Conference Theme

The theme of the APAB 2025 conference is “Challenges of an Aging Society”. The motivation comes from the significant and troubling shift in the median age in the populations of many countries, one which is expected to grow larger, and the impending related problems of this shift. In healthcare, besides the rising costs associated with greater demand, there is a need for new and better ways to improve the quality of life in aging populations.  

In the field of biomechanics, historically, impacts have already been made in the development of prosthetics and orthotics, joint and tissue repair technologies, medical devices in treating cardiovascular problems and ventilation difficulties, and the surgeon’s ‘armament’ in dental surgery. Taken for granted is the role of biomechanics in the design of everyday products such as shoes, and its importance to human-machine safety such as the design of safer cars. So how then can we as biomechanical research agents apply our expertise to solve the future problems of an aging society? What are the problems?  

We hope that by presenting this theme for the conference, we can inspire our participants to reflect on their own research and perhaps share their thoughts on how one’s research can address the aging population issue. This sharing is not to imply that paper submissions for this conference must align with the theme. No, for the APAB we will continue to enjoy the wide range of new knowledge and applications as seen in past APABs, and we do want to encourage as wide a participation as possible. So instead, we hope that the theme for this conference can be a good topic of discussion at the conference at the many networking and social opportunities provided.   

Conference Topics

The following headers are a guide, and it is acknowledged that some topics may have been inadvertently left out, and several research endeavours could naturally fit in more than one topic area. Similarly, a topic area could be highly related to another.  

Cell and Molecular Biomechanics  

• Cell mechanics 

• Mechanobiology 

• Emerging technologies for quantifying cell scale mechanical forces 

• Biomechanics in Cell and Tissue Engineering 

Tissue Biomechanics  

• Soft and Hard Tissue mechanics 

• Tissue scale material properties 

• Biomechanics in tissue engineering and healing 

Organ Biomechanics  

• Organ scale biomechanics, e.g. of the: 

• Heart  

• Arteries 

• Lung 

• Skin 

• Bones and Joints 

• Etc. 

Gait and Kinesiology 

• Techniques and innovation in gait and motion analysis 

• Normal and pathological gait 

• Neurological and musculoskeletal locomotion 

• Effects of development and aging in gait and locomotion 

Orthopaedic Biomechanics  

• Clinical Orthopaedics  

• Joint replacements and fracture fixation 

• Paediatrics and Adult Reconstruction 

• Sports Medicine 

• Spine 

Computational Biomechanics  

• Multiscale (cell, tissue, organ) modelling 

• Solid mechanics 

• Fluid mechanics 

Medical Innovation  

• Recent advances in biomechanics based medical devices 

• Advancements in prosthetics 

• New Biomaterials 

• Wearable Technologies 

Product Development  

• Medical Device Design 

• Manufacturing 

• Commercialisation and Enterprise 

Emerging Technology  

• Artificial Intelligence 

• Digital Twins 

• Smart materials 

• Advanced robotics and automation