González Ballester, Miguel A. – ICREA Memoir 2021

Miguel A. González Ballester

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Engineering Sciences

Degree in Computer Science from Universitat Jaume I (1996), and doctorate from the University of Oxford (2000). I was a senior researcher at Toshiba Medical Systems (Japan), INRIA (France), and the University of Bern (Switzerland), where I was leading the Surgical Technology Division at the MEM Research Center, Faculty of Medicine. From 2008 until September 2013 I was in charge of the Research Department of the company Alma IT Systems in Barcelona. In October 2013 I was appointed ICREA Research Professor, and joined the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, where I lead the Barcelona Centre for New Medical Technologies (BCN Medtech). I have more than 400 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences, and have supervised 20 PhD theses. I was awarded Fellowships from Toshiba and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Research interests

My research focus is on computerised medical image analysis and computer-assisted surgery, including: image processing and computer vision, image-based diagnosis through machine learning, deep learning, medical imaging physics, computational modelling and simulation of virtual organs and surgical interventions, navigation in computer-assisted surgery, surgical devices and implants, and applied clinical research. In addition to basic research with solid mathematical foundations (notably my work on statistical biomechanical models), all my projects have a marked translational character, focusing on concrete clinical and industrial applications.

Selected publications

– Rafael-Palou X, Aubanell A, Bonavita I, Ceresa M, Piella G, Ribas V & González Ballester MA 2021, ‘Re-identification and growth detection of pulmonary nodules without image registration using 3D siamese neural networks‘, Medical Image Analysis, vol. 67, no. 101823, pp 1-12.

– Baumgartner L, Reagh JJ, González Ballester MA & Noailly J 2021, ‘Simulating intervertebral disc cell behaviour within 3D multifactorial environments‘, Bioinformatics, vol. 37, no. 9, pp 1246 – 1253.

– Higueras-Esteban A, Delgado-Martínez I, Serrano L, Infante-Santos N, Narváez-Martínez A, Principe A, Rocamora R, Conesa G, Serra L & González Ballester MA 2021, ‘Projection-based collision detection algorithm for stereoelectroencephalography electrode risk assessment and re-planning‘, IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp 105180-105191.

– Martí-Juan G, Sanroma G, Cacciaglia R, Falcon C, Operto G, Molinuevo JL, González Ballester MA, Gispert JD & Piella G 2021, ‘Nonlinear interaction between ApoE-e4 allele load and age in the hippocampal surface of cognitively intact individuals‘, Human Brain Mapping, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 47-64.

– Torrents-Barrena J, Monill N, Piella G, Gratacós E, Eixarch E, Ceresa M & González Ballester MA 2021, ‘Assessment of radiomics and deep learning for the segmentation of fetal and maternal anatomy in MRI and ultrasound‘, Academic Radiology, vol. 28, no. 2, pp 173-188.

– Galdran A, Carneiro G & González Ballester MA 2021, ‘Balanced-MixUp for highly imbalanced medical image classification‘, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12905 (Medical Image Computing and Computer Aided Interventions – MICCAI 2021, Strasbourg, France), pp 323-333.