ShapeWorks: An Integrated, Opensource Software for Shape Analysis in Engineering and Medicine

Researchers in engineering and medicine commonly use form (i.e., shape) to understand function. In medicine, abnormal morphology of the underlying anatomy often leads to impaired function. As such, analysis of tissue shape is central in diagnosis and treatment planning. In traditional engineering disciplines, the shape of a design is purposefully altered to improve efficiency, strength, and dynamics. Observations of shape are often qualitative, as the quantitative description of shape requires the application of mathematics, statistics, and computing to parse the shape into a numerical representation. ShapeWorks is an opensource software that enables learning population-level shape representation derived from imaging data, such as CT or MRI, and the associated 3D models of anatomy generated from them. ShapeWorks has the potential to transform the way researchers approach studies of anatomical form, engineering structures, and beyond. The utility of ShapeWorks has been demonstrated in a range of biomedical applications, including orthopaedics, cardiology, psychology, and biological phenotyping. The goal of this workshop is to introduce the community to ShapeWorks, an integrative, user-friendly, and scalable computational solution for constructing statistical shape models . The workshop will be led by Professor Andrew Anderson and Dr. Penny Atkins from the University of Utah. They will introduce theoretical applications of statistical shape modeling, highlight the robust utility of ShapeWorks, and present applications to link physics, form, and function of population-based modeling of anatomical variation through exemplary use cases. Ongoing research and development efforts that aim to increase the efficiency and broaden the application of shape analyses through machine learning and statistical parametric mapping will also be discussed