Visiting UC Louvain

I believe I'm not the only one who was caught on surprise to learn that the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) is entirely separate from K.U. Leuven. UCL is a modern university, built only 40 years ago, creating Louvain-la-Neuve, practically a new city that is mostly inhabited by students.

"All within, the Institute of Mechanics, Materials, and Civil Engineering (iMMC) at the Louvain School of Engineering (EPL) of UCL there is a leading international center for research in engineering. Its core strengths span several of the major engineering disciplines, and are grouped into five inter-related topics: 

• energy, thermodynamics, and chemical engineering
• mechatronics and biomechanics
• processing, materials, assembly, and structures
• fluid mechanics, environmental engineering, and geomechanics
• numerical and computational methods.

They have a couple of successful medical applications as well:

• Design and prototyping of a subcutaneous micropump (4M-µpump Project)
• Study, realization and validation of an active scope-holder for laparoscopic surgery
• System to assist the surgical re-positioning of the jawbone and mandible
• Interactive robot for the neuro-rehabilitation of hemiplegic patients’ upper limbs--ReaPLAN
• Piezoelectric linear actuators for MR-compatible applications 

I met my good old friend, Benoit there, who did his PhD on the "Study, realization and validation of an active scope-holder for laparoscopic surgery", part time in Montpellier. I saw and tried the EvoLap that they plan to redesgin and commercialize this year or so.