There are a variety of medical applications for magnetic resonance relaxometry (MRR) of blood, like detecting malaria or diabetes. Traditional measurements involve drawing blood, which is painful and invasive. By using magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) techniques and low-cost relaxometry hardware, we can isolate signals from fast-flowing blood and discard those from other tissue. This approach opens the door to many more useful, needle-free blood measurements. In this project, I am creating the MR system with a software defined radio for pulse control and measurement, as well as phantoms with water-filled tubes to simulate blood in a limb.

I wanted to challenge myself by completing a full scale project that has real potential impact. IÂ’ve worked with software defined radios before and have read about FPGAs, but IÂ’ve never before used them in an MR context before starting this UROP. Now that IÂ’m taking it a step further with a SuperUROP, I hope to hone my RF and EE skills, picking up some physics and biology along the way.