Events Calendar

Medical Imaging Seminar Series

Speaker: Prof. Justin Haldar, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California

Talk Title: "Constrained Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Signal Processing Methods for Denoising and Sparse Sampling"

Abstract: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging technologies have enabled new opportunities to reveal the mysteries of the central nervous system -- its function and organization, and what goes wrong when it is injured or diseased. MR experiments are quite flexible, and the MR signal can be manipulated to noninvasively probe anatomy, physiology, and metabolism. However, while MR imaging is decades old and has already revolutionized modern radiology, current methods are still far from utilizing the full potential of the MR signal. In particular, traditional MR methods are based on the Fourier transform, and suffer from fundamental trade-offs between signal-to-noise ratio, spatial resolution, and data acquisition speed. These issues are exacerbated in high-dimensional applications, due to the curse of dimensionality.

In this talk, I will present an brief overview of some of our recent work in applying novel signal processing techniques to enhance the efficiency of MR neuroimaging experiments. This efficiency is gained by modifying the way that MR data is acquired, modeled, and processed, leveraging physics-based constraints and guidance from new signal processing theory. Example applications of these new methods are presented in a range of different contexts, including diffusion imaging and metabolic imaging of the brain and spinal cord.

Biography: Justin Haldar received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and the Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in 2011, all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been with the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California since summer 2011, and was appointed as Assistant Professor in Fall 2012. His research interests include image reconstruction, signal modeling, parameter estimation, and experiment design for biomedical imaging applications, with a particular focus on magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy. He is currently seeking excellent students with a strong background in signal processing, and an interest in developing methods to improve existing advanced MRI methods and enable the next generation of imaging-based biomedical and neuroscientific inquiry.


Host: Prof. Krishna Nayak

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Talyia Veal