Bay Area Alumni Gathering

Please join us for the Second Annual Bay Area Alumni Gathering hosted by the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Computer History Museum
1401 N. Shoreline Boulevard
Mountain View, CA 94043

• 6 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres Reception
  Meet Institute of Technology Dean Steven L. Crouch, Department of Computer Science and Engineering Head Vipin Kumar, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Head David Lilja, and local University of Minnesota alumni for an evening of socializing and networking. The museum will be open and docents will be available to guide tours.
• 7 p.m. Lecture
  Hear a lecture by Stanford University professor and University of Minnesota alumnus Gary Glover, who will discuss his research regarding new technology involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Online registration is now closed

Please contact Becky Kiefer at 612-625-3767 to register for this event.

About the lecture

“Functional MRI: Therapy or Mendacity?”
At this alumni event, you will hear about the latest research involving a specialized type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging that includes a combination of sensing and image processing technologies to produce maps of brain activity. The fMRI has been employed to map brain areas responsible for various types of cognitive processing, and is used routinely for neurosurgical planning. More recently, fMRI has been touted as a reliable lie detector, and has been used for studying consumer preferences and for other forms of neuromarketing research.

However, the fMRI signal changes are very subtle, and highly sophisticated statistical image processing is required to develop the maps. Because of this subtlety and the vast amount of biodiversity in brains, some researchers suggest caution in the application of this technology. This lecture will examine the fMRI technology and consider some of the ethical ramifications of its use in therapeutic and societal situations.

About the speaker

Gary H. Glover is a Stanford University professor of radiology, neurosciences and biophysics, and, by courtesy, electrical engineering and psychology. He currently serves as director of Stanford’s Radiological Sciences Lab.

For nearly 35 years, Glover’s research interests have focused on medical imaging and presently encompass the physics and mathematics of imaging with magnetic resonance. He has more than 50 issued U.S. patents and has published more than 300 publications in the medical imaging field.

Glover is a fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has been president of ISMRM. He has served on numerous advisory committees and editorial boards. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health. In 2000, Glover received the ISMRM Gold Medal award and the Radiological Society of North America Outstanding Researcher Award in 2001.

Glover received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.