ToScA North America
ToScA North America
Chair: Dr Farah Ahmed (NHM, UK)
Co-chair: Dr Jessie Maisano (University of Texas at Austin)
For the first time, a ToScA symposium will take place in Austin, Texas, bringing together the North American tomography community. The meeting will be hosted by the University of Texas at Austin High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility (UTCT) and the Jackson School of Geosciences.
Presentations will address hard and soft tissue imaging, understanding materials in 3D, recent advances in hardware and software, and a broad range of applications in tomography.
As in the UK, this symposium will include pre-conference hands-on software workshops, keynote speakers, student talks and poster presentations, and an image competition. The meeting provides an opportunity for open discussions, networking with researchers and commercial industry representatives, and a platform to engage in collaborations.
Registration has now closed.
Provisional programme
The meeting is due to start at 09.00 on 7th June and finish at 16.30 on 8th June.
Posters
Jumao Yuan - Workflow for tomography inspection of additive manufacturing samples
Samantha Mitchell - An application of micro-computed tomography to analyze the micromorphology of cutmarks created with a central american machete
Devora Gleiber - Variation in the trabecular structure of the proximal tibia between obese and non-obese individuals
Devora Gleiber - The effect of mobility impairment on femoral trabecular and cortical bone structure
Benjamin Breeden - Using computed tomography to digitally prepare vertebrate fossils from field jackets
Kylie Wright - Correlating Cu-Fe sulfides and Au mineralization in the Ertsberg-Grasberg district of Papua, Indonesia using high-resolution x-ray computed tomography: Modified Voronoi Regions in Cu-Sulfide Pathways
Adam Brooks - Detecting flaws in additive manufacturing and lithium polymer batteries through x-ray and neutron interferometry and tomography
Omoefe Kio - X-Ray Interferometry/Tomography of 3D Printed Flame Retardants/ABS Structures
Alexander Hall - Learning to swim: evolutionary transition from terrestrial to aquatic life in South American coralsnakes
Lily Doershuk - Characterizing variation in proximal humerus trabecular bone structure in modern humans using microCT and whole joint methodologies
Andria Salas - Soundscape detection by fishes through the interaction of the swim bladder and otoliths
Mike Polcyn - The antiquity of the unique basicranial circulation pattern in the Mosasaur subfamily Plioplatecarpinae
Venue, Hotels and Travel
Venue
Travel
The closest airport is Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS). San Antonio International Airport (SAT) is 80 miles away (~1.5 hour drive).
From the airport there are several transportation options to get you to your hotel:
Capital Metro (https://www.capmetro.org/) has an Airport Flyer with limited stops that terminates on campus
Super Shuttle (https://www.supershuttle.com/) provides door-to-door service
Taxis are also readily available
*Austin does not have Uber or Lyft*; other available ridesharing services include Fasten (https://fasten.com/) and RideAustin (http://www.rideaustin.com/)
Your local host is the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility (http://www.ctlab.geo.utexas.edu/) and the Jackson School of Geosciences (http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/about/). The meeting will take place on the beautiful UT campus, just steps away from the Texas State Capitol.
Hotels
The following Hotels are nearby to or a short bus ride from the symposium venue.
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center
Hampton Inn & Suites Austin at The University/Capitol
DoubleTree Suites by Hilton – Austin
Budget Options:
Days Inn Austin/University/Downtown
Symposium Banquet
The Symposium Banquet will take place on Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin aboard the M.V. Pride and Joy II. Enjoy Texas BBQ while watching the world's largest urban bat colony emerge from under the Congress Avenue Bridge! The link for Capitol Cruises is www.capitalcruises.com/.
Registration fees and Workshop Information
Registration fees
Registration to ToScA North America includes attendance to the meeting, refreshments and lunches on 7 and 8 June and a ticket to the Symposium Banquet on 7 June.
If you select to attend workshops, these take place on 6 June.
If you select registration including ToScA membership, you are entitled to attend the workshops on 6 June for free.
Registration has now closed.
|
Student Registration |
$180 |
||
|
Standard Registration |
$250 |
||
|
Workshops (to attend both) |
$75 |
||
|
Standard Registration + ToScA/RMS Membership (incl. free workshops) |
$330* |
||
|
Student Registration + ToScA/RMS Membership (incl. free workshops) |
$230* |
||
|
Existing ToScA Standard Member rate (incl. free workshops) |
$195** | ||
|
$135** | ||
|
Additional Guest Ticket for Banquet |
$70 |
All fee shown above include State Tax.
*Once you have completed your registration to attend ToScA Texas, you will be sent further details on completing your membership application.
** Please note, these rates are available only to those who have already signed up for ToScA membership and have completed and returned a membership application form. This rate does not include ToScA membership.
Workshop Information
Pre- conference workshops will be held on 6 June 2017.
The topics for the workshops will be as follows:
VGSTUDIO MAX 3.0 – Workshop
This workshop will introduce you to CT data analysis and visualization using VGSTUDIO MAX. Volume Graphics will present typical workflows which are of special interest for the scientific community for the fast and precise analysis of voxel data: quantitative analysis options, segmentation, and advanced visualization techniques. VGSTUDIO MAX is the ideal tool for getting the most information possible from your data sets, whether acquired by laboratory X-ray CT, a synchrotron, with neutrons, or with another source. Use this special opportunity to speak personally with Volume Graphics experts!
Duration: 2:30 h
Avizo introductory workshop including porosity analysis
Participants will be offered an introduction to data visualization, image processing & segmentation and the chance to try a new series of features for extending analyses performed on porous materials.
Avizo software currently offers advanced quantification features for computing volumes on each pore individually, including surfaces, shape characteristics, orientations, distance to the surface of the object, and distance to the nearest neighbor. The software’s new features allow the study of the porous network as a whole and simplify the representation of the pores and the pore throats in the network. It enables filtering of the pores based on various criteria, along with the computation of measures such as permeability or tortuosity.
During the workshop, participants will use Avizo to perform data visualization, image processing, segmentation and a full analysis of a porous material.
Workshop outline:
• General introduction to Avizo software
• What's new in Avizo 9.4
• Hands-on session
- Introduction to workspace, modules & data visualization
- Image processing & segmentation
- Introduction to pore network modeling and new features
Duration: 2:30 h
Presenter:
Tomas Silva Santisteban
Thermo Fisher Scientific (formerly FEI)
Avizo expert
Tomas Silva Santisteban was heavily involved in the design & development of microfluidic chip-systems during his PhD research at the University of Freiburg in Germany while also working on 3D cellular imaging and image processing before joining Thermo Fisher Scientific. Currently, he is working as an Amira and Avizo expert engineer developing solutions with users for their 3D analysis challenges. He enjoys training new users in visualizing and analyzing their data with Amira and Avizo, and thereby also helping researchers make an impact in their respective fields.
Keynote Speakers
Symposium Chairs
-
Dr Jessie Maisano
ToScA North America Chair
University of Texas
Dr. Jessie Maisano is a research scientist at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility (UTCT) in Austin. She received her BA in geology at Kent State University in 1994 and her PhD in vertebrate paleontology at Yale University in 2000. She then moved to the University of Texas as a postdoc on the then-nascent Digital Library of Morphology (DigiMorph.org). Jessie held a subsequent postdoctoral position on the Deep Scaly project (Assembling the Tree of Life) before being hired as full-time staff by UTCT, where she is now facility manager. She is also the primary operator of UTCT’s Zeiss MicroXCT-400 and caretaker of DigiMorph.org. Jessie’s main research interests lie in squamate (lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians) osteology as revealed by CT, especially cranial anatomy and ‘extraskeletal’ systems such as osteoderms. However, her collaborations via UTCT have resulted in publications on topics as diverse as carbon sequestration, diamond formation, and Ediacaran fauna. -
Dr Farah Ahmed
ToScA Chair
Exponent
Dr Farah Ahmed is the founder and President of ToScA International. Farah holds the position of Senior consultant at Exponent International, and Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, London UK. After completing her PhD from the school of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Farah established a consultancy specialising in data analysis. Farah went on to join the Natural History Museum, where she progressed to Head of Imaging. More recently, Farah joined Exponent International as a senior consultant, focusing on Non-destructive Imaging techniques relevant to the industry sector.
Forensics
-
John Kappelman
University of Texas
Multi-Modal Imaging
-
Stephen Gatesy
Brown University
Steve Gatesy is a paleontologist and morphologist interested in the evolution of vertebrate locomotion. By combining biomechanical analyses of living animals with fossil bones and footprints, he explores functional transitions in dinosaur bipedality and the origin of bird flight. For the last 20 years he has embraced animation software to study animal motion, culminating in X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM). Co-developed with colleagues at Brown University, XROMM merges CT-based bone models with pairs of X-ray videos to visualize and measure 3-D skeletal movement with unprecedented accuracy and precision. XROMM data offer an anatomically-detailed look inside diverse taxa—a dynamic lens through which to view skeletal form.
Increasing Contrast
-
Lawrence Witmer
Ohio University
Lawrence M. Witmer is Professor of Anatomy at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio, as well as the Chang Professor of Paleontology and an OU Presidential Research Scholar. He received degrees from Cornell University, the University of Kansas, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Witmer and his team are known for “fleshing out” dinosaurs and their kin with the soft tissues not normally preserved in fossils. Witmer combines classical anatomical approaches (such as dissection) with high-tech CT scanning and CGI to restore key soft-tissue systems such as the brain, eye, nose, ears, muscles, and blood vessels to shed light on dinosaur behavior and physiology. Witmer has received numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, and has published articles in Science, Nature, and other technical journals. He has appeared on dozens of internationally televised documentaries, as well as commenting on CNN, NPR, and other national media. WitmerLab has a significant presence on social media.
Geological Science
-
Richard Ketcham
University of Texas
Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
-
ZEISS
Carl Zeiss is an innovative technology leader in the fields of optics, precision engineering and electronic visualisation. Time and time again, we set new, pioneering standards in sophisticated technology for recognising, experiencing, measuring, analysing, structuring and processing a wide spectrum of objects. With professional optics we meet the expectations of even our most critical customers - not only in the fields of research, medicine, industry, but also for use in leisure activities.
Find out more about ZEISS
www.zeiss.com
