Public defence in Radio Engineering, M.Sc. Mariangela Baggio

The title of the thesis: Millimeter-wave techniques for the early detection of corneal water content

Doctoral student: Mariangela Baggio
Opponent: Prof. Enrique Castro Camus, Philipps‐Universität Marburg, Germany
Custos: Prof. Zachary Taylor, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering

Millimeter waves do not only have an exciting future in communications but can also be used in sensing as well as in medical applications. The short wavelength results in a high resolution, and the sensitivity to water content makes them suitable to analyze biological tissues or in general moisture in materials. At the moment, there is no non-destructive technique to measure absolute water content in the cornea. Such technique would be useful for the early diagnosis of diseases that perturb the corneal water content. In this doctoral thesis, millimeter-wave reflectometry is proposed to provide a feasible solution for the above-mentioned demand. 

The thesis investigated the use of millimeter waves to measure the water content in human cornea. In particular, the thesis focuses on millimeter wave reflectometry of a gelatin corneal model. In other words, it reports the study of the gelatin water content by analyzing the behavior of impinging millimeter waves. In this work, measurement setups were developed that allowed to implement corneal water content reflectometry. It also explores a different implementation of such technology, e.g., by integrating the millimeter-wave system with an adjunct infrared system which provides geometrical information of the cornea. 

In general, this work is also relevant for the microwave or millimeter-wave measurements of water content in other biological tissues. 

Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/eonly/riiputus/

Contact information:

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  Doctoral theses in the School of Electrical Engineering: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/53
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