Bachelor or Master Thesis: Feasibility Study „Wearable Ultrasound Detector for Breast Cancer Detection“

 The aim of this work is to propose a first setup for a breast cancer detecting wearable ultrasound detector system (“USCT Bra”) based on the 3D ultrasound Computer Tomography method of KIT. The industrial cooperation partner IcosaMed (CH) is working on the development of a first wearable monitoring device for women’s breasts, in a “smart bra”. This solution will offer a simple monitoring solution for women with genetic breast cancer risk factors or cancer history. These populations represent respectively 0.3% and 3% of all women, or 1.3 million and 13.8 million women in developed countries.

The IPE at KIT developed a prototype for 3D ultrasound tomography (3D USCT) aimed at breast cancer diagnosis and carried out a first clinical study. The current prototype under commissioning is aimed at a larger multicenter study. The IPE also developed imaging algorithms and software as well as methods to optimize a given system layout. The current prototypes are stand-alone systems of the size of a patient bed with a transducer aperture with 34 cm diameter and 2304 ultrasound elements. The patient bed includes motion mechanics and data control and acquisition electronics.

The main challenge of this feasibility study will be to combine the ideas of a wearable USCT bra with the patient bed design of 3D USCT, i.e. to miniaturize the system. In this first step the system layout of the ultrasound transducer aperture in form of a bra will be considered. The feasibility study should result in a proposal for the number, position and needed characteristics (center frequency, bandwidth, and opening angle) of the ultrasound transducers and make a prediction about reachable resolution and contrast of reflectivity imaging.

Work plan:

• Research of state of the art (1 month)
• Simulation and optimization of bra aperture and transducers (3 months)
• Simulation and reconstruction of breast images (1 month)
• Documentation of results (1 month)

Starting date

as soon as possible

Personal qualification

Field of study: Electrical engineering, Informatics, Physics

Contract duration

6 month

Contact person in line-management

For further information, please contact Torsten Hopp, email: torsten.hopp@kit.edu or Nicole Ruiter, email: nicole.ruiter@kit.edu.

Please apply online using the button below for this vacancy number IPE 06-2022.

Ausschreibungsnummer: IPE 06-2022

Recognized severely disabled persons will be preferred if they are equally qualified.

Contact

Personnel Support is provided by:
Personalservice (PSE) - Human Resources
Ms Carrasco Sanchez
Phone: +49 721 608-42016,

Kaiserstr. 12, 76131 Karlsruhe

 

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