Study Planning

Innovative 3D technologies have changed the range of activities of surgeons and dentists as never before in history. However, this does not only affect medical work on patients. In the immediate environment, too, more and more new, mainly engineering-based, occupational fields are emerging in industry, as well as in the hospitals themselves. Applied medical technology is one of the largest industrial growth markets worldwide.

Fields of application

Clinical application of surgical robotics and navigation procedures can be found primarily in the fields of neurosurgical neuronavigation, spinal and pelvic surgery in trauma surgery and oncological urology. In digital dentistry, this mainly concerns dental implantology, jaw reconstruction and the provision of customised dentures.

Focus in teaching

The students gain comprehensive insights into the principles and modes of operation of medical scanning procedures with which 3D patient treatment data are generated, their software-based evaluation, their further use for treatment planning and the technological transfer to the actual treatment situation through navigation, robotics or 3D printing in the clinical application fields of surgery and dentistry. To this end, they are familiarised with the associated medical engineering procedures and device technologies, also through practical exercises and in the clinical environment of patient treatments, in such a way that they can independently develop further questions.

Occupational fields

The career fields that open up lie in almost all engineering subject areas, from electrical, sensor and measurement technology and robotics to computer science and mechanical engineering. A professional activity can later be in industry, e.g. in product development, but also close to clinical application in the context of patient treatment.

Medical imaging and image processing deals with the generation, visualisation, analysis, processing and storage of medical images in digital form.

Fields of application

Important fields of application are computer-aided diagnostics and therapy as well as surgery and radiotherapy. Established image-generating methods include computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, other X-ray-based methods and sonography. Methods and algorithms from the fields of graphic data processing, artificial intelligence and signal processing are used to analyse and process the generated images. For visualisation, more and more “augmented reality” and “virtual reality” methods are being used. Standards and procedures from the field of medical information systems are suitable for storing and forwarding image data.

Teaching focus

The focus is on visualising, analysing and processing medical images. Lectures on image and graphic data processing teach the basics for manipulating, transforming and displaying images. In addition, functional principles of image-generating processes with their underlying physical measurement principles are presented and classified with regard to their suitability for specific medical issues.

Lectures on medical image processing and visualisation, on clinical requirements for medical imaging, on the interaction and role distribution of humans and computers in this area, on the basics of augmented and virtual reality as well as on signal processing methods for biomedical applications build on these basics. In addition, there are lectures on topics such as “Deep Learning for Medical Imaging” or “Deep Generative Models”, in which machine learning methods are used. Practical courses, project seminars (POLs) and seminars complement the range of lectures described. They offer students the opportunity for both a practical examination of established methods of medical imaging and processing, as well as research-related participation in the development of future methods in this extraordinarily important and dynamically developing area of medical technology.

Occupational fields

The career fields that open up lie in almost all engineering subject areas – also outside of medical technology in the narrower sense – in which methods of image processing are used. A professional activity can later be in research in the development of basic methods or in industry in product development, but also close to clinical application in the context of patient treatment.

The focus deals with the connection of high-precision miniaturised sensors and actuators with modern signal processing and artificial intelligence methods. The integration of these systems is the basis for increasingly powerful methods in medical diagnostics and therapy. This creates numerous fields of activity for interdisciplinarily trained engineers in a fascinating area of medical technology and one of the largest industrial growth markets worldwide.

Fields of application

Electronic and optical sensors are indispensable for modern medical technology. Their applications range from point-of-care diagnostics with lab-on-chip systems to the characterisation of pathological tissue in hospitals and telemedical support for chronically ill patients at home. In the early diagnosis of diseases, the rapid and inexpensive butgas and biomarker determination for pathological changes is also becoming increasingly important. In therapy, systems of sensors and actuators in combination with neurostimulation and artificial intelligence are now opening up fascinating new ways to restore limited or lost bodily functions.

Teaching focus

In the courses, students learn the basics of the function and manufacture of sensors and the processing of their signals for physiological and molecular variables. Actuators and methods for the feedback of signals in interactive systems and intelligent prostheses form a further core of the focus. Extensive practical relevance is conveyed by participation in everyday clinical practice or in the laboratory as well as work on own development projects in small teams. In this way, they build up the competence to develop medical engineering systems themselves to meet current challenges with the latest technologies and to accompany them in their application.

Occupational fields

The interdisciplinary education opens up career opportunities in many sub-areas of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science – both at the interface with medicine and on their own. A professional activity can later be in industry, for example in medical technology product development, but also close to clinical application, as a device manager in clinics or in medical technology research.

Radiotherapy is one of the essential tools of cancer therapy. The techniques for the precise irradiation of tumours have been continuously developed and improved for several decades in interdisciplinary cooperation. Technical innovations in recent years have contributed to further advances in patient irradiation. In addition to more compact accelerators, new strategies for beam application and combination with imaging before, during and after the actual therapy are decisive.

Fields of application

The main use of radiotherapy is the local treatment of solid tumours throughout the body, often in combination with chemotherapy or surgery. Most devices in clinical use use compact electron linear accelerators to generate either electron or photon beams that deliver a targeted dose to the patient. However, particle accelerators that generate high-energy protons or ion beams also represent a rapidly growing field.

Focus in teaching

The students gain comprehensive insights into the structure and functional principles of the devices for beam generation from the X-ray tube to the synchrotron and the necessary control and regulation technology for the operation of such facilities. Further contents are the techniques of beam application such as intensity-modulated rotation methods or the scanning of particle beams as well as the basics of inverse radiation planning and the underlying applied informatics. Modern radiotherapy is inconceivable without imaging, so applications in radiation planning, image guidance and patient positioning are explained.

Practical exercises and insights into the clinical environment of patient treatments enable the students to develop further questions independently.

Occupational fields

Radiation therapy offers numerous professional fields, from electrical engineering applications in the production and development of accelerators and beam application to informatics in radiation planning and real-time control technology of the systems to patient-oriented professional fields in the clinics, the so