Doctoral Thesis: Handheld MRI for Point-of-Care and Educational Applications

Thursday, July 13
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

36-428 (Haus)

Irene Kuang

Abstract

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a powerful, non-invasive imaging modality for visualizing the body’s internal anatomy and providing contrast between soft tissues. However, the reach of clinical MRI scanners is limited by their expensive infrastructure (millions of USD), including radiofrequency (RF) shielded rooms and liquid helium-cooled superconducting magnets. Permanent magnet arrays present as a low-cost and portable alternative for point-of-care and educational MR applications, while sacrificing in image quality. This work focuses on the following contributions: (1) the development of a novel magnet topology inspired by the Aubert ring pair geometry, referred to as the “spokes-and-hub” configuration, which incorporates a computationally efficient equivalent charge magnetic field analysis technique using surface charges of bar magnets arranged in oppositely polarized rings; (2) the optimization of dithered RF pulses through the utilization of a microcontroller and inexpensive hardware; (3) the design of gradient encoding fields specific to the spokes-and-hub magnet; and (4) the reconstruction of images obtained from phantoms.               

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Jacob White

Details

  • Date: Thursday, July 13
  • Time: 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
  • Category:
  • Location: 36-428 (Haus)
Additional Location Details:

Zoom Link available upon request (email ikuang@mit.edu).