Hugo Magalhães

The winner of the best oral presentation at EMBEC'02 (YIC).
Topic: Computers in Medicine.


Hugo Magalhães was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1979. He received the B.Sc (Licenciatura) degree in Applied Mathematics to Technology from Faculdade de Ciências, Porto, Portugal, in 2001. He received the Eng. António de Almeida prize for best student for his B.Sc work. He is currently a Ph.D student at the Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Faculdade de Ciências, Porto, Portugal, (supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Third Community Support Framework)), working under the subject title: Adaptive Control: methods and applications. He is also part of the Mathematical Systems Theory Group from the research and development unit (R&D Mathematics & Applications) Universidade de Aveiro. His research interests include robust adaptive control and switching control (analysis, development and implementation).

The control of neuromuscular blockade on patients undergoing surgery is used as a case study. The features of the problem to be solved, namely the interindividual variability, led to a variety of different adaptive control strategies. The switching control based on multiple models is a possible alternative to adaptive control methods, since it solves well-known inherent problems of these systems, namely unsuitable transient response and time-varying systems identification. The results obtained to date, with different multiple models based switching control techniques, have reinforced the validity of the study.

A MATLAB smart adaptive system for the control of neuromuscular blockade has been developed. The package incorporates a variety of control and noise-reduction strategies, and it can be used on patients undergoing surgery or as an advanced tool for education and training purposes. A first release of this system is currently being used in the Hospital Geral de Santo António, Porto, Portugal and has been submitted to Datex-Ohmeda for evaluation.

Hugo Magalhães
Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Faculdade de Ciências, Porto, Portugal
hfmagalh@fc.up.pt