Andrew of The University of Auckland

Optical sensors and techniques are used widely in many areas of instrumentation and measurement.
Optical sensors are often, conveniently, ‘non-contact’ and thus impose negligible disturbance of the
parameter undergoing measurement. Valuable information can be represented and recorded in
space, time and optical wavelength. They can provide exceptionally high spatial and/or temporal resolution,
high bandwidth, and range. Moreover, optical sensors can be very inexpensive and
relatively simple to use.

At the Bioinstrumentation Lab at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, we are particularly interested
in developing techniques for measuring parameters from and inside and outside the body. Such
measurements help us to quantify physiological performance, detect and treat disease, and develop
novel medical and scientific instruments. In making such measurements we often draw upon and
develop our own optical sensing and measurement methods – from interferometry, fluorimetry and
diffuse light imaging, through to area-based and volume-based optical imaging and processing
techniques.

In this talk, I will overview some of the new interesting optically-based methods that we have recently
developed for use in bioengineering applications. These include 1) diffuse optical imaging methods for
monitoring the depth of a drug as it is rapidly injected through the skin, without requiring a needle; 2)
stretchy soft optical sensors for measuring strains of up to several 100 % during movement; 3) multicamera
image registration techniques for measuring the 3D shape and strain of soft tissues; 4) optical
coherence tomography techniques for detecting the 3D shape of deforming muscle tissues, and 5)
polarisation sensitive imaging techniques for classifying the optical and mechanical properties of
biological membranes.

While these techniques sensors and techniques have been motivated by our own applications in
bioengineering, the underlying principles have broad application to other areas of instrumentation and
measurement.

Biography:

Andrew Taberner is a physicist and bioengineer, and Associate Professor with the Auckland Bioengineering
Institute at University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2002-2008 he was a research scientist and
co-manager of the Bioinstrumentation Laboratory at MIT (Boston). Andrew teaches bioinstrumentation
and measurement in Biomedical Engineering. His teaching has been recognized by five “Top-teacher”
awards, and a ‘Sustained Excellence in Teaching’ award. He leads researchers in the design,
construction and development of novel instruments and medical devices. He has supervised 29 PhD,
18 ME and 62 honours students. Andrew has authored more than 140 refereed scientific articles in
journals and published conference proceedings, 115 conference abstracts, and published 27 issued
US, European and other patents. He received the 2014 New Zealand “Innovation Excellence in
Research” awards. He is the Chair of the New Zealand Chapter of the IEEE Instrumentation and
Measurement Society, and an editor for IEEE EMBS Pulse Magazine.

Email:

Address:Auckland, North Island, New Zealand