Bachelor or Master project: Simulation of defibrillation

• Wanted: We are looking for physics/engineering/computer science students with interest in simulation, programming, data analysis & visualisation who want to do their Bachelor or Masters project with us.

• Task: contribute to building a model of the human body, in particular lungs and heart to study electric current pathways. Use the model to simulate defibrillation currents.

• Impact: Planned applications include a better understanding of current pathways and intensities in defibrillation following cardiac arrests. Together with medical experts, we aim to improve the success rates of defibrillation following cardiac arrests.

  

• Expectations:

  • scientific approach to research problems

  • ability to collaborate with interdisciplinary team (we work with medical experts in this project)

  • programming skills and interest/desire to improve those

  • Python experience, knowledge of any of the tools listed below is useful

• Things you will learn include:

  • background knowledge about cardiac arrest and defibrillation

  • some of the tools listed below

  • data analysis of 3d fields and visualisation

  • solving PDEs numerically using finite differences and/or finite elements

  • use of libraries and tools to simplify the process

• Likely tools you might be using include:

  • git, Python, perhaps py.test

  • Jupyter notebooks

  • numpy & xarray - dealing with n-dimensional arrays of data

  • scipy & pandas - scientific computing and data science tools

  • matplotlib - 2d plots

  • PyVista / paraview - interactive 3d plots in notebooks and standalone

  • finite element simulation packages, such as FEniCS or scikit-fem, perhaps Jax or pytorch as GPU-enabled linear algebra backends..

  • domain specific software

• More context:

  Cardiac arrest is a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. For a fraction of patients, this originates from the heart trying to beat but doing so in an uncorrelated and uncoordinated way - as a result, no blood is being pumped. In this case of ventricular fibrillation, a defibrillation device can re-instantiate the regular heart beat and save the patient’s life.

• Place of work: Computational Science group at Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter on DESY campus

• Interested? Related interests?

  Get in touch with Hans Fangohr (hans.fangohr@mpsd.mpg.de) for informal enquiries.

https://s.gwdg.de/ca8iIG