Biomedical Ultrasound: Fundamentals of Imaging and Micromachined Transducers

Prof. Karla Mercado-Shekhar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Engineering and the Co-coordinator for the Centre of Biomedical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar. She co-leads the Medical Ultrasound Engineering (MUSE) Lab, which focuses on developing and translating ultrasound techniques to aid in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, U.S.A. (2009) and her Masters (2010) and Ph.D. (2015) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester, U.S.A., as a Provost’s Fellow. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (2014-2019) and a recipient of a postdoctoral research grant from the U.S.A. National Institutes of Health. Prof. Mercado-Shekhar joined IIT Gandhinagar in 2019. Her research group focuses on integrating the understanding of biological and physical mechanisms with technology to address healthcare challenges. Her group is actively exploring advanced ultrasound imaging techniques, such as shear wave elastography, ultrafast Doppler imaging, and quantitative backscatter imaging, to characterize diseased tissues synergistically based on their stiffness, vascular hemodynamics, and acoustic response. Prof. Mercado-Shekhar serves in the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium and the Biomedical Acoustics and Education in Acoustics Technical Committee of the Acoustical Society of America.

Prof. Himanshu Shekhar is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India, where he co-leads the Medical Ultrasound Engineering (MUSE) Laboratory. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology, India (2008), and a Master’s (2010) and Ph.D. (2014) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, U.S.A. Prof. Shekhar trained as a postdoctoral fellow (2014 – 2019) at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, U.S.A. His research is focused on ultrasound mediated therapy, molecular imaging, and sensing. His research has been recognized with the F. V. Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Med-into-Grad Fellowship, best paper awards from the Acoustical Society of America, the Har Govind Korana Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award, and the Star Ambassador Lectureship Award from the IEEE UFFC Society. Prof. Shekhar currently serves on the Technical Committee on Biomedical Acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America and the IEEE International Ultrasonics Syposium Technical Committee (Group 2).

Prof. Hardik J. Pandya is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, Division of EECS, and Associate Faculty, Department of Design and Manufacturing, Division of Mechanical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Dr. Pandya heads three laboratories in ESE focused on developing a new class of biomedical devices and technologies. Before joining IISc, he worked as a postdoctoral scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maryland Robotics Center, University of Maryland, College Park (2012- 2016) and in the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital–Harvard Medical School (2016-2017). He obtained his Ph.D. in microengineering systems from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (2013). His lab comprises twenty- eight scholars (twelve Ph.D., ten M.Tech., and six project assistants). In the last six years and nine months, he graduated five Ph.D. scholars and fifteen M.Tech. scholars, in addition to guiding three postdoctoral fellows and several research staff. Alums from his lab have pursued roles in academia and prominent industries, joining esteemed institutions and companies like A*STAR, IMEC, IIITDM Kancheepuram, Intel, NVIDIA, MAXLINEAR, Texas Instruments, Samsung, IIT Gandhinagar, and Delft University. His current research focuses on minimally invasive and non-invasive technologies with an emphasis on but not limited to cancer diagnosis (brain, breast, head, and neck), e- nose (diabetes, breast cancer screening), and Neuroprotective Therapies for Acute Stroke and Epilepsy. He received the prestigious Early Career Research Award from the Science and Engineering Research Board, Government of India 2017. Dr. Pandya received the prestigious ISSS Award 2020 under the Young Scientist Award category for the work done in India in micro and smart systems. He also received Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST) Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship in 2023. His work has resulted in five granted patents, eleven Indian patent applications, five international patent applications, three book chapters, and around sixty-five publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, including journals like Nature Microsystems and Nanoengineering, IEEE TBioCAS, IEEE Sensors, Journal of Biophotonics, and IEEE TBME. His work has been highlighted as "Breaking Research News" by The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The work on a portable cancer diagnosis tool was also featured in Science Translational Medicine as an Editorial Choice, Breast Cancer Diagnosis, March 2016, and has been highlighted on the CapeRay blog as "Biochips and Diagnostic tools" in April 2016. Dr. Pandya is a non- executive Director (Technical advisor) to two Indian MedTech companies. He is also the founder and Director of Scilogic Applied Research Private Limited, a Startup focused on translating biomedical devices and technologies to market.