On Wednesday 12th of April, our group was visited by Dr Sam Van der Jeught, from the University of Antwerp, in Belgium.
Dr Van der Jeught is an AOG alumni, having completed part of his Masters degree at the Applied Optics Group in 2009-2010 as a Marie Curie fellow. During that period, he published one of the first studies involving the use of graphics processing unit (GPU) cards in speeding up the processing of OCT signals. Later on, as a Ph.D. student, he continued his collaboration with the AOG by performing the first three-dimensional characterisation of the human tympanic membrane thickness. Since 2022, he is a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Antwerp – full bio (and details of his talk) below.
Title: Optical techniques for real-time morphology measurement of the human eardrum
Abstract: The eardrum is the first component in the complicated mechanical system of the middle ear. To fully understand the functioning of the human hearing organ, and to optimize ossicular prostheses and middle ear implants, highly realistic computer models of the middle ear system are being developed. As input for such models, accurate geometric data of the eardrum are needed. In addition, the ear transports sound energy whilst dealing with large quasi-static pressure variations. Therefore, models need to be validated in this low-frequency high-pressure regime, especially since these large displacements form a particular problem in middle ear prosthesis design. Much research on in-vitro samples has already been performed in this area, but a technique to measure full-field deformation of the human eardrum has been missing. In this talk, we present several non-contact optical measurement techniques to measure real-time three-dimensional eardrum deformation.
Short bio: Sam Van der Jeught was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1987. He graduated as master in Physics in 2010 from the University of Antwerp, where he researched new ways of accelerating the digital signal processing algorithms involved in optical coherence tomography in a joint collaboration between the Laboratory of Biomedical Physics (BIMEF) and the University of Kent, UK. As a Marie Curie fellow, he was able to work at the Applied Optics Group (AOG) at the University of Kent for a period of ten months. He received his degree of PhD in Science: Physics in 2015 at the University of Antwerp for the dissertation entitled “Optical techniques for real-time morphology measurement of the tympanic membrane”. He is currently researching new optical methods for measuring human eardrum shape in real-time and in-vivo as a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Antwerp within the Faculty of Applied Sciences (InViLab).
Post-talk photo
