In imaging applications used for everything from astronomy to medical imaging, scientists aim to extract maximum information from each tiny bit of light they capture. However, current approaches lose information during data processing, necessitating new imaging methods to make each photon count.
Abhinav Jha, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering and of radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the School of Medicine, both at Washington University in St. Louis, will develop one such method with a five-year $500,000 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.
Jha's CAREER project focuses on developing new approaches to process data from list-mode imaging systems. These systems collect and store data for every photon they detect, rather than producing a single image from a continuous stream of data as traditional imaging systems do. The goal with the data acquired from list-mode imaging systems typically is to perform some task, such as detection of a gamma-ray burst in astronomy or estimation of tumor volume in medical imaging.
