Course syllabus

SSY186 Diagnostic imaging lp4 VT21 (7.5 hp)
The course is offered by the Department of Electrical Engineering

Contact details

Examiner
Fredrik Kahl, fredrik.kahl@chalmers.se

Coordinator
Jennifer Alvén, alven@chalmers.se

Teachers 
Jennifer Alvén (introduction, image quality)
Andreas Fhager, andreas.fhager@chalmers.se (signals and systems, CT, ultrasound, microwave tomography)
Oscar Jalnefjord (MRI, X-ray, PET)
Emma Wikberg (SPECT)

Guest lecturers
Ola Hjelmgren, Kerstin Heurling

Course purpose

The aim of this course is for students to gain a basic understanding of the engineering aspects of both contemporary and state-of-the-art technologies used to create medical images. In addition the student is expected to gain an understanding of how such images are used by doctors to confirm and characterise a medical condition, as well as to assess response to treatment.

Course design

The course is divided into multiple learning blocks, where each block has its own module in canvas. Each block includes pre-recorded and/or zoom lectures paired with reading instructions, exercises and discussion sessions. For each of the three main blocks (magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray imaging, nuclear medicine imaging) there is also a small project. The course also includes two guest lectures. Due to covid-19, the course is fully remote, read more here.

Course literature

J. L. Prince, J. M. Links, Medical Imaging - Signals and Systems, Prentice Hall, 2006
M. Chappell, Principles of Medical Imaging - From Signals to Images, Springer 2019 (available as e-book via the Chalmers library)

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:
- describe the physical and biological basis of a range of contemporary and state-of-the-art medical image formation technologies;
- describe and apply the techniques and algorithms used in these technologies to generate/form images;
- compare and contrast competing image formation algorithms;
- implement one or more of these algorithms in software; and
- describe applications of these technologies and explain their limitations (e.g. for the detection and characterisation of abnormal tissue).

Link to the syllabus on the student portal: study plan

Examination form

Written exam with TH grading, and projects with assignments (pass/fail). Project points adds to the exam grading above pass. Due to covid-19, the written exam will be fully remote, read more here.