The inventor of the first fully implantable ventricular assist device spoke at the Happy Valley SolidWorks User Group's inaugural meeting Wednesday night.

About 80 people attended the event in 113 IST, an auditorium-style classroom known as the "cybertorium."

SolidWorks is engineering design and simulation software used by Penn State's engineering department, said Mike Sabocheck, technical manager for the SolidWorks corporation.

Gerson Rosenberg, inventor of the LionHeart ventricular assist device, was the keynote speaker for the event because he used SolidWorks software in his design process.

The LionHeart is the world's first fully implantable ventricular assist device, which is used to treat congestive heart failure, according to hmc.psu.edu. It is "fully implanted in the body and does not replace the heart, but assists in the pumping function of the heart's left ventricle," according to the Web site.

Rosenberg is a professor of surgery and bioengineering at Penn State Hershey as well as the chief of its artificial organs division.

People with congestive heart failure usually have a highly diminished quality of life, mostly confined to a bed, Rosenberg said.

When designing the LionHeart, Rosenberg's goal was to have it last for five years inside the human body. He said he used the SolidWorks software to simulate wear and tear on components of the LionHeart.

By being fully implantable, all parts of the LionHeart remain inside the human body, except for the power supply. The device uses transcutaneous energy transmission, Rosenberg said, meaning electricity is transmitted across the skin.

Patients are able to remove the power supply for a limited amount of time and Rosenberg presented a video of one such patient in a swimming pool.

The formation of the SolidWorks group was to "provide a network for students and industry folks to interact," professor Randall Bock said.

The group, composed of students, faculty and corporate sponsors, plans to meet twice a semester, he added. The group's meetings will feature presentations in engineering design and analysis using SolidWorks, according to Bock.