We are pleased to announce that CAHBIR’s first MRI scanner has been delivered. Early in the morning of April 22nd, 2021, a flatbed truck arrived in parking lot 58C on the Rutgers campus. That flatbed’s precious cargo, a Siemens Prisma, will provide human brain imaging capabilities for researchers here at Rutgers and other partner institutions.
By 4:30pm, the magnet itself and all the accompanying electronics and accessories had been hoisted into their new home, the Staged Research Building, and the labs of the Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research. The magnet was carefully set in place with millimeter precision, and perfectly leveled. At the time of writing, the control consoles were being cabled to the magnet through the filter panel that connects the scanner room to the electronics room. That process should be finished by Sunday the 25th. We expect a delivery of liquid helium to top off the magnet in the afternoon of the 23rd, and the coldhead should be pumping on the cryostat to stabilize all the helium very soon after that.
Over the next few weeks, lab construction will finish up – the wall of the building will be replaced, the offices will be completed, and instructional & welcome videos will be produced. We expect the magnet to be ramped to field on May 17th. Calibration and acceptance procedures will start soon after, and then finally, CAHBIR will be able to begin training users on the fully-operational system sometime in mid to late June.
Be sure to follow CAHBIR’s Twitter feed, @Rutgers_CAHBIR for realtime updates, and remember to check back here for more detailed progress reports.