Abstract:

The Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department of the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), participates in the Degree in Biomedical Engineering and in the University Master of Nuclear Security and radiation Protection, teaching some subjects related with the knowledge of the radiation-matter interaction, particle physics transport, radiotherapy, radiation protection and imaging techniques. Through these subjects, the students acquire interest in topics related with the medical field. To satisfy the students work demand in this area, the Institute for Industrial, Radiophysical and Environmental Safety (ISIRYM) research group, offers them the opportunity to carry out internships and/or its Final Degree/Master Thesis in this field. The projects assigned to the students in both cases are focused on increasing their knowledge acquired during the undergraduate program and achieving high autonomy capacity in solving real problems in the field of interest.

The methodology applied to carry out these projects involves the study of medical radiation treatments using Monte Carlo (MC) methods, which are considered the gold standard for modelling particle transport in heterogeneous media.

Developing these projects, the students acquire skills and deep knowledge to solve realistic clinical cases in different medical techniques currently used in the hospital routines, introducing them into the exercise of the radiophysicist profession. Commonly, these projects consist of the following stages. First, the geometry modelling of the patient is performed. On the one hand, to simulate over a real patient/phantom, its geometry information is obtained from the images of a previous scan, which are processed to be able to be read by the MC code. On the other hand, a realistic human phantom can be used for simulations, which meshed model is obtained from the International Commission of Radiological Protection. Once the geometry is modelled and material is assigned to each geometry volume, the source of the specific treatment is configured. Usually, the simulated cases correspond to an external radiation source like an electron or photon beam or an internal source such as nuclear medicine or brachytherapy treatments. Then, with all the previous information, the MC simulation is performed, using the MCNP6 code. Finally, the obtained results are analysed in 3D visualization programs.

All these tasks are carried out by the student autonomously with the guidance of their supervisors that lead them during the learning process. Furthermore, this kind of projects offer them the opportunity to work reproducing real contexts and contributing to the design, develop and execute solutions socially demanded like the personalized medicine since images of realistic patients are used. The proposed methodology covers general, specific and transversal competences required to acquire the degree through the practical application of the acquired knowledge. Some of these competences are: the application and practical thinking, the self-learning, the student capacity to analyze and solve real problems, critical evaluation of the results and the execution of solutions in techniques used currently at hospitals or companies etc.

Finally, these projects can offer to the students career opportunities related with medical physics such as hospital radiophysicist, engineering work for medical devices development or medical research among others.

Keywords:

Self-learning, Monte Carlo simulations, medical field.