EIT 2020 is being organised by members of the Translational Medical Device Lab at NUI Galway:
Barry McDermott
Dr Barry McDermott is a Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer in both the School of Engineering, and the School of Medicine at NUI Galway. Barry holds a Ph.D. in Medical Device Engineering with his thesis based on EIT applied to the stroke problem. Additonally Barry holds professional level degrees in Engineering, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine. Barry's research includes EIT applied to clinical problems, but he also actively works on the development of innovative therapeutics for conditions such as osteoarthritis, and particularly is interested in the interface between drugs and devices.
Niko Ištuk
Niko is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in Innovative Training Network EMERALD. He is currently working towards his PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the National University of Ireland Galway under the supervision of Dr Martin O’Halloran. His main research area is characterisation of tissue dielectric properties. Niko received his BSc in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology in 2010. and MSc in Communication and Information Technology in 2013, both from University of Split.
Laura Farina
Dr Laura Farina is a Research Fellow in the Translational Medical Device Laboratory, NUI Galway, and Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Engineering, NUI Galway. She received her Ph.D. in ICT (Applied Electromagnetism) in 2017, from Sapienza University of Rome, and she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie MedTrain Fellow at CÚRAM, NUI Galway, from 2018 to 2020. Laura's research interests include novel electromagnetic-based medical applications, from thermal treatments optimisation to innovative monitoring solutions, through accurate characterisation of the electrical properties and physiological changes of the biological tissue.
Alistair Boyle
Dr. Alistair Boyle is CTO at Kite Medical, an Irish company developing an EIT-based system to detect kidney reflux (vesicoureteral reflux, VUR) in young children. VUR is a condition where urine flows backwards from the bladder to kidneys. Alistair holds a PhD and MASc from Carleton University, Canada where he focused on EIT electrode movement in biomedical and geophysical settings. He previously worked in integrated circuit design at small startups and large international companies.
Marcin J. Kraśny
Dr Marcin J. Kraśny is a postdoctoral researcher in the Smart Sensors Lab in the School of Medicine at NUIG working on impedance-based ablation assessment system for improved atrial fibrillation treatment. He holds a PhD in the field of characterisation of piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting applications from the University of Bath (UK). His previous work includes development of EIT systems and electrical characterisation of gels used for MRI phantoms. He worked for several years in industry as an electronics engineer. Marcin received his M.Sc.Eng. degree in Electronics and Communication with specialisation in Microsystems from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (Poland).
Ana González-Suárez
Dr Ana González-Suárez is a Senior Research Fellow in the Translational Medical Device Lab and Adjunt Lecturer in the School of Engineering at NUI Galway. She received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) focused on RF ablation techniques for removing cardiac arrythmias and tumors in a minimally invasive way. She conducted research stays at Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA) and at Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, USA). Ana’s research interests include the development of a disruptive solution to treat cardiac arrhythmias in collaboration with AtriAn, which is an Irish Medical Device company based in Galway.
Hamza Benchakroun
Hamza Benchakroun is a Ph.D. student in the Translational Medical Device Lab. His AuriGen Medical funded project involves an investigation into a reliable probe set up to measure the electrical properties of biological tissues in order to improve arterial fibrillation therapy using optimised pulsed field ablation. He is a graduate of The Faculty of Sciences Semlalia of Marrakech, Morocco in Electronics Engineering and Industrial Computing, and holds a Masters degrees in Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering at Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetouan, Morocco with first-class honours. After his Masters degree, he spent two years working with The Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM) in the scientific park at the Polytechnic University of Valencia developing systems for Microwave Breast Cancer Imaging.
