Dr. Mainul Islam

Keynote Lecture 9: Title: Development of Smart Materials for Invasive Medical Applications using Shape Memory Polymers
	Mainul Islam, Ph.D. Associate Professor (Mechanical Engineering) School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia Website: https://staffprofile.usq.edu.au/Profile/Mainul-Islam
Abstract : Shape memory polymers (SMPs) represent an intelligent polymeric material which can fix deformed temporary shape and recover their permanent shapes upon an external stimulus such that temperature, light, electricity, water, pH, magnetism and specific ions. This property is called shape memory effect (SME). The SME has underpinned its usefulness of SMPs in delicate minimally invasive surgeries (MIS’s) such as vascular stents, clot removals etc. The invasive biodegradable SMP devices can avoid second surgery and have a great potential over any conventional metallic biomedical device. The ability to change triggering temperature to use in a broader range of temperatures while keeping SME is another superior capability of SMPs. Additionally, SMPs have shown a good prospective due to their special characteristics such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, low rejection by host and low density. However, intrinsic low stiffness, strength and recovery stress possess a significant limitation in the applications of SMPs. In-depth literature survey has revealed that, existing many concepts were terminated without further continuation. This may be mainly due to strict, lengthier Vitro and Vivo certification process. Therefore, to date, a limited number of invasive products have been realized and commercially available. This paper provides a brief overview of current SMP based invasive medical applications, status and limitations. This review will be more beneficial to identify current research gaps, for those who are emerging into SMP based invasive biomedical applications. Biography : Dr. Mainul Islam is an Associate Professor and Major/Program Convenor of Mechanical Engineering with specialisation in Composite Materials in the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia. He also belongs to the Centre for Future Materials at USQ for conducting research. He completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is a graduate and also former Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering of Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Bangladesh. He got Master degree in Structural Engineering from Kyushu University, Japan. He has been with USQ since 2008 just after completing PhD. His current research interests are in the areas of smart and sustainable composites and shape memory polymeric materials especially for infrastructure and biomedical applications. He has over 140 research publications based on his research outcomes. He has been able to secure a total of over $1.5M research funding jointly and individually during his academic career so far. He has supervised over 15 PhD students to their completion. He serves as Editorial Board member for several renowned journals and Technical Committee member for several international conferences. He is a Fellow (FIEAust) and Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) of Engineers Australia.