2016 Conference Support for the 5th International Conference on Engineering Frontiers in Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease

先天性心脏病(CHD)是导致出生缺陷婴儿死亡的主要原因，占美国新生儿总数的1%，根据美国国立卫生研究院的数据，每1000名新生儿中就有8人死于先天性心脏病。CHD的成功治疗为患有这种疾病的人提供了改善生活质量的机会，从而造福于社会。美国有100多万成年人患有先天性心脏病。在过去的几十年里，先天性心脏病的工程应用领域在全球范围内的应用和发展都经历了爆炸性的增长。这次会议的主题是工程学和医学的交界处的前沿问题。第五届儿科和先天性心脏病工程前沿国际会议汇聚了工程学和医学领域的领先专业人士，以促进这两个社区在先天性疾病治疗研究方面的合作。医学医生和工程学研究人员的密切互动对于在治疗这种疾病方面取得进展以及将工程学作为帮助医生了解这种先天性疾病引起的复杂血流、改进和开发诊断工具以及改进治疗计划至关重要。这次会议旨在改善对这种困扰着美国相当一部分人口的与年龄有关的疾病的治疗和理解，从而提高患者的生活质量，并降低与CHD治疗相关的医疗成本。本次会议还旨在让新兴研究人员参加一个共同论坛，交流该领域的最新发展，并进一步建立国内和国际合作。这些研究人员将从当前和最近的博士毕业生、博士后和研究员中招募。PIS将优先向参与儿科和先天性心脏病生物医学工程研究的代表性不足群体的成员提供支持，从而坚持让代表性不足群体参与STEM学科的国家目标。这次会议也为在这一领域建立了充满活力的研究方案和实验室的女性提供了成功的榜样，例如，在其国际组织和指导委员会中有两名女研究教授。这次会议提供了更多的机会，邀请演讲者、会议主席和小组讨论，为从事CHD研究的初学者和老牌女性工程和医学研究人员在国家和国际层面建立网络，从而积极促进STEM招募女性。保持儿科和先天性心脏病工程前沿国际会议系列的连续性是至关重要的，该系列有效地将从事儿科和先天性心脏病前沿研究的工程学和医学领域的领先研究人员聚集在一起。会议提供了一个论坛，交流正在进行的和最新的突破性研究，展示创新想法，并在来自美国和欧洲的领先研究人员之间建立研究合作。此外，会议还通过青年调查员讲台演讲计划和青年调查员海报竞赛促进新的研究人员进入该领域。这一系列会议历来吸引了美国和国际与会者。具体来说，通过这一奖项，NSF将支持：(1)特邀演讲者计划：支持十(10)名杰出的大学教职员工和先天性心脏病领域的顶尖专家参加Frontiers 2016并就其正在进行的研究发表特邀讲台演讲的旅费；(2)青年研究人员和研究生的旅行：PIS将支持青年研究人员(4名非UCF调查人员)和将发表讲台(口头)演讲的研究生(6名非UCF学生)参加Frontiers 2016。青年调查员发表讲台演讲，博士生参加海报展示和比赛。将有一场海报大赛，由受邀演讲者中选出的评审团评选出第一名至第三名。此外，还将举行一场由专家小组主导的辩论，讨论这一问题的利弊：CFD是否会走到床边，应该走到哪里？会议组织者尽了一切努力，并实现了在所有受邀和主旨演讲以及小组主导的辩论中保持工程教师和医学专业人员之间50/50的平衡的目标。主讲人员亦已取得《世界儿科及先天性心脏外科杂志》的特刊，从受邀的讲者收集一系列精选的论文，作为会议的后续工作。NSF的资金将利用从学术机构和两家医疗机构获得的财务赞助，以支持会议计划。

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death for infants born with birth defects and represents 1% of births in the USA, and according to the NIH that is 8 out of every 1,000 newborns. Successful treatment of CHD offers opportunities to improve quality of life for individuals afflicted with this disease with consequent benefit to society. Over 1 million adults in the USA are living with congenital heart defects. The field of engineering application in congenital heart disease has undergone an explosive growth in both application and development nationally worldwide over the past decades. The cutting edge problems that are the subject of this conference are at the interface of engineering and medicine. The 5th International Conference on Engineering Frontiers in Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease brings together leading professionals in both the engineering and medical disciplines to foster collaboration between these two communities in the study of treatment of congenital diseases. The close interaction of medical doctors and engineering researchers is critical to achieving advances in the treatment of this disease and to bring engineering to bear as an aid to physicians in understanding the complex blood flow and resulting from this congenital disease, in improving and developing diagnostic tools, and in improving treatment planning. This conference aims to impact improved treatment and understanding of this age-related disease that afflicts a significant segment of the US population with the consequent improvement in patient quality of life and reduction of medical costs associated with CHD treatment. This conference also aims to expose and engage emerging researchers in a common forum to exchange the latest in developments in the field and to further establish domestic and international collaborations. These researchers will be recruited from the pool of current and recent Ph.D. graduates, Post-Docs and Fellows. The PIs will preferentially offer support to members of underrepresented groups involved in biomedical engineering research in pediatric and congenital heart disease, thus upholding the national goal of engaging underrepresented groups into the STEM disciplines. This conference as well provides successful role models for women who have established vibrant research programs and labs in this field, for instance, there are two female researcher professors on their international organizing and steering committees. The conference offers many more opportunities, invited speakers, session chairs, and panel discussions, for beginning and established female engineering and medical researchers engaged in CHD research to network at the national and international level, and thereby actively promotes recruitment of females in STEM. It is vital to maintain the continuity of the International Conference on Engineering Frontiers in Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease series that effectively brings together leading researchers in engineering and medicine who are engaged in cutting edge research in pediatric and congenital heart disease. The conference provides a forum to exchange of ongoing and latest breakthrough research, to expose innovative ideas, and to build research collaborations between leading researchers from across the USA and Europe. Moreover, the conference promotes new researchers becoming engaged in the field through the Young Investigator podium speaker program and its young investigator poster competition. This series of conferences has historically attracted both USA and international participants. Specifically, through this award, NSF will support: (1) Invited Speaker Program: support travel expenses of ten (10) distinguished university faculty and medical professionals who are foremost experts in congenital heart disease to attend Frontiers 2016 and deliver invited podium presentations on their on-going research and (2) Travel of Young Investigators and Graduate Students: the PIs will support Young Investigators (4 non-UCF investigators) who will deliver podium (oral) presentations and graduate students (6 non-UCF students) to participate in Frontiers 2016. Young investigators present podium talks and PhD students participate in the poster presentation and competition. There will be a poster competition with awards for 1st-3rd place judged by a panel selected from the invited speakers. Moreover, there will be a panel-led debate to address the pros and cons of the issue: will CFD ever reach the bedside and should it? The conference organizers have made every effort and have achieved the goal of keeping a 50/50 balance between engineering faculty and medical professionals in all invited and keynote lectures as well as panel-led debates. The PIs have also secured a special issue of the World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery to collect a series of selected papers from the invited speakers as a follow-up to the conference. The NSF funds will leverage financial sponsorship that has been secured from academic and two medical institutions in support the conference program.