Dr. Declan O'Loughlin

Dr. Declan O'Loughlin

Assistant Professor, Electronic & Elect. Engineering

3531896 3804

Biography

Declan O'Loughlin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and a Principal Investigator in the Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland. He received the BE and PhD degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland in 2014 and 2018 respectively, where his doctoral research focused on investigating the performance of radar-based breast imaging in diverse patient populations. Prior to joining Trinity, Dr O'Loughlin was an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow co-funded by Microwave Vision SA, France and an Adjunct Lecturer at NUI Galway, Ireland working on imaging algorithm development for the novel breast imaging system Wavelia®. His research interests are the use of electronics and electromagnetics for medical device applications. Dr O'Loughlin is a member of Young Academy Ireland ('23) and has received a number of national and international awards including the Irish Research Council (IRC) New Foundations Award, the Irish-Canada University Foundation (ICUF) James M. Flaherty Scholarship and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientist Award. He is a Member of Engineers Ireland, a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Senior Member of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI).

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • I tuk, Niko and Porter, Emily and O'Loughlin, Declan and McDermott, Barry and Santorelli, Adam and Abedi, Soroush and Joachimowicz, Nadine and Roussel, Hélène and O'Halloran, Martin, Dielectric Properties of Ovine Heart at Microwave Frequencies, MDPI Diagnostics, 11, (3), 2021Journal Article, 2021, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Shah Karam, Seyed Abbas and O'Loughlin, Declan and Oliveira, Bárbara L. and O'Halloran, Martin and Asl, Babak Mohammadzadeh, Weighted delay-and-sum beamformer for breast cancer detection using microwave imaging, Elsevier Measurement, 2021Journal Article, 2021, DOI , URL
  • Moloney, Brian M. and O'Loughlin, Declan and Abd Elwahab, Sami and Kerin, Michael J., Breast Cancer Detection: A Synopsis of Convential Modalities and the Potential Role of Microwave Imaging, Diagnostics, 10, (2), 2020, pArt. 103-Journal Article, 2020, DOI , URL
  • Cappiello, Grazia and Paulides, Margarethus and Drizdal, Tomas and O'Loughlin, Declan and O'Halloran, Martin and Glavin, Martin and Van Rhoon, Gerard and Jones, Edward, Robustness of Time-Multiplexed Hyperthermia to Temperature Dependent Thermal Tissue Properties, IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology, 4, (2), 2020, p126 - 132Journal Article, 2020, DOI , URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Oliveira, Bárbara L. and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Comparing Radar-based Breast Imaging Algorithm Performance with Realistic Patient-specific Permittivity Estimation, MDPI Journal of Imaging, 5, (11), 2019Journal Article, 2019, DOI , URL
  • Parsi, Ashkan and O'Loughlin, Declan and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward, Prediction of Sudden Cardiac Death in Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators: A Review and Comparative Study of Heart Rate Variability Features, IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering, 13, 2019, p5 - 16Journal Article, 2019, DOI , URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Oliveira, Bábara L. and Santorelli, Adam and Porter, Emily and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and Popović, Milica and O'Halloran, Martin, Sensitivity and Specificity Estimation Using Patient-Specific Microwave Imaging in Diverse Experimental Breast Phantoms, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 38, (1), 2019, p303 - 311Journal Article, 2019, DOI , URL
  • Elahi, M. Adnan and O'Loughlin, Declan and Lavoie, Benjamin R. and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and Fear, Elise C. and O'Halloran, Martin, Evaluation of Image Reconstruction Algorithms for Confocal Microwave Imaging: Application to Patient Data, MDPI Sensors, 18, (6), 2018Journal Article, 2018, DOI , URL
  • Oliveira, Bárbara L. and O'Loughlin, Declan and O'Halloran, Martin and Porter, Emily and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward, Microwave Breast Imaging: Experimental Tumour Phantoms for the Evaluation of New Breast Cancer Diagnosis Systems, IOP Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express, 4, (2), 2018Journal Article, 2018, DOI , URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and O'Halloran, Martin and Moloney, Brian M. and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and Elahi, M. Adnan, Microwave Breast Imaging: Clinical Advances and Remaining Challenges, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 65, (11), 2018, p2580 - 2590Journal Article, 2018, DOI , URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Oliveira, Bárbara L. and Elahi, M. Adnan and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and Popović, Milica and O'Halloran, Martin, Parameter Search Algorithms for Microwave Radar-Based Breast Imaging: Focal Quality Metrics as Fitness Functions, MDPI Sensors, 17, (12), 2017Journal Article, 2017, DOI , URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Krewer, Finn and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Focal Quality Metrics for the Objective Evaluation of Confocal Microwave Images, International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies, 9, (7), 2017, p1365 - 1372Journal Article, 2017, DOI
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Elahi, Muhammad Adnan and Lavoie, Benjamin R. and Fear, Elise C. and O'Halloran, Martin, Assessing Patient-Specific Microwave Breast Imaging in Clinical Case Studies , MDPI Sensors, 21, (23), 2021, p8048Journal Article, 2021, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Krewer, Finn and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Estimating Average Dielectric Properties for Microwave Breast Imaging Using Focal Quality Metrics, Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), Davos, Switzerland, 2016, pp1--5Conference Paper, 2016, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Optimisation of Confocal Microwave Breast Images Using Image Focal Metrics, Proceedings of the 22nd Bioengineering in Ireland (BINI), Galway, Ireland, Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, 2016, pp39--39Conference Paper, 2016
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Coffey, Aedan and Callaly, Frank and Lyons, Darren and Morgan, Fearghal, Xilinx Vivado High Level Synthesis: Case Studies, Irish Signals \& Systems Conference 2014 and 2014 China-Ireland International Conference on Information and Communications Technologies (ISSC 2014/CIICT 2014). 25th IET, IET, 2014, pp352--356Conference Paper, 2014, URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Elahi, Muhammad Adnan and Porter, Emily and Shahzad, Atif and Oliveira, Bárbara L. and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Open-Source Software for Microwave Radar-Based Image Reconstruction, Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), London, the UK, IEEE, 2018Conference Paper, 2018
  • Benchakroun, Hamza and Fasoula, Angie and Duchesne, Luc and O'Halloran, Martin and O'Loughlin, Declan, Coverage Estimation for Microwave Imaging using Full Multistatic Radar Imaging Algorithms with Restricted Opening, Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), Copenhagen, Denmark, IEEE, 2020Conference Paper, 2020, DOI , URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Oliveira, Bárbara L. and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Adaptive Microwave Breast Imaging: Experimental Performance Evaluation, Proceedings of the 24th Bioengineering in Ireland (BINI), Meath, Ireland, Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, 2018Conference Paper, 2018
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Evaluation of Experimental Microwave Radar-Based Images: Evaluation Criteria, Proceedings of the Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium (APSURSI), Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium (APSURSI), Boston, MA, USA, 2018, IEEE, 2018Conference Paper, 2018, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Oliveira, Bárbara L. and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Effects of Interpatient Variance on Microwave Breast Images: Experimental Evaluation, Proceedings of the 40th Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 40th Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Honolulu, HI, USA, 2018, IEEE, 2018Conference Paper, 2018, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Oliveira, Bábara L. and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward and O'Halloran, Martin, Advantages and Disadvantages of Parameter Search Algorithms for Permittivity Estimation for Microwave Breast Imaging, Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), Kraków, Poland, 2019, IEEE, 2019Conference Paper, 2019, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Bottiglieri, Anna and Farina, Laura and Shahzad, Atif and O'Loughlin, Declan and O'Halloran, Martin and Elahi, Muhammad Adnan, Microwave Thermal Ablation: Focusing Energy in Target Tissue Using Fat Layer, Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), Kraków, Poland, IEEE, 2019, pp4Conference Paper, 2019
  • Morgan, Fearghal and O'Loughlin, Declan and Audiger, Jeremy and Boyer, Yohan and Callaly, Frank, viciLogic2.0 Online Learning and Prototyping Using PYNQ, Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL), Dublin, Ireland, IEEE, 2018, pp459-4591Conference Paper, 2018, DOI
  • Canavan, Dáire and Callaly, Frank and Boyd, Aidan and O'Loughlin, Declan and Audiger, Jeremy and Boyer, Yohan and Timlin-Canning, Niall and Vianes, Arthur and Da-Costa, Clement and Morgan, Fearghal and Bakó, László and Hajdú, Szabolcs, Audio DSP Remote Hardware Prototyping and Console Creation, Proceedings of the 29th Irish Signals and Systems Conference (ISSC), Belfast, the UK, IEEE, 2018, pp1-6Conference Paper, 2018, DOI
  • Boyd, Aidan and Callaly, Frank and Canavan, Dáire and O'Loughlin, Declan and Audiger, Jeremy and Boyer, Yohan and Timlin-Canning, Niall and Vianes, Arthur and Da-Costa, Clement and Morgan, Fearghal and Bakó, László and Hajdú, Szabolcs, ICCapt: Online Design Capture and HDL Generation, with PYNQ SoC Prototyping in the Cloud, Proceedings of the 29th Irish Signals and Systems Conference (ISSC), Belfast, the UK, IEEE, 2018, pp1-6Conference Paper, 2018, DOI
  • Parsi, Ashkan and O'Loughlin, Declan and Glavin, Martin and Jones, Edward, Heart Rate Variability Analysis to Predict Onset of Ventricular Tachyarrhythmias in Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators, Proceedings of the 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine in Biology Society (EMBC), Berlin, Germany, 2019Conference Paper, 2019, DOI
  • Morgan, Fearghal and O'Loughlin, Declan and Audiger, Jeremy and Boyer, Youan and Timlin-Canning, Niall and Kępa, Krzysztof and Cawley, Séamus and Gallivan, Ian and Bakó, László and Callaly, Frank, Vicilogic 2.0: Online Learning and Prototyping of Digital Systems Using {PYNQ-Z1/-Z2, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Rapid System Prototyping (RSP), Torino, Italy, 2018Conference Paper, 2018, DOI
  • Morgan, Fearghal and Cawley, Séamus and Coffey, Aedan and Callaly, Frank and Lyons, Darren and O'Loughlin, Declan and Krewer, Finn and Dwivedi, Manaswee and Marechal, Karl and Garcia De Santana, Eduardo and Neelen, Mirjam and Donovan, Lynda and Nugent, David and Killoran, Paul, Vicilogic: Online Learning and Prototyping Platform for digital logic and computer architecture, Proceedings of eChallenges e-2014, Belfast, the UK, 2014Conference Paper, 2014, URL
  • O'Loughlin, Declan and Benchakroun, Hamza and Lowery, Aoife, Rotational Artefact Removal for Radar-based Breast Imaging: Effects on Image Quality, Proceedings of the 33rd General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GASS), Rome, Italy, International Union of Radio Science, 2020Conference Paper, 2020, DOI , URL
  • Karam, Seyed Abbas Shah and O'Loughlin, Declan and Asl, Babak Mohammadzadeh, A novel sophisticated form of DMAS beamformer: Application to breast cancer detection, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, 74, 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
  • I tuk, Niko and Porter, Emily and O'Loughlin, Declan and O'Halloran, Martin, Dielectric Properties Model of the Left Atrium and Left Atrial Appendage for Applications in Cardiac Ablation, Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA), Honolulu, HI, USA, IEEE, 2021Conference Paper, 2021, DOI , URL
  • I tuk, Niko and La Gioia, Alessandra and Benchakroun, Hamza and O'Loughlin, Declan and Lowery, Aoife and Porter, Emily and O'Halloran, Martin, Measurement of Electrical Conductivity of Human Blood at Frequencies Below 100 kHz with Four-electrode Probe Method, Proceedings of the 34th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GASS), Rome, Italy, International Union of Radio Science, 2021Conference Paper, 2021, DOI , URL
  • Benchakroun, Hamza and O'Halloran, Martin and O'Loughlin, Declan, Impact of rotational artefact removal on microwave breast images, Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), Dusseldorf, Germany, 2021Conference Paper, 2021, DOI , URL
  • Benchakroun, Hamza and O'Loughlin, Declan and I tuk, Niko and O'Halloran, Martin and La Gioia, Alessandra, Evaluation of the Feasibility of Three Custom-made Tetrapolar Probes for Electrical Characterization of Cardiac Tissue, Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), Dusseldorf, Germany, 2021Conference Paper, 2021, DOI , URL
  • Hamza Benchakroun and Declan O'Loughlin, Identifying Microwave Antenna Design Limitations for Radar-based Breast Imaging, 2022 International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT), Dublin, Ireland, 16/5/2022, 2022Conference Paper, 2022, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Hamza Benchakroun, Niko I tuk, Eoghan Dunne, Muhammad Adnan Elahi, Tony O'Halloran, Martin O'Halloran, Declan O'Loughlin, Probe Contact Force Monitoring during Conductivity Measurements of the Left Atrial Appendage to Support the Design of Novel Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures, MDPI Sensors, 22, (19), 2022, p7171Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Benchakroun, Hamza and Ištuk, Niko and Dunne, Eoghan and Elahi, Adnan and O'Halloran, Tony and O'Halloran, Martin and O'Loughlin, Declan, Design of a Tetrapolar Probe for Electrical Characterization of the Left Atrial Appendage from 0.1 Hz to 100 kHz, IEEE Sensors Journal, 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Porter, Emily and O'Loughlin, Declan, Pathway to Demonstrating Clinical Efficacy of MIcrowave Breast Imaging: Qualitative and Quantitative Performance Assessment, IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology, 6, (4), 2022, p439 - 448Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Silva, Nuno P. and Elahi, Adnan and O'Halloran, Martin and O'Keeffe, Derek T. and O'Loughlin, Declan, Design limitations of using magnetic inductive coupling to verify nasogastric tube placement, 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Florence, Italy, 26-31 March 2023, 2023Conference Paper, 2023, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Marcin J Kra"ny, Hamza Benchakroun, Niko Ištuk, Declan O'Loughlin, Adnan Elahi, Atif Shahzad, Martin O'Halloran and Eoghan Dunne, Simple Steps to Characterise a Conductivity Measurement Probe for Bio-impedance Applications, 23rd International Conference on Biomedical Applications of Electrical Impedance Tomography, Aachen, Germany, June 2023Conference Paper
  • Declan O'Loughlin, Remaining Technical Challenges for Microwave Breast Imaging, International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering, Hiroshima, Japan, November, 2018Invited Talk
  • Declan O'Loughlin, Clinical advances and remaining challenges for microwave breast imaging, Annual Meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiologists, Seattle, WA, USA, April, 2020, Society of Interventional RadiologistsInvited Talk
  • Declan O'Loughlin, Improving the sensitivity of radar-based breast imaging algorithms in diverse patient populations, National University of Ireland Galway, 2019Thesis
  • Declan O'Loughlin, Image processing on a Field Programmable Gate Array using High-Level Synthesis, National University of Ireland Galway, 2014Thesis

Research Expertise

Declan O'Loughlin's research interests centre around the use of electronics and electromagnetics for biomedical applications. In particular, his research interests include identifying and accounting for variances between patients in bioelectronic medical devices, such as variances between the dielectric properties of tissues of interest and in the size and shape of targets of interest.

  • Title
    Optimising the design of microwave hydration monitoring devices
    Summary
    This project examines the theoretical foundation for active microwave measurement for hydration status assessment. These devices estimate the electrical properties of the arm which are known to vary with hydration status. While several studies have shown promising results in monitoring dehydration during exercise, results have been based on small studies with limited data and relied on a number of simplifying assumptions regarding the equipment and analysis tools used. The underlying principles are comprehensively examined drawing on the existing evidence and recent literature regarding the natural variability of the electrical properties for reasons other than hydration and the impact of the equipment used to gather the data. These results help determine the minimum standards required to measure and isolate the changes in electrical properties due to hydration alone and the fundamental limitations of the technique.
    Funding Agency
    Trinity College Dublin
    Date From
    2023
    Date To
    2027

Medical Engineering, Biotechnology and devices (including medical laboratory technologies and informatics), Medical Engineering, Biotechnology and devices (including medical laboratory technologies and informatics), Electrical & electronic engineering, Computer science - software engineering, Electrical & electronic engineering, Computer science - software engineering,

Recognition

  • Irish Canada University Foundation (ICUF) James M. Flaherty Research Scholarship 2017
  • Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship 2020
  • Royal Irish Academy Charlemont Grant 2023
  • International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientist Award 2020
  • Irish Research Council (IRC) New Foundations Award 2019
  • BioEngineering in Ireland (BINI) Best Electronics Speaker 2016
  • Engineers Ireland, Member
  • International Union of Radio Science (URSI), Senior Member
  • Young Academy Ireland
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Member and Student Branch Counselor
  • Royal Academy of Medicine Ireland, Member
  • Reviewer for IEEE (TMI, TBME, TMTT, JERM and Access), Wiley (Medical Physics) and MDPI journals (Sensors, Diagnostics).
  • Accreditation Panel Rapporteur, Engineers Ireland
  • Visiting Lecturer, Research Institute for Nanodevices, Hiroshima University, Japan. 2022
  • Inaugural member, ORCID Research Advisory Council