Elec Eng 4BF3: Medical Imaging
Overview:
This course, in a nutshell, is an expansion in some ways of the
Modelling Biological Systems course you should have previously taken last semester (if this isn't an elective for you). In short, this course gives you a broad look at what sorts of imaging techniques are available to biomedical engineers and other technicians involved; pure X-Ray, CT, SPECT, PET, Ultrasound, and MRI. MRI is the main focus of the course, however.
There was a midterm, 3 assignments, 6 labs (
not for marks), and an exam (tests open book).
Professor is highly approachable and personable; the course is really really fun fun and interesting, but it isn't for everybody.
Course Structure:
1 lecture a week (2 hour day class), one tutorial, 1 Lab EOW (every other week)
Tutorial addresses practice problems, assignment preparation, examples of concepts shown in class, or test preparation. The difference between this and the one in 4BC3 is that it is much more structured and formulaic. This of course depends on what TA is responsible for tutorial the semester you take this course.
Course website is kept up-to-date, lectures are usually not uploaded at time of lecture.
'Pre-reqs':
Math courses,
MATLAB knowledge, anatomy and physiology course, inorganic and organic chemistry, intro to biomed and writing skills.
Lectures:
Day lecture with 5 minute break. Lectures are very relaxed and survivable, as the professor who taught it when I took it, and probably will be for some time (Dr. Noseworthy) is a very charismatic guy and knows how to approach topics well. He knows when to gloss over certain information and doesn't spend time belaboring concepts taught in other classes but will go into detail when necessary.
Course Material:
Textbook - optional (but will aid a lot in assignment completion and for studying)
Lecture notes - will be your main source of studying or used on tests (see below)
Examination:
Midterm test -
open book for paper notes and textbook (no electronic devices), highly recommended you get the course notes organized and printed out; short answer, long answer, and fill-in-the-blanks (practice tests available). Short answers could be explaining a process such as how a modality works, its drawbacks, and so forth, drawing on parallels to lecture content. Long answers can be the same, or a derivation of something, usually related to some emission or photon interaction, magnetization, etc. Fill in answers will come from the lecture notes, such as random facts -- typically useful stuff and not dumb triva, like most tests that use this type of question.
Assignments (x3) - heavily focused on MATLAB and half analytics (figuring out things by hand); fairly marked, so as long as you explain a lot, you can get many part marks. Explanation is key.
Exam - exact same format as midterm (practice tests available)
Overall Impression:
This course is generally
fun and it's not too difficult to get a decent mark if you put in the effort; comparable to 4BC3, with the exception of assignments which are more difficult. Despite how cool everything is, this course is essentially the professor showing off his area of expertise (which is good if you're into that) but not a whole lot of take-away if you're not studying in depth away from lecture content. This is a meh course to take if you need a bump in mark without putting in too many hours studying, its interesting, but it won't complement your degree if you don't want to go into imaging. Very
mathy, especially with working in MATLAB.
In terms of time put into studying, and assignment, this course is far below average, and will make your semester easier, with the exception of assignments randomly coming up when you least expect them.