The physics of physiology (or biophysics) underpins our understanding of how the human being functions both in health and disease. Biophysics involves probing mechanisms and processes happening at scales from the whole body down to subcellular and molecular interactions. One way to do this effectively is through careful modelling and analysis of predicted results.
In this course we present a bond graph approach to multiscale modelling that ensures both consistent conservation principles and physical units are applied at all scales. Modelling concepts and theory, the development of models for key biophysical problems and what their solutions and predictions show us are all covered. Examples of bond graph models applied to diverse research projects will be presented, together with a selection of other important biophysical modelling tools.
Students will apply what they learn into wider bioengineering contexts through reviewing literature, developing and implementing their own models, computing results and presenting this work to peers.