Christian Kanarski, Karolin Krüger and Tobias Schmidt (on the picture from left to right) are joining the DSS team as new PhD students.

Christian starts with the research on hydroacoustic methods for backscattering object detection in the sea column (e.g. gas bubbles) with the use of MIMO-SONAR, orthogonal signals and adaptive Doppler analysis for pattern recognition of backscattering object properties. Deep-learning approaches such as reinforcement learning are also investigated for autonomous control of the cognitive SONAR system.

Karolin continues and expands her research about objective speech analysis from her master’s thesis. The developed tool should assist speech therapists in evaluating patients suffering from dysphonia. In the future the analysis should be complemented by a training application to complement therapies by offering the opportunity for a computer-based training at home.

Tobias starts to research about the simulation of different magnetic sources. In the further course the work is about the localization of a magnetic sensor in a predefined magnetic field. The developed application can be used for example to determine the position and orientation of medical devices such as "system control gloves".

A new podcast on our research on signal processing for underwater applications is online now. Liv Schnoor (previously Presser) interviewed Karoline Gussow, Bastian Kaulen, Gerhard Schmidt, and Owe Wisch on our latest research. It was really fun for us and the time (about on hour) was over really soon.

If you like to listen to the podcast you can do that e.g. on Spotify (available for free). More about the podcast from Liv ("Was steckt dahinter") can be found e.g. on Liv's instagram page.

On February 4th, Eric Elzenheimer sucessfully defended his PhD work. Eric worked on magnetic and electric analyses to investigate nerve and muscle signals. A group of five investigators (Gerhard Schmidt, Helmut Laufs, Daniel Baumgarten, Michael Höft, and Eckhard Quandt) asked Eric a lot of questions that were all answered in excellent manner by Eric. Thus, he finished with distinction.

Congratulations from the whole DSS team.

Yulia and Anton are pretty proud parents now. Little Mikael "arrived" at the end of August and he is now the new member in the famous Namenas family. We hope to see him soon here at the faculty.

Congratulations from the whole DSS team.

As part of this year's GaS Online General Assembly, Moritz Boueke, B.Sc., was awarded the title "Human Movement Classification using IMUs in Real-time" for his bachelor thesis. Mr. Boueke's work focused on the detection and differentiation of various everyday activities based on sensor data collected with inertial measurement units (IMUs). In our ageing society, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's are of high clinical relevance. In this context, the recording of movement patterns is an important tool in diagnosis and therapy. The trend is shifting from measurements in the clinical movement laboratory to measurements in the home environment, in which wearable sensors (so-called wearables) are used.

The identification of activities in the comparatively large amount of data is an important step in order to subsequently carry out targeted medical analyses, in which e.g. only stand-up processes are to be considered. As part of his work, Mr. Boueke has created extensive signal processing structures in the real-time framework KiRAT (Kiel Real-Time Application Toolkit), which lay a foundational foundation for this. This includes pre-processing of the sensor data, feature extraction, a decision tree for the actual classification and the preparation of intermediate results for visualization. As a result, activities such as "walking", "brushing" or "sitting down" can now be classified in real time with a state-of-the-art IMU system.

Neurogeriatrics, Department of Neurology, UKSH Campus Kiel, under the direction of Professor Walter Maetzler, acted as a medical project partner: "The award-winning work here is extremely innovative and user-oriented in an area that we physicians have paid too little attention to date: the natural home environment of our patients. With the presented work, Mr. Boueke succeeds in classifying relevant activities of daily life. This can be built on in many ways, with the ultimate goal of better diagnosis and treatment, especially of movement disorders. I would therefore like to congratulate Mr. Boueke and the supervisors on their work!" said Maetzler.

Congratulations from the whole DSS team.

Our university awards excellent achievements of female students in mathematics, IT, natural sciences and technology (known as the MINT subjects). This year Patricia Fuchs was awarded for her Bachelor thesis on the development and implementation of a magnetic heart axis estimation. We congratulate Patricia Fuchs to the EmpowerMINT award.

The thesis was supported with technical and medical expertise. In order to be able to compare the magnetically achieved results with conventional examinations (based on ECG), test persons were examined by Dr. Daniel Körbächer in his practice in Mönkeberg. The same persons were then magnetically measured at the Faculty of Engineering. Through this new method, the heart position of patients can be estimated more accurately and also in 3D (so far, this analysis is carried out only in the body level, i.e. in 2D). Ms. Fuchs was also supported by Prof. Frey, Head of Cardiology at the Heidelberg Hospital (and also a member of the SFB 1261). Erik Engelhardt and Gerhard Schmidt supervised the work on behalf of the Faculty of Engineering.

The picture shows Patrica Fuchs (center) and all supervisors (Daniel Körbächer, Erik Engelhardt, Gerhard Schmidt, Norbert Frey, from left).

Ms. Karoline Seidel is now a Mrs. Karoline Gussow. We are very happy that our Hiwi and Bachelor thesis student is married now. At the beginning of this week lectures on adaptive filtering, in the middle of the week SONAR measurements on the Förde (see small picture) and at the end of the week a marriage - wow, what a week! We are curious what the weekend will bring up ...

Congratulations to this very nice step in life from the whole DSS team!

Jannek Winter and Tim Rocholl designed and facricated a new DSS sign for us. A very nice one - see the picture. After some discussion we decided to put it on the wall in Gerhard Schmidt's office. This shows the DSS logo now in every online meeting he participates in the background. Tim Rocholl is still doing his Master courese, but Jannek Winter has finsihed his study period now and continues in idustry.

Thanks to both of you from the whole DSS team!

Patricia Piepjohn received the second place of the Prof. Petersen prize (Prof. Petersen Preis der Technik) for her master thesis. The Prof. Petersen prize is the highest endowed award for Bachelor/Master theses in the field of technical studies.

Patricias thesis was about real-time classification of movement patterns of tremor patients, which she is continuing now as part of her PhD. Congratulations for this award from the whole DSS team!

On Wednesday, 2nd of September, Liv Preßer, interviewed us about or research on Parkinson speech analysis and corresponding therapy. The story appeared in Liv's podcast called "Was steckt dahinter". If you would like to hear it, please have a look on this website. Beside this website there are a couple of further possibilities: e.g. search for "Was steckt dahinter" on spotify.

Beside Liv Presser and Gerhard Schmidt, also Corina Maetzler (from the geriatrics department of the university hospital here in Kiel (UKHS) and Heidi Nebel from the neurologic department (also UKSH) participated in the podcast recording. Together, we reported on our research results, the probelms that we faced when conduction our experiments and patient recordings, and on our future plans.

More details on Liv's podcast can be found here.