This textbook covers the fundamentals of different functional material systems aimed at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. Each chapter includes an introduction to the material, its applications and uses with example problems, fabrication and manufacturing techniques, conclusions, homework problems and a bibliography. Edited by a leading researcher in smart materials, topics include piezoelectric materials, magnetostrictive materials, shape memory alloys, mechanochromic materials, chemomechanical polymers and self-healing materials.

This comprehensive resource provides a solid grounding in life science and automation engineering essentials and describes state-of-the-art techniques for the design and development of sensors and actuators, lab-on-a-chip and bio-MEMs platforms, and more.

The world is on the threshold of a revolution that will change medicine and how patients are treated forever. Bringing together the creative talents of electrical, mechanical, optical and chemical engineers, materials specialists, clinical-laboratory scientists, and physicians, the science of biomedical microelectromechanical systems (bioMEMS) promises to deliver sensitive, selective, fast, low cost, less invasive, and more robust methods for diagnostics, individualized treatment, and novel drug delivery. This book is an introduction to this multidisciplinary technology and the current state of micromedical devices in use today. The first text of its kind dedicated to bioMEMS training. Fundamentals of BioMEMS and Medical Microdevices is Suitable for a single semester course for senior and graduate-level students, or as an introduction to others interested or already working in the field.

These proceedings of the World Congress 2006, the fourteenth conference in this series, offer a strong scientific program covering a wide range of issues and challenges which are currently present in Medical physics and Biomedical Engineering. About 2,500 peer reviewed contributions are presented in a six volume book, comprising 25 tracks, joint conferences and symposia, and including invited contributions from well known researchers in this field.

th On behalf of the organizing committee of the 13 International Conference on Biomedical Engineering, I extend our w- mest welcome to you. This series of conference began in 1983 and is jointly organized by the YLL School of Medicine and Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Singapore and the Biomedical Engineering Society (Singapore). First of all, I want to thank Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman A*STAR who kindly agreed to be our Guest of Honour to give th the Opening Address amidst his busy schedule. I am delighted to report that the 13 ICBME has more than 600 participants from 40 countries. We have received very high quality papers and inevitably we had to turndown some papers. We have invited very prominent speakers and each one is an authority in their field of expertise. I am grateful to each one of them for setting aside their valuable time to participate in this conference. For the first time, the Biomedical Engineering Society (USA) will be sponsoring two symposia, ie “Drug Delivery S- tems” and “Systems Biology and Computational Bioengineering”. I am thankful to Prof Tom Skalak for his leadership in this initiative. I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Prof Takami Yamaguchi for organizing the NUS-Tohoku’s Global COE workshop within this conference. Thanks also to Prof Fritz Bodem for organizing the symposium, “Space Flight Bioengineering”. This year’s conference proceedings will be published by Springer as an IFMBE Proceedings Series.

This book is the second edition of Soft Actuators, originally published in 2014, with 12 chapters added to the first edition. The subject of this new edition is current comprehensive research and development of soft actuators, covering interdisciplinary study of materials science, mechanics, electronics, robotics, and bioscience. The book includes contemporary research of actuators based on biomaterials for their potential in future artificial muscle technology. Readers will find detailed and useful information about materials, methods of synthesis, fabrication, and measurements to study soft actuators. Additionally, the topics of materials, modeling, and applications not only promote the further research and development of soft actuators, but bring benefits for utilization and industrialization. This volume makes generous use of color figures, diagrams, and photographs that provide easy-to-understand descriptions of the mechanisms, apparatus, and motions of soft actuators. Also, in this second edition the chapters on modeling, materials design, and device design have been given a wider scope and made easier to comprehend, which will be helpful in practical applications of soft actuators. Readers of this work can acquire the newest technology and information about basic science and practical applications of flexible, lightweight, and noiseless soft actuators, which differ from conventional mechanical engines and electric motors. This new edition of Soft Actuators will inspire readers with fresh ideas and encourage their research and development, thus opening up a new field of applications for the utilization and industrialization of soft actuators.