The 2nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Scottish Ultrasound Group (SUG) was held at University of Strathclyde on the 28th of February 2020, the first SUG event since merging with the SINAPSE Ultrasound topic group in 2019.
The programme began with a welcome from Dr Helen Mulvana, who then introduced Alexander Weir of Canon Medical Research Europe to deliver a plenary talk on ‘The Future of AI in Healthcare‘.
The first themed session of the day followed, on the topic of Ultrasound & Automation. Three speakers presented on their work at University of Strathclyde: Robert Watson on ‘Dry-Coupled Ultrasonic Inspection from an Overactuated Unmanned Aerial Vehicle‘, Rastislav Zimerman on ‘Implementation of Ultrasonic Total Focusing Method for multi-interface inspection of components with non-planar surfaces manufactured using Wire+Arc Additive Manufacture‘, and Momchil Vasilev on ‘In-process ultrasonic inspection of S275 steel GTAW butt welds through air-coupled ultrasonic guided waves‘.
After the lunch break, the second themed session began, on the topic of Medical Imaging & Therapy. Dr Vassilis Sboros from Heriot Watt University presented his recent and on-going translational work using super-resolution ultrasound imaging in prostate cancer detection, and then shorter project talks were given on ‘Elucidation of biological mechanisms of clinically viable low frequency ultrasound applicator for chronic wounds therapy‘ by Olivia Ngo, a visiting PhD student from Drexel University, ‘Photoacoustics: metrological applications and requirements for quantitative imaging‘ by Dr Aoife Ivory, a Higher Research Scientist at National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and ‘Ultrasound and Microbubble Gene Delivery for Targeting Altered Placental microRNAs‘ by University of Glasgow PhD student Sonya Frazier.
An afternoon coffee break gave attendees an opportunity to visit posters on display, and exhibitor tables staffed by meeting sponsors Novosound, NPL, and Ballater Medical. The meeting reconvened with the third and final themed session, on the topic of New Developments in Ultrasound Sensing. Dr Dave Hughes, Founding Director of Novosound, presented on ‘Development of new materials and their commercialisation‘, followed by two speakers from the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering (CUE) at University of Strathclyde: Peter Lukacs, on ‘Laser induced phase array with synthetic reception‘, and Euan Foster, on ‘Inspection of Nuclear Assets with Limited Access‘.
The programme concluded with a lively networking activity and then awards were presented by Helen Mulvana, shown below with the winning presenters.
