2D coil design limits the use of wireless power transfer (WPT) in many products with freeform outer shapes. In this paper, enabled by 3D printed electronics, we propose a systematic approach to design and fabricate 3D coils for WPT. Based on the circular spiral and rectangular spiral patterns, 3D receiver and transmitter coils can be generated on an arbitrarily selected region of a product and its offset, respectively. Mathematical models are proposed to estimate the self-inductance and the mutual-inductance of the 3D arbitrarily shaped coils for 3D WPT. This leads to a new design approach of a 3D WPT system. Several sets of 3D printed WPT systems were designed, simulated, and prototyped to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design approach as well as the mathematical models. The calculation speed of the proposed mathematical models is 30 times faster than the simulation, and compared with the measurement results, the calculation results have mean absolute errors of 2.63% and 4.45% regarding the self- and the mutual-inductance, where the simulation results have mean absolute errors of 1.20% and 2.38%, respectively. Measurements also indicate that with a 5V input, the prototypes are able to deliver 1-watt power at an efficiency ranging between 20.9% and 25.3%. It was concluded that the proposed approach is feasible and promising for designing and manufacturing WPT using 3D printed electronics.

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In the past decade, wireless power transfer enabled many new applications. However, most designs of transmitter and receiver coils are 2D, which limits the possibilities of integrating them to more applications. In this paper, based on the Qi standard, we proposed a design of 3D coils by focusing on the 3D geometry of the coil, modelling, simulation and manufacturing. Using the 3D spiral transmitter coil and the receiver coil as an example, we present the mathematical model for WPT first. The performance of the model is then verified by FEM simulation. Three sets of 3D coils with different design parameters were prototyped by 3D printed electronics and measured against the model and the simulation results. Compared to the measurements, the model has average errors of 1.6%, 8.4% 8.5% regarding self-inductance, mutual-inductance and the coupling factor, where the simulation has average errors of 0.5%, 9.9% and 6.6%, respectively. Measurements also indicate that with a 5V input, the prototype is able to deliver 1-watt power at an average 20.5% efficiency without electromagnetic shielding. It was concluded that the proposed 3D coils designs are feasible and promising for WPT.@en

The 'joint assignment' is a creative bachelor education project for Biomedical Engineering (BME) in Shanghai University (SHU), China. The objective of this project is to improve students' capabilities in design thinking and teamwork through practices in the process of the design and development of complex medical product. As the first step, a pilot project 'design and development of intelligent nursing bed' was set up in May 2015. This paper describes details of how project organization and management, various teaching methods and scientific evaluation approaches were achieved in this pilot project. For example, a method containing one main line and four branches is taken to manage the project and 'prototyping model' was used as the main research approach. As a result a multi-win situation was achieved. The results showed, firstly, 62 bachelor students including 16 BME students were well trained. They improved themselves in use of practical tools, communication skills and scientific writing; Secondly, commercial companies received a nice product design on intelligent nursing bed, and have been working on industrializing it; Thirdly, the university and associated schools obtained an excellent practical education experience to supplement traditional class education; Fourthly and most importantly, requirements from end-users will be met. The results also showed that the 'joint assignment' task could become a significant component in BME bachelor education.

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Accurate segmentation of 11C-Pittsburgh compound B Positron Emission Tomography (11C-PiB PET) images may assist physicians in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the weak boundaries of high 11C-PiB concentration regions and the heterogeneous distribution of tracers often bring difficulties for segmentation algorithms. This paper aims at investigating the performance of Level Set Method (LSM)-based algorithms in PiB PET images segmentation. We thereby propose a T-L algorithm that uses the mean-thresholding algorithm (T algorithm) to generate the initial contours for the LSM-based algorithm. Priori structure knowledge, which is derived from the Anatomical Automatic Labeling (AAL) model in corresponding Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images, is incorporated in the T-algorithm. Seventy-four 11C-PiB PET images were used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithm. The experiment results indicate that, with respect to the dice similarity coefficient, the Hausdorff distance, and the coefficient of variation values, the proposed T-L algorithm (Dice: 94.8%±2.3%, COV: 0.02; HD:11±11 pixel, COV: 1; computing time: 7.39±0.16s) outperforms both the T-algorithm (Dice: 94.%±2.7%, COV: 0.03; HD: 18±18 pixel, COV: 1; computing time: 67.06±0.14s) and the manual assisted LSM-based algorithm (M-L algorithm) (Dice: 93.4%±3.8%, COV: 0.04; HD: 14±13 pixel, COV: 0.9; computing time: 0.33±0.02s). Furthermore, it is also able to save the time and effort of physicians. @en