2000), and Cleveland (2001). This year the IFESS 2002 conference will take place at Ljubljana, Slovenia, 25th-29th June 2002. The Conference venue is the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana place where professor Lojze Vodovnik began his pioneering research in FES in the 1960s.

The IFESS 2002 conference focuses on the state of the art, the assessment of new achievements, and the discussion of future goals in various applications of FES for the restoration of motor function and sensory function of individuals with motor disabilities such as hemiplegia, spinal cord injury (SCI), cerebral palsy (CP), multiple sclerosis (MS), head trauma, etc. In the EU alone, the population that can benefit from FES is about 10 million, out of 37 million people in need for some kind of assistive technology. A strong emphasis is placed on multidisciplinary approach, clinical applications, and the functional benefits of assistive devices in terms of quality of life and social participation of the disabled who are the ultimate beneficiaries of the results discussed at the IFESS 2002 conference. The conference will bring together the leading specialists in the field of FES from both engineering and medical field thus promoting new and emerging concepts for FES applications, as well as wide dissemination of the latest results.

With the help of renowned members of the international scientific committee we were able to put together an outstanding scientific program with over 140 excellent presentations. These grouped into 10 oral and poster sessions: Lower extremities, Upper extremities, Gait & Posture, Bowel & Bladder, Muscles & Nerves, Therapeutic stimulation 1&2, Stimulation technology 1 & 2 and Control. The invited speakers are Prof. J.T. Mortimer , Prof. J. Reswick, Prof. M. Dimitrijevic and Prof. T. Sinkjaer. Full scientific program is available at the conference web page at:

http://robo.fe.uni-lj.si/ifess2002

The best student papers will be awarded the Vodovnik's prize. A truly great social program will offer an ample of opportunity for discussion and exchange of ideas. Combining this with well known Slovenian hospitality, this promises to be a very tempting event. The conference will additionally be accompanied by a small commercial exhibition.

Looking forward to meet you in Ljubljana.

doc.dr. Tomaz Karcnik