IEEE NUCLEAR SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM
& MEDICAL IMAGING CONFERENCE
21ST SYMPOSIUM ON ROOM-TEMPERATURE
SEMICONDUCTOR X-RAY AND GAMMA-RAY DETECTORS
Washington State Convention Center • Seattle, WA USA • 8-15 November 2014

Joint Session Day

A full-day, joint sessions for the NSS, MIC, and RTSD communities will be organized as a "Joint Sessions Day" for Wednesday, 12 November. This new experimental approach intent to simplify the program by decreasing the number of parallel competitive sessions and avoid duplication of similar presentations between communities and consequently increase the visibility of selected papers.

A full-day, joint sessions for the NSS, MIC, and RTSD communities will be organized as a "Joint Sessions Day" for Wednesday, 12 November. This new experimental approach intent to simplify the program by decreasing the number of parallel competitive sessions and avoid duplication of similar presentations between communities and consequently increase the visibility of selected papers.

The final selection of papers to be included in the Joint Session will be made jointly by the NSS, MIC, and RTSD organizers.

There will be four Joint sessions (preliminary schedule)

  • NSS-RTSD in parallel with MIC opening
  • NSS- MIC-RTSD in the late morning
  • NSS MIC(1 & 2) in the early and late afternoon

Example topics of particular relevance are listed below.


Patrick Le Dû
Joint Sessions Chair
CNRS/IN2P3 - France

Advanced Multimodality Endoscopic Instruments

All aspects related to intra-operative probes (e.g., gamma probes, beta probes as well as optical and other probes using non-ionizing radiation) with special emphasis on advances for monitoring therapy, minimally invasive treatment, as well as novel portable and/or dedicated imaging systems (e.g., portable CT, mobile PET-CT) that open new opportunities in bedside imaging (e.g., intensive care units, in the surgery theater, in room real time imaging during treatment).

Front-end Electronics, Signal Digitization and Processing

This topic includes state of the art developments applied to biomedical devices:

Front end fast digitizers
Ultra-fast ADCs and Switched Capacitor Arrays in the GHz range and their applications.
Realtime system architectures
Includes architectures dealing with realtime data acquisition, extraction, compression, signal processing and storage applied to the medical sciences.
Intelligent signal processing
Includes front end signal processing, ultrafast analog and timing converters, and digital signal processing mandatory to compress and extract data in real time.
Programmable devices
Includes techniques for programming FPGAs, GPUs, DSPs, and reconfigurable hardware.
Fast data transfer links and networks
Includes every data transfer protocol from local data transfer up to global fast networks with their associated hardware (routers, switches, etc.)
Trigger systems
As applied to the medical imaging devices.
Data acquisition
Readout data paths and system architectures as well as conceptual design for small and large medical instruments.
Image Processing
Processing farms for high performance image reconstruction.
Image Guided Radio and Particle Beam Therapy

Recent advances in the precision of the delivery of photon and hadron beams has yielded increasing developments in the development of unconventional approaches to image guided radiotherapy. This topic focuses on innovative research for the integration of imaging at the treatment site, as well as emerging techniques of in-vivo range verification in hadron therapy. Novel applications of existing technologies or innovative solutions offering new image guidance possibilities in real time environment for photon, proton and ion beam therapy and CT controls are encouraged.

New Detectors Developments for Biomedical Applications

Extensive research efforts are underway to better take advantage of physically available signals, either to enhance the performances of established imaging techniques (e.g., ultra-fast PET detectors), or to use new information (e.g., spectral X-ray and CT imaging). This session will target original contributions specifically addressing innovative developments in emerging new detector materials and technologies or a broad range of applications in medical imaging, with special emphasis on recent advances in the field (e.g., ultrafast scintillators, single photon counting detectors). Moreover, presentation and evaluation of innovative detector materials/technologies that are promising but not mature enough for clinical are particularly encouraged.

Scintillators and Photodetectors

Scintillator research is a truly multidisciplinary field including contributions from solid-state physics, chemistry, optics, materials science, and crystallography. Successful implementation of scintillator technology requires in depth understanding of fundamental mechanisms, timing characteristics, energy resolution, light collection, optical coupling, thermal response, radiation damage, photodetectors, and their readout electronics. This topic provides an international forum for researchers of both NSS and MIC,, manufacturers, and end users to discuss the latest developments in the field and to anticipate future trends.

The topics to be covered include:

  • New scintillation materials
  • Fundamentals of scintillation mechanisms
  • Crystal growth and other synthesis technologies
  • Photodetectors
Semiconductor-Based Imaging Systems

New semiconductor radiation detectors and imaging arrays. Semiconductor detectors for X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutron radiation are increasingly finding applications in medicine like, X ray imaging, PET scanners, solid state dosimetry etc. The objective of this topic is to present the state of the art in the development of wide band-gap semiconductors for radiation detection, including crystal growth, materials and detector characterization, device fabrication processes, low-noise electronics for readout, and applications.

Simulation and Modelling

This topic focuses on original validation and development of simulation tools aiming to support hardware and software developments in single or multi-modalilty imaging systems, as well as their application to medical imaging in diagnostics and therapy, with special emphasis on nuclear medicine. In particular, we welcome innovative contributions addressing crucial modeling aspects in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy in reproducing the physical interactions which affect the performances of the medical imaging systems.