BME Lecture Series: Amir Amini, University of Louisville

Friday, April 21, 2017 - 12:00 p.m. to Saturday, April 22, 2017 - 11:55 a.m.
McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium
Amir Amini, Ph.D.

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Louisville

Abstract: In this talk, I will give an overview of our activities in two specific areas of biomedical imaging as relates to imaging of flow and motion. MRI has the unique ability to create tag saturation patterns in the myocardium through application of non-selective RF pulses prior to conventional imaging. We have been developing a set of techniques to determine 3-D regional myocardial strains from 4-D tagged MRI data. The phase of the MR signal is motion sensitive; spins in the presence of an external magnetic field gradient will accumulate a phase offset from which velocity of moving tissues and blood can be determined. However, the data is noise and artifact prone. In the second part of the talk, we will describe an in-vitro flow testbed that we have developed over the last few years, which allows for validation of MRI flow imaging methods. Recent work in the area of 4-D MR imaging of flow will also be presented.

Bio: Amini received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with high honors where at 18 he was the youngest member of his graduating class. He received an master's degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has had faculty appointments at Yale and Washington University in St. Louis and as of 2006 has been with the University of Louisville Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as full professor and Endowed Chair in Bioimaging with support from the Kentucky Research Challenge Trust. Amini is active in IEEE's Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society where he currently serves on its Advisory Committee, and received its Distinguished Lecturer Award. He currently serves on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, and IEEE Journal of Biomedical Health Informatics.