Alexander Astaras

ICBME Young Investigator Award Winner in Category: Techniques/Applications

Alexander Astaras was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1974. He received his degree in Physics from Oberlin College, OH, USA in 1995 and is currently working towards a PhD in Electronics Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. His PhD research area focuses on the implementation of probabilistic artificial neurons as electronic circuits on silicon. More specifically, it targets the analogue VLSI platform for implementation of the Helmholtz Machine, a probabilistic and unsupervised neural network algorithm [1-3].

Alongside this, he works as a research assistant at the Institute for System Level Integration in Livingston, Scotland as a member of the IDEAS project (Integrated Diagnostics for Environmental and Analytical Systems, [4-10]). The project's focus is to develop a capsule and portable base station system which is capable of collecting information using the capsule's on-board sensors and wirelessly depositing them on the base station. The ultimate aim is to create a capsule that is powered by on-board button-type batteries, wirelessly linked to the base station, and is smaller in size than an orally ingested pill. In this way the device can be used for medical diagnostics and localised drug delivery in the digestive tract, as well as environmental monitoring and industrial inspections.

His areas of research interest are neural networks, mixed signal VLSI electronic circuit design and the use of electronics for biomedical engineering applications.

Publications:

  1. Pulse-based Circuits and Methods for Probabilistic Neural Computation, Alexander Astaras, Ryan Dalzell, Alan Murray and Martin Reekie. Presented at the Microneuro '99 conference, Granada, Spain, April 1999.
  2. Computing with uncertainty in probabilistic neural networks on silicon, Robin Woodburn, Alexander Astaras, Ryan Dalzell, Alan Murray and Dean McNeill. Presented at the 2nd International ICSC Symposium on Neural Computation (NC'2000) in Berlin, Germany, May 2000.
  3. Improved representation and hardware implementation of the Helmholtz Machine, A. Astaras, R. Dalzell, A. F. Murray and R. Woodburn, PhDEE - The Postgraduate Journal of the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, p. 49-53, vol. 5, issue 6, June 2000.
  4. IDEAS: Miniature Lab-in-a-Pill Sensor System, A Astaras, M Ahmadian, N Aydin, I Farooq, M Holgate, E Johannessen, TB Tang, L Wang, T Arslan, SP Beaumont, J Casey, JM Cooper, P Dickman, BW Flynn, AF Murray, SW Reid, P Yam, DRS Cumming. Poster presented at the SET for Britain conference, London, UK, December 2001.
  5. An integrated sensor microsystem for industrial and biomedical applications, Lei Wang, Tong Boon Tang, Erik Johannessen, Alexandros Astaras, Alan F. Murray, Jonathan M. Cooper, Steve P. Beaumont, David R. S. Cumming. Presented at the IEEE-EMBS Special Topic Conference on Microtechnologies in Medicine & Biology, May 2002, Madison, WI, USA.
  6. Integrated micro-instrumentation for dynamic gastro-intestinal tract monitoring, Lei Wang, Tong Boon Tang, Erik Johannessen, Alexandros Astaras, Mansour Ahmadian, Alan F. Murray, Jonathan M. Cooper, Steve P. Beaumont, David R. S. Cumming. Presented at the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, May 2002, Anchorage, AK, USA.
  7. IDEAS: A Miniature Lab-in-a-Pill Multisensor Microsystem, Tong Boon Tang, Erik A. Johannessen, Lei Wang, Alexander Astaras, Mansour Ahmadian, Li Cui, Alan F. Murray, Jonathan M. Cooper, Steve P. Beaumont, Brian W. Flynn, David R. S. Cumming, Proceedings of the IEEE NORCHIP Conference 2002, November 2002, Copenhagen, Denmark. pp. 329-334.
  8. An ingestible electronic pill for real time analytical measurements of the gastrointestinal tract, E. A. Johannessen, T. B. Tang, L. Wang, L. Cui, M. Ahmadian, N. Aydin, A. Astaras, A. F. Murray, B. W. Flynn, T. Aslan, S. P. Beaumont, D. R. S. Cumming, and J. M. Cooper. Proceedings of the mTAS 2002 Symposium, November 2002, Japan. pp. 181-183.
  9. A miniature integrated electronics sensor capsule for real-time monitoring of the gastrointestinal tract (IDEAS), Alexander Astaras, Mansour Ahmadian, Nizamettin Aydin, Li Cui, Erik Johannessen, Tong-Boon Tang, Lei Wang, Tughrul Arslan, Steve P. Beaumont, Brian W. Flynn, Alan F. Murray, Stuart W. Reid, Philippa Yam, Jonathan M. Cooper, David R.S. Cumming. Proceedings of the IEEE ICBME conference, Singapore, Dec 3-7.
  10. A Miniature Wireless Integrated Multisensor Microsystem for Industrial and Biomedical Applications, Tong Boon Tang, Erik A. Johannessen, Lei Wang, Alexander Astaras, Alan F. Murray, Jonathan M. Cooper, Steve P. Beaumont, David R. S. Cumming, accepted by the IEEE Sensors Journal: Special Issue on Integrated Multisensor Systems and Signal Processing 2003.

For downloadable versions of these publications and further information visit Alexander Astaras's website:
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~aa
or contact him at
Alexander Astaras
Institute for System Level Integration, UK
aa@ee.ed.ac.uk