Selma Gunnarsdóttir and Katrín Rut Mar Þórðardóttir, master's students in biomedical engineering at Reykjavik University (RU), gave presentations at a joint conference of the Austrian Society for Biomedical Engineering and the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS) in Austria last week.

Selma and Katrín Rut delivered two presentations. The first presentation explored whether, with the help of artificial intelligence, data from Landspítali (The National University Hospital of Iceland) and emergency medical services could be used to identify treatment factors that reduce spinal cord damage compared to cases where such factors are absent.

The second presentation addressed how and how quickly the spinal cord and surrounding areas can be cooled after injury using internal and external cooling devices. Their findings were based on simulation and computational models developed in Ansys.

Their presentations attracted considerable attention from the audience, leading to numerous engaging questions and suggestions for research collaboration related to the work they presented.

Their research is conducted in collaboration with Ellen Huld Þórðardóttir, a PhD candidate at RU, who is investigating whether and how spinal cord injury severity can be reduced through actions taken at the accident scene and during emergency response.

The conference, the 15th Vienna International Workshop on Functional Electrical Stimulation, is held every three years and celebrated its fifteenth edition this year. It coincided with the 30th anniversary of IFESS, founded in Vienna in 1995, where Icelanders were among the founding members. The IFESS conference is held annually in various locations around the world.

More information can be found here: https://mpbmt.meduniwien.ac.at/fesws2025/

The titles of their presentations were:
“Investigating Predictors of Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury: A Statistical Approach to Secondary Injury and Clinical Outcome Analysis” and
“Effects of Internal and External Cooling on Temperature Regulation Following Spinal Cord Injury: A Mathematical Simulation-Based Study.”