Giovana is a PhD student studying High-resolution whole-heart parameter mapping using image-based respiratory navigation and compressed sensing supervised by Rene Botnar and Gerald Greil based at King's College London
On April 2017, I had the great opportunity to spend a few weeks at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC), one of Chile’s best and oldest universities. Together with colleagues from KCL I visited the Biomedical Research Center (CIB) and the Electrical Engineering Department of UC. We received a warm welcome from Prof Pablo Irarrázaval, Dr. Marcelo Andia, Dr. Sergio Uribe, Dr. Cristian Tejos and their students. They invited us to their weekly group meetings, we visited their laboratories and enjoyed a nice sunny BBQ on the campus. The campus San Joaquin, where both the CIB and the Electrical Engineering Department are located, is really beautiful with lots of trees and green spaces, and it also has a lot of outdoor tables where you can study and take a break.
During our stay we participated in the KCL-UC Biomedical Imaging workshop, which was preceded by a Philips MR workshop presented by Jouke Smink, Head of Cardiac MR Development, Philips Healthcare, The Netherlands. The KCL-UC Biomedical Imaging workshop took Place at Casa Central, the historical building of the University, located in downtown Santiago. Faculty members from King’s College London, Universidad Católica de Chile and Philips Netherlands were invited to this event, including the Dean of the School of Engineering UC. There were a lot of interesting talks both by engineers and clinicians and I had the opportunity to present and share my own research project. The event ended with a tour of the Casa Central building and a glass of pisco sour, a typical fresh Chilean drink.
During my stay I also had the opportunity to visit Chile. It is a beautiful country, with many different climate zones, landscapes, colours and flavours. Starting in the north you can go from the impressive and unique desert of Atacama to the majestic granite mountains and glaciers of Patagonia in the south.
Chile is a wonderful country and Chilean people make you feel immediately at home. It was a great experience and I am glad I had the opportunity to visit the Universidad Católica de Chile, present my research at the KCL-UC Scientific Workshop and strengthen my collaboration with Philips Healthcare.
You can find more details of this visit and the programme of the scientific workshop here: https://kclcvmimaging.wordpress.com/
