Matjaz Vidmar

...I also learned how to plan my work efficiently and how to collaborate in an industrial environment...

I undertook a month long placement with Blackford Analysis Ltd., a medical imaging company in Edinburgh.

Blackford Analysis is located at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh (ROE), where there is also the Insitute of Astronomy (IfA) of the University of Edinburgh. As I regularly take part in many activities at the ROE, I came to know the people there quite well and when I was looking for a placement they directed me to Dr Ben Panter, the CEO of the company. Blackford Analysis is a spin-off company, which originates from Ben's PhD research. They mainly work on speeding up workflow for radiologists, through methods such as image registration to help radiologists interpret CT and MR scans. My work centred around the quality assessment of implementation of their algorithm into a larger commercial package. I also analysed images for the purpose of "algorithm training", by which programmes learn about features of images for identification.

The placement importantly contributed to the development of my skills as, apart from acquiring knowledge of this specialised field of programming, I also learned how to plan my work efficiently and how to collaborate in an industrial environment. I thoroughly enjoyed my work at the company and I am looking forward to working with them on future projects.

BSc (Hons) Physics