Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) uses measurements at body surface electrodes to calculate an image of the internal electrical properties. Such images provide useful information in medicine (i.e. blood and air flow), geophysics (i.e. ground water and mineral localization), and industrial process monitoring. The applicant is an internationally recognized expert in algorithms for EIT imaging and functional image analysis. In the past grant period, contributions have been disseminated by a) leading of consensus projects on algorithms and data analysis, b) an open-source software tool which has become the most widely used in the field, c) in the scientific literature (53 journal papers), and d) supervising 21 graduate students, 4 PDFs and 60 undergraduate students. Software developed by the research team is a core component of three companies' products.

Overall, research will focus on two streams: first, a Robust Algorithms and Validation theme (funded by this grant), which will develop an image evaluation and “debugging” framework, and, using the core technology developed, an Applications theme (funded by collaborators and industrial partners).

Despite its successes, EIT has been criticized for a lack of robustness, as the inverse problem inherent to image reconstruction is ill-conditioned, so that small data or model inaccuracies can result in large image artefacts. This research program will address this issue by developing a set of tools to analyse and correct inverse problem solutions. While several individual tools have been developed (by the applicant and others), the core innovation of this project is an integrated evaluation/debugging software framework. Three new components will be developed: a model and data validation tool, models of non-ideal characteristics of electronics hardware and electrodes (such as amplifier input impedance and crosstalk), and an image inspection tool to query the data contributing to suspected artefacts.

At the same time, work will be pursued on applications of EIT technology for medical and geophysical applications. Medical applications will focus on dynamic lung imaging (for use with neonatal, intensive care, and obstructive lung disease patients) and hemodynamic monitoring (non-invasive blood pressure and cardiac output measures). Geophysical applications will focus on monitoring of groundwater and surface movement in unstable (landslide-prone) soils and permafrost regions.