Supervisor

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Abstract

The inspired sinewave device is a novel non-invasive medical device to measure lung function and pulmonary blood flow. It works by delivering small doses of tracer gases into the patient breaths and measuring the responses in the expired breaths. The device is being developed towards commercialisation. A lung simulation that could be used by non-expert computer scientists (such as nurses and medical doctors) would be a useful addition to the technology.

Objectives: To develop a user-friendly lung simulation to help predicting the responses of the inspired sinewave tests in various lung conditions, from healthy to diseased. The simulation consists of 2 key parts: the GUI and the lung model. The GUI: (i)                   The GUI would allow users to enter different inspired sinewave test settings and change parameters of the lung model. (ii)                 The output of the simulation would be a visualisation of the simulated test and also an excel file of simulated data for back-testing of the device algorithms (already developed). The lung model: the mathematical equations for the model have already been established and will need to be implemented in either Matlab or Simulink. Details of the mathematical lung model are available up on request.

Prerequisites: The student should: _ be competent in Matlab (Simulink would be a bonus). _ be competent in implementing differential equations. _ have an interest in computational biology and mathematical modelling.