The article "A Numerical Optimization Method for Transducer Transfer Functions by the Linearity of the Phase Spectrum", is written by Kenneth Kirkeng Andersen, Martin Frijlink and Lars Hoff.

• Further reading: IEEE Editor's Selection Of Articles - August 2019

 - The method was designed by me and for me to use in my PhD work, Kirkeng says. The focus of my PhD has been on unconventional and often complex transducer designs; therein, transducers capable of having two or more frequency bands.   

• Further reading: Kenneths artikkel ble «Editor’s pick»

New ultrasound imaging and therapeutic modalities may require transducer designs that are not readily facilitated by conventional design guidelines and analytical expressions.

 - This motivates the investigation of numerical methods for complex transducer structures. The potential is to be able to optimise complex transducers, e.g. dual frequency transducers, Kirkeng explains.

The method has been used in e.g. A Harmonic Dual-Frequency Transducer for Acoustic Cluster Therapy and Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a Dual-Frequency Transducer for Acoustic Cluster Therapy Activation.

- This method is applicable to any transducer design where the conventional design guidelines and analytical expressions are not adequate, Kirkeng says.

Tormod Njølstad (59) is hired as Innovation Manager in the Ultrasound group at ISB by September 2018.

Helpful background from entrepreneurship

Tormod left his safe and permanent position as Associate Professor at Department of Electronic Systems at NTNU and established New Index in January 2003 in Trondheim, founded on his patented idea from year 2000 of making an interactive pen for projectors, which could modernize education at universities and in schools. The brand new technology he and his colleagues developed, transformed data projectors to be interactive data projectors that could completely replace the popular, but expensive interactive whiteboards.

New Index’ scalable and instant e-whiteboard was selected by the European Commission as one of the winners of the European Information Society Technologies (IST) Prize 2004, Europe’s most distinguished award for groundbreaking IST products.

• Futher reading: Pris til pekeverktøy (norwegian/TU.no)

During several years, Tormod and his colleagues demonstrated New Index’ progress in business-to-business trade shows in US and Europe, invited potential partners to Trondheim, and were invited to demonstrate the New Index’ technology in their head quarters in US, UK, and of course: in Japan! Tormod is no more sure about on how many trips to Japan he made over the years.

A dream comes true

In 2011 his dream came true: The largest data projector manufacturer in the world, EPSON in Japan, decided to include and integrate the New Index’ technology into their product roadmap, realizing Tormod’s patented idea from 2000 of an interactive projector. EPSON acquired New Index and the operation continued in Trondheim for seven years under the new company name EPSON Norway Research and Development AS. Already 6 month after the acquisition, the first interactive projector model was launched in the market by the joint work of the engineers in the Trondheim-based subsidiary of EPSON and the EPSON’s engineers in Japan.  Today (2018) there are nine different interactive EPSON projector models in sale with interactive technologies developed by Tormod and his colleagues in Trondheim, with a world marked share of about 70%.

Next goal: Innovation of new ultrasound methods, technologies and products for a better world

Tormod has gained a lot of experience from this long journey from an idea to world-wide distributed products. Now he is ready to learn more about ultrasound. In his new role as Innovation Manager in Ultrasound at NTNU, Tormod defines his mission to find out how ultrasound research can be transferred into new ultrasound methods and new ultrasound products for a better world as NTNU’s slogan.

The following committee has been appointed to evaluate his thesis, trial lecture and defence:

§  Adjunct Professor Markku Åberg, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

§  Professor II Dag T. Wisland, UiO

§  Professor Snorre Aunet, Department of Electronic Systems, NTNU

Professor Snorre Aunet, Department of Electronic Systems, NTNU, is appointed as the administrator for the assessment commitee.

The trial lecture will take place in Rådsrommet, Electro Building, Gløshaugen, 16 March from 10:15 on the following given topic: “High-Speed (Continous Time) Delta-sigma, SAR and Pipeline ADCs – Which Should be Chosen for Different Applications in the Frequency Range from 1 to 100 MHz.”

The defence will take place in Rådsrommet, Electro Building, Gløshaugen, 16 March from 13:15.

The trial lecture and defence are public and anyone interested is invited to attend.

Rune Kaald carried out his PhD work at the Department of Electronic Systems. His main supervisor has been Professor Trond Ytterdal.

By encapsulating drugs in nanoparticles, the drug can potentially be delivered more effectively to the target tissue while limiting exposure of healthy tissue, and thus reducing side effects of the treatment.

The nanoparticles she works with can stabilize microbubbles, which can be used for imaging and in combination with ultrasound to enhance the delivery of nanomedicine to tumours and across the blood brain barrier.

The interdisciplinary project is a collaboration between SINTEF, NTNU and St Olavs Hospital. Sofie Snipstad is employed at Department of Physics, and her supervisor is Catharina Davies, who is part of CIUS Work Package 5: Multimodality and interventional imaging.

See the Forsker Grand Prix semi-final at NTNU at NRK Kunnskapskanalen (in Norwegian)

You can also read about the research in this blog post: Boblende nanomedisin mot kreft (in Norwegian)