The "Agile in Biomechanics" project aims to bridge academic research with societal needs by implementing practical projects that address real-world challenges, such as the loosening of implants. Through hands-on experiences, innovative solutions are developed and implemented.
This initiative emphasizes experiential learning and the application of agile methodologies, particularly Scrum, while fostering close collaboration with European partners. Academic knowledge is not only conveyed, but actual market needs are also addressed.
The curriculum includes cooperative problem-solving approaches and agile project management principles. Scrum is learned through practical applications, while biomechanics content is integrated through lectures and instructional videos. Biomechanical projects are tackled in Scrum teams, considering the requirements of stakeholders, including EUTOPIA partners. Throughout the semester, three sprints allow for iterative improvements to a demonstrator, culminating in a prototype presentation and evaluation by stakeholders. Additionally, funding for the project would enable excursions to industrial companies and research centers, enriching the learning experience.
Planned Education Activities
Working in interdisciplinary teams: Students in their 8th/9th semester develop product ideas using agile methods, leveraging laboratory resources and expertise from various research fields.
Access to labs and workshops: Students have access to current research labs and workshops, allowing them to be directly involved in ongoing research projects. Exchange with advanced students: The exchange with senior students working on their final theses or PhD projects is encouraged to benefit from their expertise in areas such as surface design or 3D printing.
Participation in lectures by CC partners: Lectures are organized to teach methodological tools for capturing the needs of innovation beneficiaries, which are open to other CC partners as well.
Agile project management: Students learn agile project management tools and their application in research, preparing them both for work in the industry and for their own research projects or a possible future doctorate.
Research Activities
Direct involvement in research projects: Students work closely with ongoing research projects at the university and in collaboration with research institutes like Fraunhofer, Leibniz, and Max Planck Institutes.
Access to expert knowledge: Depending on the focus of their product ideas, students expand their knowledge by collaborating with experts from different institutes and research areas.
International knowledge exchange: The EUTOPIA CC partners facilitate access to information and resources from other European universities, strengthening research collaboration.
Agile research and PhD work: The integration of agile methods such as Scrum into research allows students to shape their PhD or research projects in a team, moving away from the often isolated nature of a doctoral thesis.
Dr.-Ing. Franziska Alt earned her Ph.D. in 2025 and currently leads the Junior Research Group Bioresponsive Material Systems and Bioinspired Composite Materials. In this role, she combines innovative materials research with medical applications. As Principal Investigator, she oversees projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Her research focuses on biomimetic mineralization, mimicking natural processes for material development, and the creation of composite and hybrid materials for bone replacement. Her work spans both dense materials and porous scaffolds, which serve as frameworks for new tissue growth.
Another major focus is on mechanical testing to evaluate the stability and applicability of new materials. She also cultivates stem cells for tissue engineering and investigates the interplay between osteoblasts and osteoclasts in bone remodeling.
With her interdisciplinary approach, Franziska Alt bridges materials science, biology, and medicine, developing bioinspired solutions that advance regenerative medicine.
Bulcsú Sándor (UBB)
Bulcsú Sándor - Bulcsú Sándor Bulcsú Sándor, born in 1989, is a young physicist known for his expertise in adaptive dynamical systems, complex systems, and robophysics. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Physics at Babeș–Bolyai University, followed by a master's degree in Computational Physics. His doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Claudius Gros at Goethe University Frankfurt led him to significant contributions in chaos theory and robophysics, particularly in pioneering methods for controlling robots using self-organizing attractors.
Currently he is an assistant professor at Babeș–Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, he teaches courses on dynamical systems and thermodynamics, while also overseeing the physics teaching course for the teacher training program. His dedication to education extends to establishing a robophysics course and equipping a research laboratory with mobile robots and robotic arms. Dr. Sándor has received numerous accolades for his research, including awards at both national and international conferences. Notably, he was awarded the Young Researcher Award by the Cluj Academy Committee in 2018 and the Arany János Young Researcher Award by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2024. His current research focuses on innovative approaches in robotics using ideas from complex systems theory, and on development of nonlinear methods for time series analysis.
Zoltán Bálint (UBB)
Zoltán Bálint - Zoltán Bálint Prof. Dr. Zoltán Bálint (b. 1979) is a senior medical physicist with a strong background in medical physics, cell biology, microscopy, medical image analysis and development of diagnostic decision support tools. Dr. Z. Bálint is currently Professor at the Faculty of Physics, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. His main domain of research interest is medical data and medical image analysis for the development of intelligent decision support systems in an interdisciplinary approach. He led the Non-invasive diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension research group at the LBI for Lung Vascular Research, in Graz, Austria between 2010-2016 (www.lvr.lbg.ac.at). From 2016 to 2020 he led the multidisciplinary team of the imATFIB project (https://imatfib.ro/?lang=en), a European Union founded research project at the IMOGEN Research Institute of the County Clinical Emergency Hospital of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The project focused on applied research for the development of imaging tools based on artificial intelligence and on preclinical and clinical studies to create medical systems advancing progressively to TRL4 stages. His current research interest includes the creation of novel solutions for medical image analysis and devices based on artificial intelligence and its clinical applications.
Metrics: Co-author of 4 national (2 Austrian, 2 Romanian) and 2 international patents on the topic of medical imaging, ISI Web of Science: 86 entries out of which 52 papers, 29 conference abstracts, 5 proceedings paper. Sum impact factor: 250.14, Sum citations: 1425, H-index: 22.
Maurizio Busacca (UniVen)
Maurizio Busacca - Maurizio Busacca Maurizio Busacca is Assistant Professor of Economic Sociology and Social Policy at Ca' Foscari University – Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage (Italy). His research focuses on social innovation, which he explores from three intertwined perspectives: labour transformation, the local welfare state, and collaborative spaces. He has participated in and coordinated a number of regional, national, and international research projects on topics including university public engagement, collaborative spaces, the balance between care, unpaid work, and paid work, and the relationship between the transformation of the welfare state, social work, and third sector organisations. Methodologically, action research is the pillar of his work. He regularly publishes in international social policy and economic sociology journals.
Richard King (UW)
Accordion content
Arnab Palit (UW)
Arnab Palit is an Assistant Professor (Research Focused) at WMG, University of Warwick. His research expertise includes joint and cardiac biomechanics, medical and µCT image processing, and motion analysis for early disease diagnosis, improved surgical planning, healthcare monitoring and implant quality inspection using in-vivo (human), in-vitro (cadaveric) and in-silico (physics-based and data driven computational modelling) techniques.
Arnab Palit is an Assistant Professor (Research Focused) at WMG, University of Warwick. His research expertise includes joint and cardiac biomechanics, medical and µCT image processing, and motion analysis for early disease diagnosis, improved surgical planning, healthcare monitoring and implant quality inspection using in-vivo (human), in-vitro (cadaveric) and in-silico (physics-based and data driven computational modelling) techniques.
