PhD Courses in Denmark

Welcome to MATLAB for non-engineers - basic data processing and optimization

Program: BEN (also relevant for HES, CPM, EB, B)

Description:

Research on biomedical engineering topics usually require the acquisition of biological signals or additional instrumentation that provides continuous time series. For non-engineers, processing those types of data can be time consuming and inaccurate if proper processing methods are not used. Therefore, the goal of this course is to present basic processing tools to analyse biological and non-biological signals.

The course is based on Matlab, one of the most powerful software packages for data recording and analysis in Engineering. The course presents a dynamic format, in which students will have practical experiences regarding the use of Matlab during the lectures. Students will be able to learn Matlab programming by accessing basic instructions through video contents recorded by the lecturer. Moreover, some specific tasks and exercises will be performed in the presence of the lecturer.

This format will offer to students the unique possibility to learn how to perform basic and complex operations with the assistant of the lecturer while generating the data analyses scripts. The course has been designed for PhD students without previous experience on programming on Matlab, such as physiotherapists, medical doctors, pharmacists, psychologists, sports science professionals. The ultimate goal of this PhD course is to provide students with basic yet reliable tools to process data for their own PhD projects.

The course will be divided in four modules

1.       Introduction: basic operations and file management (importing, loading, saving files)

2.       Data visualization, matrix manipulation

3.       Code optimization: reducing processing time and minimizing changes of errors

4.       Multi-subject dataset management and basic statistics 

Prerequisites: 

This course is ideal at students early or midway in their PhD. You should be at least 3 months into your project development. Ideally, students should use their own target data to develop scripts for analysis.

Form of evaluation:

Assignment: Students must present a data analysis pipeline generated using Matlab on the last lecture day. The data should be preferably related to the topic of the PhD project, therefore benefiting the student in the standardization of data processing methods. Detailed explanations of the processing steps and the choices for data analysis, based on appropriate references, should be addressed in the presentation.

Key literature: 

To be announced. Readings will be provided via the course webpage.

Organizer: Associate Professor Anderson Oliveira, e-mail: oliveira@mp.aau.dk

Lecturers: Associate Professor Anderson Oliveira

ECTS: 2.5

Time: 3, 10, 31 March, 28 April, 5 and 26 May 2025 (12.30-16.15)

Place: Aalborg University

Zip code: 9220

City: Aalborg

Maximal number of participants: 25

Deadline: 10 February 2025