This imager is electronically reprogrammed in real time to access the optimized solution for an entire data set, realizing storage and transfer of full-resolution raw data in dynamically varying scenes. Here, we experimentally report a real-time digital-metasurface imager that can be trained in-situ to generate the radiation patterns required by machine-learning optimized measurement modes. Professor Nigel John, from the Visualisation and Medical Graphics Group, will also be involved in this project.Conventional microwave imagers usually require either time-consuming data acquisition, or complicated reconstruction algorithms for data post-processing, making them largely ineffective for complex in-situ sensing and monitoring. The successful student will be supervised by Professor Chris Hancock and Dr Martin Booton from Creo Medical Limited. This project provides an opportunity for a student with a level of competence in microwave or communications engineering, together with an interest in medicine, to work in the exciting and fast growing field of microwave based medical systems. This research very much a multi-disciplinary and will involve interaction with surgical oncologists (neurosurgeons), clinical and regulatory experts, the Visualisation and Medical Graphics Group in Bangor, and external antenna design consultants. The structures will be tested in the Microwave Engineering lab using In-vitro tissue models and the results will be discussed with leading neurosurgeons. The student will have the opportunity to attend workshops and tutorial sessions given by CST. The student will also be expected to use one of the industry standard electromagnetic field simulation suites CST Microwave Studio to carry out field simulations using representative tissue models.
*Project Title 2*: New Antenna Structures for Controlled Delivery of Millimetre Wave Energy for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Brain Tumours This work will involve design, electromagnetic field simulation and development of near field antenna structures for treating brain tumours. Professor Nigel John, from the Visualisation and Medical Graphics Group, will also be involved in this project. The successful student will be supervised by Professor Chris Hancock and Dr Nuwan Dharmasiri from Creo Medical Limited. The primary application for the integrated temperature sensing array and associated treatment antennae is the treatment of brain tumours using millimetre wave energy. This project is focussed on analogue circuit design, but is also a multi-disciplinary project that will involve interaction with surgical oncologists, the Visualisation and Medical Graphics Group in Bangor, and external antenna designers. In-vitro tissue trials will be set up in the lab to demonstrate the temperature measurement system. The student will also be expected to use LabVIEW graphical programming environment (or similar) to enable the signals from the instrumentation to be captured and the temperature profile to be displayed in a user friendly manner. This work will involve the design and development of an array of miniature temperature sensors that can be distributed over the surface of a tumour ablation antenna, and associated analogue signal conditioning circuitry to enable the temperature profile along the shaft and at the radiating tip to be measured during a tumour treatment procedure. *Project Title 1*: Instrumentation Development for Measuring Temperature Profiles During Microwave Ablation of Cancerous Tumours.