The main aim of this conference is to bring together professionals in both the Engineering and Medicine disciplines in order to foster collaborations between the two highly different fields to study congenital diseases.  While the interaction of medical doctors and research engineers is not particularly new (e.g. the Bio-X program at Stanford) for adult onset cardiovascular diseases, acquired diseases (e.g. heart failure, cerebral aneurysms), it is an emerging field for congenital heart and respiratory disease.  Congenital heart disease represents 1% of births in the USA and successful treatments represent opportunities for a lifetime of benefit for the individual and society.

Conference participants will have the opportunity to interact with each other and share medical and engineering related concepts and language.  The meeting will bring together students and experts in engineering and medicine for two days of presentations, discussions and brainstorming sessions while providing a forum for new collaborations. It will serve as a venue for participants to learn about, discuss and apply computational and engineering methods to problems in congenital heart and respiratory diseases.