Biomedical Acoustics Online Seminar

UK Biomedical Acoustics SIG held their first online webinar on Zoom on Friday 26th June 2020. The webinar was organised by Dr Haydar Aygun (London South Bank University) and Professor Anna Barney (University of Southampton). The event was hosted by the Institute of Acoustics and UK Acoustics Network.

The webinar programme for the day consisted of a series of talks.

First speaker, Dr Frances Li (University of Salford), talked about the roles and state-of-the-art of modern signal processing of acoustical signal in biomedical engineering. He stated that human bodies constantly communicate information about their health and biomedical signal processing involves the analysis of measured physiological parameters to provide useful information upon which doctors can make decisions. Second speaker, Professor Bruce Drinkwater (University of Bristol), talked about biomedical applications of acoustics tweezers including single-axis acoustic levitators, simple in-plane acoustic manipulators and dynamic acoustic tweezers. Third speaker, Professor Keith Attenborough (Open University), promoted audio-frequency monitoring of health, stating that use of sounds and vibrations has been narrowly focused on individual organs and limbs.  Fourth speaker, Dr David Cheneler (Lancaster University) talked about diagnosing arthritic knees using vibration.  Professor Anna Barney (Southampton University) talked about acoustic monitoring of COVID-19 severity that included speech breathing of COVID patients and lung sound monitoring. Professor Barney finished her talk with some open questions and problems about predictability of pulmonary crackles in CV-19, creating disposable e-stethoscopes and coupling them to the smartphones. Jamie Scanlan (University of Salford) talked about modelling the vibro-acoustic characteristics of long bones to predict osteoporosis. Final speaker, Dr Gordon Hunter (Kingston University) talked about correlating information from acoustic and biomechanical signals to detect and monitor injuries to human knee joints.

The next item of online webinar was an open discussion on what members/attendees wanted from the BA SIG. Suggestions included organising trans-Atlantic webinars, establishing clinical links, forming spin-out company/groups, possibility of grant applications together, and identifying the big problems in clinical environment.

You can watch all presentations on the link provided below;

https://www.ioa.org.uk/uk-biomedical-acoustics-sig-webinar-26th-june-2020