MAESTRÍA EN Ingeniería Biomédica

Se estima que para el 2035 hayan más de 50 billones de dispositivos inteligentes interconectados entre sí a través de múltiples redes de comunicación, creando un mercado para la industria de entre 14 y 15 trillones de dólares. Lo que conlleva a que todas las industrias tengan una constante transformación tecnológica denominada hoy como la revolución 4.0.

Por otra parte, el paradigma de Internet de las Cosas (IoT) hace parte de las recientes tecnologías que propenden ayudar a mejorar los procesos industriales. En este curso se desarrolla el pensamiento analítico y se forjan nuevas habilidades para generar innovadoras soluciones a problemas críticos en el campo industrial. Al generar un nuevo enfoque en el proceso de aprendizaje práctico activo, en conjunto con el uso de herramientas actuales para el desarrollo de aplicaciones en el ecosistema de IoT, se busca que los apasionados en esta área de conocimiento obtengan nuevas habilidades y destrezas que le permita ser más competitivos en el campo académico y laboral. En este programa de IoT, se aprenden los conceptos de la tecnología, manejo de herramientas avanzadas para la gestión de proyectos en el campo de programación web, sistemas de almacenamiento, gestión de bases de datos, tecnologías en comunicación y sistemas de toma de decisiones.

Con el avance de los sistemas informáticos, los computadores son cada vez más veloces y con mayor capacidad de cómputo, haciendo que teorías matemáticas de la década del 60 y 70 sean retomadas debido a que ahora se pueden comprobar con experimentación computacional. Al mismo tiempo, el desarrollo de sistemas bioinspirados, proporcionan a las máquinas la capacidad de adaptarse, aprender y evolucionar ante entornos cambiantes. Agrupando estas técnicas, se acuña el término “Inteligencia Artificial” (IA) incluyendo las redes neuronales artificiales, la lógica difusa y los algoritmos genéticos o computación evolutiva, usadas para resolver diferentes tipos de problemas. La IA puede tener diferentes definiciones y concepciones. Una de ellas está dada como “el uso de computadores para automatizar procesos de toma de decisión en tareas que normalmente requiere inteligencia humana”.

El sector salud no es ajeno a esta revolución puesto que en los últimos la demanda de sistemas de las bondades de la IA en el campo médico han permitido grandes avances tecnológicos que apoyan a los profesionales en el campo de la salud. El propósito de la asignatura es implementar los conocimientos de ingeniería desde los modelos bioinspirados que aprenden y son usados en el contexto de esa inteligencia de connotación artificial en el campo de las ciencias de la salud, orientadas a resolver diferentes tipos de problemas en salud. Por lo tanto, el objetivo principal de esta electiva se enfoca en conocer, diseñar e implementar soluciones desde la inteligencia artificial para la solución de problemas en el campo de las ciencias de la salud.

In the last years, the rise of medical robotics has paralleled the rapid advances in technology, computers, and engineering. An important subarea of medical robotics is the field of "rehabilitation and assistive robotics."

In this regard, new technologies have emerged to improve people's living conditions who have suffered from motor impairments or amputations. Assistive robotics, implemented either employing hardware adaptations or high-level control approaches, has led to the appearance of several promising applications that promote independence in subjects limited by their impairment. In pursuit of effective functionality, these solutions require robust interfaces that allow natural and compliant control. Therefore, human-robot interfaces must rely on diverse modalities related to motion intention and generation of voluntary movement, so that their users may experience an influence at a mechanical or neural level. Further research is needed to assess such assistive and rehabilitation devices' effects on impaired subjects within this scope.

Several design techniques have been explored over the years, all of which integrate contributions from different populations affected by the design decisions (e.g., stakeholders and community). The participatory design (PD) process is a well-known strategy in industrial design and the arts to develop products and services for a target population. The philosophy behind PD is to empower the people involved in a specific activity or situation by providing them space and a voice so that all can contribute to the decision making. The process intends to, in the end, achieve products or services that represent the real needs, desires, and expectations of the users, designers, and stakeholders. During the last decade, the effectiveness of designs based on participatory practices has stirred researchers' interest in different fields.

The application of PD techniques is particularly promising when transferring knowledge and systems from research to the real-world, primarily if the product's success or service hinges on the interaction with the human. The use of PD methods in the design of technology-based processes for health care recognizes the stakeholders as “experts” in their fields, highlighting the different experiences and attitudes that they may have. The target populations and their environment (families, society, groups of allies and friends) are no longer seen as a source to obtain information and requirements to produce results, but rather a partner with experience and a different way to see the world that can be a part of the solution.

This course's main objective consists of discussing the pertinence and feasibility of human-robot interfaces integrating PD methodologies to enhance assistive and rehabilitation devices' interaction performance. In this sense, this course seeks to engage professionals and researchers from various backgrounds, such as physiotherapists, physiatrists, occupational therapists, engineers, scientists, end-users, clinical researchers, industrial researchers, and developers.

Nanomaterials are usually defined as materials that has at least one dimension in the nanometer scale, 1 to 100 nm (1 nm = 10-9 m). Properties of materials with nano-scale dimension show properties (e.g. optical, electrical, mechanical etc.) that are significantly different from those of bulk materials. Therefore, they can no longer be described by the principles of classical physics and only quantum mechanics principles apply. Moreover, materials in the nanometer regime allow for unique interactions with biological system, therefore different kind of nanomaterials have attracted attention because they have demonstrated exciting potential to furthering biomedical applications such as bioimaging, cell targeting, drug delivery, theranostic agents to mention but a few.2

Nanoparticles are an assembly of atoms. As the size is decreased, there is a major decrease in the volume that the constituent atoms of the nanoparticles can occupy thus, most of the atoms are found at the surface. Nanoparticles exhibit large surface areas with high surficial energy due to the presence of dangling bonds. The need to reduce this surface energy favors the addition of moieties that provide or improve dispersibility of the nanoparticles in aqueous environments, a necessary requirement for biological applications of nanomaterials. Furthermore, depending on the nature of the modified surface, introduction of several functionalities such as targeting agents and therapeutic agents may be achieved.

The aim of this course is to introduce the fundamentals principles and properties of nanomaterials that exhibit great potential in biomedical applications. Moreover, it will cover synthetic and surface modification methods and most used characterization techniques. It will emphasize on biomedical applications such as nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems, nano-based imaging and diagnostic systems.