California State University San Bernardino Department of Computer Science Masters Thesis Defense

Date Friday Nov 16th, 2007 Time 10:00AM-12:00PM Location JB 359

Title Image Reconstruction using PCT (Proton Computed Tomography)

Candidate Jihad Tafas

Advisor Dr. Keith Schubert

Committee Members Dr. Reinhard Schulte (LLUMC) Dr. Arturo I Concepcion (CSUSB) Dr. Ernesto Gomez (CSUSB)


Abstract
The growth of Proton therapy requires new imaging and treatment planning 
modalities. The image reconstruction problem for PCT is to obtain the best
estimate for the relative electron density map from the measured proton 
data. My challenge has two factors; the first is the static fluctuation of
the measured energy loss mainly due to the energy straggling, and the 
second is the statistical deviation of the proton from its most likely path
MLP due to multiple coulomb scattering.

This thesis is the first to challenge finding an optimized and effective 
interactive reconstruction algorithm taking into account the peculiarities
of proton transport through the object.