Student Profile: Niousha Bolandzadeh

CS Masters student follows her passion for medical imaging to the U of A

News Staff - 15 December 2014

How do you choose a university when you live overseas? Well, this Iranian grad student's interest in medical imaging drew her to the high level projects, great facilities and outstanding professors in Computing Science at the U of A.

Niousha had the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Carlos Flores Mir from the Faculty of Dentistry. Her project, supervised by Dr. Boulanger and Dr. Bischof, involves the development of new technologies capable of evaluating the outcome of orthodontic surgeries and progressions over long periods of time.

She uses two kinds of medical images in her studies - CBCT, which scans hard tissue (bone structure), and Photogrammetry, which produces a 3D representation of skin. By giving a methodology forregistering, or overlaying, these images, she can then measure differences that may signal swelling or unwanted changes to the teeth and jaw.

Now, nearing the end of her degree, Niousha looks back fondly at the time she's spent studying at the U of A and living in Edmonton.

"The community of people is really helpful here," says Niousha. "I had never lived on my own before, so having people guiding me - from the first steps of finding accommodations to writing my thesis - has truly helped me adjust to living away from home."