Free public lecture on computer science

The third in the series of free public Gibbons lectures takes place this Thursday 19th May at 6:30pm. This week's lecture titled: A case study of IT in Medical Imaging: The evolution of Computed Tomography is given by Professor Anthony Butler, Head of the Department of Radiology and Director of Centre for Bioengineering & Nanomedicine, University of Otago at Christchurch. When x-rays were first discovered, medical images were viewed with devices such as fluorescent screens and eventually from x-ray film images. In the 1970’s, with the introduction of computers, 3D x-ray images could be produced using machines known as Computed Tomography scanners, or simply CT scanners. More recently, by adapting microchip technology for use in x-ray detectors, it has become possible to measure the x-ray colour (or spectrum) in CT. This facilitates the measurement of tissue constituents that were previously difficult to discern. Medical researchers are applying this new knowledge to problems in vascular disease, cancer, and joint disease. This talk outlines the development of medical x-ray technology, highlighting advances made by NZ researchers over the last 45 years.  More details about the talk, time and venue are here. If you were unable to attend the previous week's lectures they can be streamed from here.