Training courses
The University of Manchester at Harwell (UoMaH) is bringing the imaging community together by delivering courses covering a broad range of topics to help support researchers using Harwell’s national facilities.
Recognising the need for advanced training skills in the Harwell Campus, a network of academic and industrial partners from UoMaH, 3Dmagination, Diamond, ISIS, and Finden have jointly developed training courses at different levels to meet this need with an emphasis on data analysis.
The current course topics cover:
- fundamentals of X-ray tomography data visualisation and quantification
- advanced scripting for batch processing of tomographic data
- 4D tomography with digital volume correlation (DVC)
- chemical imaging and tomography.
If there is a course you would like to see us offer, please get in touch, and we will see what we can do!
Current courses available
A 2 day training course covering theory and computer-based practical works using the Thermo Scientific™ Amira-Avizo Software.
Lab/synchrotron X-ray tomography has emerged as one of the most important techniques for research in a wide range of applications including healthcare, energy, food and geology. Advances in the quality of X-ray beams, optics, high speed data acquisition and in-situ environments have made significant improvements to non-destructive imaging of a specimen structure in 3D and over a wide range of length scales (micron-and nanoscales).
Although the direct benefit of X-ray tomography is the 3D visualisation of the internal structure of specimens, which is very valuable to understand the structure/function relationships, the technique has however a lot more to offer. The information is hidden in the data and robust methods and workflows are needed to extract it in a relevant and accurate way, and make it readily available for decision making.
This training course is organised by The University of Manchester at Harwell and 3Dmagination Ltd. It is aimed at researchers working in the field of mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology and materials science using 3D imaging techniques such as X-ray computed tomography, and who are interested to acquire solid methods for visualising and extracting relevant scientific information from 3D tomographic data.
The training is organised in two parts: theory (0.5 day) and computer-based practical works using the Thermo Scientific™ Amira-Avizo Software 3D (1.5 day). At the end of the second day, the users are invited to practise on their own dataset with the help of the trainers. The attendees are invited to bring their own laptop (an Avizo license will be provided for the training).
Who should attend?
This course is aimed at both beginners with no prior experience in 3D imaging and image processing, and intermediate-level researchers who want to know more about it and explore different ways of analysing 3D datasets.
How to register
Please contact Sarah Batts if you wish to sign up for this course: sarah.batts@manchester.ac.uk. Places are limited to 10 attendees per course.
Price
Academics, students, postdocs, government: £400.00 + VAT. Industry: £800.00 + VAT.
Although X-ray tomography is an attractive characterisation technique in materials science, it generates a huge amount of data at a fast rate and it can be extremely time consuming to process the data manually. A great benefit to creating scripts and plugins in Avizo is the ability to reuse a workflow on more than one image or to develop a bespoke workflow for more complex materials.
The training is organised in two parts: Python scripting in Avizo (1 day) and development of Avizo Python module (1 day). At the end of the second day, the users are invited to practise on their own dataset with the help of the trainers. The attendees are invited to bring their own laptop (an Avizo license will be provided for the training).
Who should attend?
This course is aimed at advanced users with prior expertise in 3D imaging and image processing of 3D datasets. Prior experience with Avizo and/or Python is recommended.
How to register
Please contact Sarah Batts if you wish to sign up for this course: sarah.batts@manchester.ac.uk. Places are limited to 10 attendees per course.
Price
Academics, students, postdocs, government: £400.00 + VAT. Industry: £800.00 + VAT
Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) is a powerful experimental technique that computes 3D full-field displacement and strain maps from volumes images acquired during a deformation process of a material. DVC is the 3D extension of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) which was first described four decades ago. The emergence of DVC started early 2000s with the use of X-ray CT combined with in situ rigs to capture 3D morphological changes with time.
Although the DVC algorithms are in spirit similar to DIC algorithms, DVC requires special attention and expertise from multiple fields (3D imaging, in situ testing, CT reconstruction, mechanics of materials, etc.) as the texture is not controlled (natural contrast brought by imaging) and the noise/CT artefacts are often dominating the accuracy/precision of the measurements.
Adding the 4th dimension (3D + time) also means that data processing and visualization are key to extract the mechanical information hidden inside the 4D datasets.
The training is organised in two parts: theory (0.5 day) and computer-based practical works (1.5 day) using the XDigitalVolumeCorrelation extension in the Thermo Scientific™ Amira-Avizo Software 3D where two solutions are implemented (a classic subset-based approach and a more robust global approach). At the end of the second day, the users are invited to practise on their own dataset with the help of the trainers.
Who should attend?
Researchers working in the field of mechanics, physics, and materials science using 3D imaging techniques such as X-ray computed tomography who are interested to (i) compute 3D full-field displacements and strains for linking the microstructure to the mechanical/physical behaviour, (ii) use the DVC measured data to feed/validate finite element models. The attendees are requested to bring their own laptop to practise on the XDigitalVolumeCorrelation extension (free trial licence will be provided).
How to register
Please contact Sarah Batts if you wish to sign up for this course: sarah.batts@manchester.ac.uk. Places are limited to 10 attendees per course.
Price
Academics, students, postdocs, government: £400.00 + VAT. Industry: £800.00 + VAT.
Jumpstart your understanding of advanced chemical imaging & tomography with this three-day course by Finden who received the prestigious RSC award in 2023 for pioneering the XRD-CT method. Learn about the fundamental principles, current instrumentation, and how these approaches are applied using the scattering and spectroscopic methods with emphasis on X-ray diffraction computed tomography (XRD-CT).
The course includes a 1-day introduction to scientific programming and machine learning with python (optional) and 2 days covering data collection and data analysis including demonstrations of CT data analysis workflows using exemplar real life data provided by Finden.
This course is ideally suited (but not limited) to students and users wanting to understand the exciting potential of advanced CT / chemical imaging methods in their research programs.
Course fees
For Academic/RTO/Micro company: £900 + VAT 2-day course / £1,200 + VAT 3-day course
For Industry: £1,200 + VAT 2-day course / £1,500 + VAT 3-day course