HALO MRI

Overview

Halo MRI is a capstone project undertaken in my final year of my undergraduate electrical engineering degree, along with a team of 4 other students.

The project aimed to determine the optimal location of each permanent magnet in a Halbach array for a low-field MRI machine, focusing on design and software development. There were three deliverables: an analytical representation, physics simulation, and an optimization procedure, along with documentation of the work done to facilitate continuation by future students. The project sponsor planned to use the proposed design to construct a fully operational low-field MRI machine.

Takeaways

This project gave key insights into the use of various industry-standard simulation programs, such as COMSOL Multiphysics for magnetic field simulation and 3D modelling.

The optimization procedure allowed for a low-level understanding of various minimization techniques. Namely, stochastic gradient descent was explored from scratch and developed in a pipeline that would allow for interfacing between a python optimization script and the COMSOL simulation.

In addition to the technical skills that I gained from undertaking this project, working as a team was a valuable experience which allowed our team to combine our unique skills and knowledge to solve complex problems. One of the key takeaways was the ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with others, which is essential in any engineering project. Team members learned to prioritize tasks and manage time effectively to meet project deadlines, as well as how to adapt and respond to changes and challenges that may arise during the project.