Biography

Dr. Viji Ahanathapillai completed her B.Eng in India and subsequently pursued her passion for research, obtaining a PhD in biomedical signal and image processing from University of Strathclyde.

Following her doctoral studies, Viji gained valuable experience as an Image Processing Algorithms Engineer at Lucid Software Ltd., where she played a pivotal role in developing algorithms for industrial non-destructive testing applications. Her expertise then led her to the Institute of Digital Healthcare within the University of Warwick, where she served as a post-doctoral researcher, focusing on wearable technology. She also worked with the Learning and Development Centre, contributing to the identification of career development opportunities for research-active staff.

Subsequently, Viji transitioned to Malvern Panalytical Ltd. as a Development Scientist, where she developed novel image processing algorithms for nanoparticle sizing instruments. Driven by her strong passion for education, she transitioned to Birmingham City University and became a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering.

In 2023, Viji joined the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, where she currently serves as an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering within the Systems and Information Engineering stream. Her commitment to the field is further demonstrated through her role as an Associate Editor of IET Healthcare Technology Letters.

Research Interests

Viji's multidisciplinary research interests encompass a broad spectrum of Biomedical Engineering including

Biomedical signal and image processing: She employs advanced techniques to extract features and enhance the understanding and interpretation of complex biological signal/ image data.

Exploration of Wearable Technology for health monitoring: Her research delves into the application of wearable devices that can provide real-time data, contributing to the advancement of personalized and preventive healthcare.

Understanding Women health: She focuses on areas related to women's health, including investigations into the menstrual cycle and menopause. By leveraging wearable technology, she aims to provide valuable insights into these critical aspects of women's health.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data for healthcare applications: She seeks to harness the power of AI algorithms and analyse large datasets to derive meaningful patterns and correlations. This research has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by enabling more accurate diagnostics, personalized treatment plans, and improved patient outcomes.

Teaching Interests

Course leader:

• MSc Diagnostics Data and Digital Health

Module leader:

• ES9ZU-60 Research Project (for MSc)
• ES9ZT-15 Group Research Project (Diagnostics/Imaging)

Other teaching:

• ES193 - Maths support tutorial session
• Weekly maths support to first-year personal tutees

Selected Publications

1. P. Biju, H. Arif, C. Edwards, K. Heyes, V. Ahanathapillai, “The Development and Testing of a Prototype Venous Needle Dislodgement Detection Device”, 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, Glasgow, 11-15 July (2022)
2. B Singh, V. Ahanathapillai, N. R. Sharma, S. Jan, A. Roy, A. K. Upadhyay, “Structural insights into the amino acid usage variations in the profilin gene family”, Amino Acids. 2022 Mar; 54(3):411-419. doi: 10.1007/s00726-022-03138-4. Epub 2022 Feb 22. PMID: 35192061.
3. Ahanathapillai, J. D. Amor, C. J. James, “Assistive technology to monitor activity, health and wellbeing in old age: The wrist wearable unit in the USEFIL project”, Technology and Disability 27 (1), 17-29 (2015)
4. Ahanathapillai, J. D. Amor, Z. Goodwin, C. J. James, “Preliminary study on activity monitoring using an android smart-watch”, Healthcare technology letters 2 (1), 34-39 (2015)
5. D. Amor, V. Ahanathapillai, C. J. James, “A novel method for the automatic segmentation of activity data from a wrist worn device: Preliminary results”, 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 5470-5473 (2014)
6. Ahanathapillai, J. D. Amor, M. Tadeusiak, C. J. James, “Wrist-worn accelerometer to detect postural transitions and walking patterns”, XIII Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, 1515-1518 (2013)
7. D. Amor, V. Ahanathapillai, C. J. James, “Detecting and analyzing activity levels for the wrist wearable unit in the USEFIL project”, XIII Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, 1201-1204 (2013)
8. D. Amor, C. J. James, V. Ahanathapillai, “Enhancing Independent Living with Wearable Devices: The Wrist Wearable Unit in the USEFIL Project”, International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC), Vol. 13 (2013)
9. Ahanathapillai , J. J. Soraghan, “Myocardial Ischemia Detection Algorithm (MIDA): An automated echocardiography sequence analysis for the diagnosis of heart muscle damage”, CinC 2010, Computing in Cardiology Conference, Belfast, UK (2010) 

10. Ahanathapillai , J. J. Soraghan, “Delaunay triangulation based image enhancement for Echocardiography images”, EUSIPCO 2009, 17th European Signal Processing Conference, Glasgow, UK (2009) 

11. Ahanathapillai , J. J. Soraghan, D. J. Hamilton, G. Morison, “Echocardiographical sequence analysis for the diagnosis of heart wall damage”, DSP 2007, 15th International Conference on Digital Signal Processing, Cardiff, Wales, UK (2007) 

12. Ahanathapillai , D. J. Hamilton, “ Eigenhearts for diagnosis of congestive heart failure (CHF)”, MEDSIP 2006, 3rd International Conference on Advances in Medical, Signal and Information Processing, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (2006) 

13. J. Thiruvengadam, Chinnadurai, K. D. Suprajah, V. Ahanathapillai, V. Abhaikumar , “Minimum variance beamformer in mobile user tracking system”, National Conference on Communication NCC2003, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. (2003) 

14. Ahanathapillai, K. D. Suprajah, “Speech processing on adaptive scratch noise filtering”, SIGNALS '01, National Engineering College, Kovilpatti, India (2001) 


Projects and Grants