Visualizing brain images in an undergraduate signal processing course

This paper describes a MRI brain image visualization approach for an undergraduate signal processing course in a liberal art college environment. Owing to the highly mathematical nature of signal processing theory, using visualized biomedical images may increase students´ curiosity in both the course itself and the biomedical science in general. The visualization tool is constructed with incremental level of difficulty, making it approachable by undergraduate students in a liberal art college environment. The students learn the basic elements of processing 2D and 3D signals by multi-dimensional visual tools. The proposed approach could effectively integrate biomedical knowledge (brain imaging, brain degeneration) into an undergraduate engineering course. It also provides an efficient approach to attract engineering students to interdisciplinary areas in biomedical science.