ECE Seminar: Mammography using Low Frequency Electromagnetic Energy: Is it possible?

Abstract:

This work proposes the use of a breast screening modality that is highly similar to X-ray mammography but using low-power non-ionizing microwaves. Specifically, instead of the X-ray film, a metasurface film is used to capture an impression of the breast when illuminated by a low-power non-ionizing low frequency electromagnetic source. The fundamental principle of this technique relies on using a metasurface structure as a sheet to absorb the transmitted electromagnetic energy through the breast. An image that correlates to the composition of the breast is reconstructed by recording the microwaves power impression on the metasurface. Numerical experiments were carried out on numerical breast phantom, demonstrating the viability of the proposed method. The advantages of this new imaging modality is that it provides benign non-invasive breast screening for women at a cost significantly lower than traditional screening modalities such as CT Scan, MRI and X-ray mammography.

Biography:

Omar M. Ramahi (Fellow, IEEE) received the B.S. degrees (Highest Hons.) in mathematics and electrical and computer engineering from Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA, in 1984, and the MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Illinois, USA, in 1986 and 1990. He was with Digital Equipment Corporation (presently HP), MA, USA, where he was a member of the Alpha Server Product Development Group. In 2000, he joined the Faculty of the James Clark School of Engineering, the University of Maryland at College Park, MD, USA, as an Assistant Professor and later as a tenured Associate Professor, where he was also a Faculty Member of the CALCE Electronic Products and Systems Center. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, ON, Canada. He has authored and coauthored over 500 journal and conference technical articles on topics related to the electromagnetic phenomena and computational techniques. He has coauthored the book EMI/EMC Computational Modeling Handbook (first edition: Kluwer, 1998, Second Ed: Springer-Verlag, 2001. Japanese edition published in 2005). Prof. Ramahi received the 2004 University of Maryland Pi Tau Sigma Purple Cam Shaft Award. He received the Excellent Paper Award from the 2004 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Sendai, Japan, and the 2010 University of Waterloo Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision. In 2012, he was a recipient of the IEEE EMC Society Technical Achievement Award. In 2022, Professor Ramahi was the recipient of the 2022 University of Waterloo Engineering Research Excellence Award.