Distinguished Professor Dietmar W. Hutmacher is the Director of the Centre in Regenerative Medicine and Director of the Australian Research Council Centre in Additive Biomanufacturing at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He holds a MBA from the Royal Henley Management College and a PhD from the National University of Singapore. He has a distinctive research record, educational and scholarly career combined with a former leadership position and industry experience.
He has world renown expertise in biomaterials & biomedical engineering and tissue engineering & regenerative medicine (TE&RM). He is not only among the pioneers in the field of 3D printing in Medicine yet also developed an outstanding track record in two new cutting-edge research areas, namely ‘3D in vitro cancer models’ and ‘humanized animal models’ via the translation of tissue engineering technologies into cancer research. His international standing and impact on the field are illustrated by his publication record, with more than 300 journal articles, 24 book chapters, 14 edited books; and outstanding citation record: more than 25,000 citations and an h-index of 76.
In 2012 he was, 1) elected to join the highly esteemed International College of Fellows Biomaterials Science and Engineering; 2) elected to become one of the 23 founding members of the International Fellows of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society (TERMIS); 3) presented the Research Excellence Award from the Australasian Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. In 2013, he received the highly prestigious Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship from the Technical University in Munich. In 2017 he was 1) given the most prestigious award of the European Society for Biomaterials; 2) QUT awarded him the title Distinguished Professor. In 2018 he received the Humboldt Research Award.
He is an Adjunct Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology for more than one decade. Over the past 20 years in academia, he has been a lead CI, Co-CI or collaborator on research and infrastructure grants totaling more than AU$50M. Over the last 10 years at QUT, he has been an investigator on external grants totaling more than AU$25M. He serves on the editorial boards of leading journals in his fields. He maintains strong relationships within the global biomaterials, TE&RM and cancer research community. Over the last 20 years, he has been invited to give more than 50 plenary & keynote lectures at national and international conferences, has served on 30 organizing committees for international conferences, chaired more than 80 sessions. A number of medical device and tissue engineering projects have been patented and commercialized under his mandate; he is a founder of 5 spin off companies. Over the last two decades Prof Hutmacher research has featured many times in mainstream media formats including newspapers, radio and television.
Keynote Speech Abstract
Title: Additive manufacturing technology platform for melt electro writing – a systems engineering approach
Additive manufacturing (AM) — the industrial version of 3D printing—allows rapid design and fabrication of highly customized parts e.g. it has been used to produce prototypes for engineers and designers, 3D printing for consumers and small business entrepreneurs as well as global corporations has received a great deal of publicity recently. However, it is in manufacturing where the technology will ultimately have its most significant scientific and commercial impact. Many research challenges remain in translating the early promise of AM to industrial success in design & manufacturing of functional components and systems. Fabrication of high performance components using 3D printing is still a subject of intense research especially for multimaterial and multicomponent products and parts. For a manufacturing process to be adopted widely by industry, it is critical to have repeatability and consistency of the manufactured parts for the entire build volume, between builds of each machine, and across different machines of the same make. AM technology must be able to guarantee material properties in order to achieve wide industry adoption. Additionally, to broaden and develop new applications, novel AM processes such as melt electro printing (MEW), significant further research and development is a conditio sine qua non terms of materials, design, modeling, sensing and control, process innovation, and system integration. There is a tight coupling among material development, process development, process sensing & control, and the qualification and certification of products fabricated by MEW. As in the progression of many other emerging technologies, the greatest scientific advancements will come at the boundaries of fundamental material science, physics, engineering, chemistry.
Systems Engineering (SE) is a modern design methodology that facilitates multidisciplinary collaboration through the integration of individual expertise into the entire development process. From concept to operation and/or product, SE approaches comprise both, the industrial and the technical demands to reach systems of high qualiy Through structured guidelines SE leads the overall engineering process and fosters the realisation of a successful product development to embrace technical complexity; e.g. as seen in the MEP process. Model-Based-System-Engineering (MBSE) represents a further development of SE by working on a digital platform and is based on graphical modelling language and allows an effective management and execution of MBSE methodologies. This talk will demonstrate how Systems Engineering can be applied in a translational research context to develop a MEW technology platform.