The Canon Bio-Technology Project: Volumetric Medical Imaging

Abstract

Working with Canon's medical team for ten weeks gave me great insight into which direction I wanted to take in the field of computer science. I realized that working in an individualized programmer's setting was not for me; there was not enough interaction with other employees to satisfy my comfort level. At the same time I was always interested in finding ways of combining my two interests in computer science and medicine. I enjoyed the work I completed for Canon and I learned a great deal about the advances in x-ray imaging. The projects I completed taught me new skills that covered different aspects of computer science. The first project, Tomcat, gave me a chance to understand how web servers work. This helped me to understand how many of the web pages on the Internet function. By completing this project I had the knowledge necessary to set up my own server to work with a web application. This introduced web development and its applications as a possible career. The second project I worked on, Web Archive Files (*.war) also served as an extension for understanding web development. This was an important project because it helped me understand how the Internet could be used as a tool for research. I also gained knowledge about file structures and their hierarchies. The volume rendering software and the conversion program allowed me to work with a variety of topics from binary code to reading spec files to programming. I was given the opportunity to take two-dimensional images, break them down at the binary level, and rebuild them as three-dimensional volume rendering images (voxel files). By completion of the program, I had used a variety of theories I had learned through my education, which I was able to see implemented in the project.