Course overview
This course will provide students with an overview of the application of physical and engineering principles, concepts and techniques to medical physics, biology and medicine. It will extend the students knowledge and understanding of some of the laws, principles and theories of physics, and to develop an appreciation of how they operate in experimental and applied physics with a particular focus on medical and bio-physics. Content includes: Nuclear Physics, Radioactivity and Applications: Review of basic concepts, properties of ionising radiation, radiation detectors, theory of alpha, beta and gamma-emission, decay processes, stable isotopes and their detection, isotopes for natural, environmental and forensic science; Medical Sensing: Introduction to optical sensing, optical fibre sensors, bio-medical sensors and sensing techniques; Radiation Physics: Ionizing radiation, sources of radiation, radiation interaction with matter, biological effects of radiation, medical treatments and health physics; Physics for Medical Radiations: Nuclear and x-ray physics, inc. Practical component.
Course learning outcomes
- Describe clearly in writing and discuss orally, the laws, principles and theories covered in the syllabus
- Reduce well-defined relationships to formulae
- Describe and explain applications of theory developed in lectures and tutorials
- Apply the techniques and theory to research real world problems