Engineering Ophthalmology

Mohsen Shahinpoor is professor emeritus and director at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Maine College of Engineering. He has served as the Richard C. Hill chaired professor, chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, and professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering of the university. He has been the director of the Advanced Robotics Laboratory; the Smart Materials, Artificial Muscles and Tissue Manufacturing Laboratory; and the Biomedical Engineering and Robotic Surgery Laboratory. He is active in research and development in biomimetics, soft and flexible robotics, robotic surgeries, smart wearable robotic braces, smart materials, electroactive polymers, ionic polymer-metal composites, soft actuators, self-powered energy harvesters, and sensors.

David Soltanpour is a general ophthalmologist and owns a practice called BQE Ophthalmology in New York, USA. He is also associated with Century Medical and Dental Clinic, Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York and is an associate adjunct physician at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, New York. His 27 years as an ophthalmologist involve bioengineering research experience in cochlear implant for hearing loss and working with a diverse patient population. He holds a New York medical license, board certification in ophthalmology, and multiple patents in ophthalmology applications and devices using smart materials, such as shape-memory alloys (SMAs), ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) artificial muscles, and other engineering modalities.

Parsa Shahinpoor is an internal medicine physician, specializing primarily in adult hospital medicine, and is associated with a large multispecialty medical group Northwest Permanente PC, OR, USA. He is also a quality improvement administrator and is currently the clinical lead of the regional sepsis quality improvement initiative of Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Washington, DC, USA. He has also held an academic appointment at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, NM, USA. He has prior bioengineering research experience in spine biomechanics, cardiovascular implants, and ophthalmic implants. He has been in practice for 14 years and possesses proficiency in the biomedical application of smart materials, such as SMAs and IPMC artificial muscles.