Lab Coordinator
Name: Alexander Cosman
Education: BA, Biology (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: a.cosman@ufl.edu
Alexander Cosman graduated from the University of Florida in Fall 2023 with a degree in Biology. As the Lab Administrative Coordinator for Dr. Shao’s lab, Alex oversees a range of tasks to ensure the efficiency and accuracy of the lab’s research operations. His recent efforts have been dedicated to managing the lab’s international Grand Challenge, AortaSeg24.
Postdocs
Name: Muhammad Imran
Education: PhD, Electrical Engineering (Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL)
Email: muhammad.imran@ufl.edu
Dr. Muhammad Imran, a postdoctoral associate, holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Florida State University, USA. With expertise in image processing, computer vision, deep learning, and artificial intelligence, Imran’s work involves medical image analysis, utilizing state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques to solve complex problems such as multimodal image registration, multi-organ image segmentation, and imaging biomarkers for disease diagnosis, localization, staging, and treatment planning.
Name: Gorkem Can Ates
Education: PhD, Mechanical Engineering (University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL)
Email: gates@ufl.edu
Dr. Gorkem Can Ates, a postdoctoral associate, earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Miami, USA. With a strong emphasis on deep learning, Dr. Ates is an expert in computer vision, focusing on both supervised and self-supervised approaches for medical image segmentation. His research is dedicated to leveraging advanced deep learning techniques to significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of medical image analysis, contributing to more precise diagnostics and effective treatment planning.
PhD Students
Name: Hongxu Jiang
Education: BS, Electrical Engineering (Xidian University, Xi’an, China)
Email: hongxu.jiang@medicine.ufl.edu
Hongxu is a first-year PhD student in the department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. He is currently working on prostate segmentation and cancer detection on micro-ultrasound. His research interests include Medical Imaging, Pattern Recognition, and Multimodal Machine Learning. Hongxu is excited for his role as a Graduate Assistant in the lab and looks forward to receiving his PhD.
Name: Vishal Balaji Sivaraman
Education: MS, Electrical and Computer Engineering (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: vi.sivaraman@ufl.edu
Vishal Balaji Sivaraman is a recent graduate from the University of Florida. His research under Dr. Shao led to “RetinaRegNet,” a novel zero-shot learning algorithm for registering retinal images with significant shifts. As he starts his PhD, Vishal continues to develop novel frameworks by leveraging his experience with generative AI technologies diffusion models, foundational models, LLMs and transformers.
Name: Chang Wang
Education: MS, Biostatistics (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)
Email: changwang@ufl.edu
Chang is a PhD student in biomedical informatics at the University of Florida, focusing on medical imaging analysis, deep learning, segmentation, and diffusion models. She has over three years of experience in healthcare research, having previously worked on projects involving electronic health records and predictive modeling. Chang is skilled in Python, SAS, and SQL, and has a background as a biostatistical programmer supporting clinical trials.
Masters Students
Name: Teng Zhang
Education: BS, Electrical Engineering (Lanzhou University, China)
Email: zhangt@ufl.edu
Teng is a first-year master student in the department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. He is currently working on the summary of diffusion model theory and its various applications in medical imaging. His research interests include deep learning, medical image processing and analysis, AI for healthcare and so on. He is passionate about using artificial intelligence and electrical engineering to solve medical problems.
Volunteers
Name: Yu Xin
Education: BE, Digital Media Technology (North China University of Technology, China)
Email: yu.xin@ufl.edu
Yu Xin is a first-year master student in the department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. His research background includes 3D Point Cloud Analysis, LiDAR, and embedded development. Currently, he has a strong interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience, brain science, and brain-machine interface.
Name: Kirill Luka
Education: BS, Computer Science (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: kirill.luka@ufl.edu
Kirill Luka is a third-year undergraduate student in the department of Computer Science at the University of Florida. He is currently volunteering at the lab, focusing on learning about segmentation networks for medical imaging applications. His research interests include deep learning, convolutional neural networks, and artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Name: Harrison Chojnowski
Education: BS in Computer Science and BS in Mathematics (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: chojnowski.h@ufl.edu
Harrison Chojnowski is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Florida in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences pursuing a double-major in Computer Science and Mathematics. His research interests include image-based transformers, medical image analysis, multi-modal LLMs, diffusion, and reasoning.
Name: Preethika Muralidharan
Education: MS, Biomedical Informatics (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: p.muralidharan@ufl.edu
Preethika Muralidharan is a recent graduate from the University of Florida, specializing in Biomedical Informatics (BMI) in the Department of HOBI. Her research interests include instrumentation, medical image classification and segmentation, and applying informatics to address critical healthcare challenges. She has worked in manual segmentation of prostate capsule test cases and image correspondence in retinal analysis.
Name: Anjali Patel
Education: BS, Microbiology and Cell Sciences (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: anjalipatel@ufl.edu
Anjali Patel is a second-year Medical Student at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She completed her undergraduate studies from University of Florida as well and received a Bachelors of Science in Microbiology and Cell Sciences with a minor in Health Disparities. She is very passionate about clinical research and appreciate working with her team members. Anjali was recently awarded the Oberndorf AI Medical Scholars Award. Click here for more information
Alumni
Name: Amarjeet Kumar
Education: MS, Computer Science (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: amarjeetkumar@ufl.edu
Current Position: Software Engineer at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
Amarjeet Kumar graduated from the University of Florida with his Masters. During his time in the lab, he worked on Image Super Resolution, Brain volume segmentation, and multi-modal classification on angiogram images.
Name: Linhai Ma
Education: PhD, Computer Science (University of Miami, Miami, FL)
Email: Linhai.Ma@medicine.ufl.edu
Current Position: Machine Learning Engineer at Cadence Design Systems
Linhai Ma graduated from the University of Miami with his PhD in Computer Science. In his time at UM he focused on Machine Learning, Deep learning, and Medical Imaging Analysis. While he was in the lab he worked on enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of Medical Imaging technologies through the utilization of various Multimodal Machine Learning initiatives. Dr. Ma is now a postdoc at Yale.
Name: Gowthami Wudaru
Education: Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India)
Email: wudarugowthami@ufl.edu
Gowthami Wudaru is pursuing her Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. Her research project involves measurement and prediction of kidney stone growth using machine learning.
Name: Chintan Acharya
Education: BE, Computer Engineering (Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering)
Email: chintan.acharya@ufl.edu
Chintan Acharya is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Computer Science at the University of Florida. He is passionate about artificial intelligence and machine learning, and has obtained certifications from IBM and Infosys in these domains. Chintan was engaged in collaboration with Dr. Wei Shao working on a project centered on the evaluation of cardiac sarcoidosis through the application of deep-learning techniques on cardiovascular MRIs.
Name: Andres Gabriel Gomez
Education: MS, Electrical Engineering (Florida International University, Miami, FL)
Email: andresggomez@ufl.edu
Current Position: Machine Learning Research Engineer at Blue Ridge Envisioneering, A Parsons Company
Andres Gomez is a second-year MS student in the department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. His research interests include, but are not limited to, computer vision in healthcare, like medical image segmentation, and disease detection. He previously worked on lung segmentation and lung infection detection on CT images. Andres hopes to pursue PhD degree where he can work on machine learning problems that serve science and society.
Name: Sasank S. Desaraju
Education: MD/PhD, College of Medicine (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)
Email: sasank.desaraju@ufl.edu
Sasank Desaraju is a first year MD/PhD student with research interests in deep learning and computer vision for biomedical applications. He hopes to combine clinical and technical expertise to implement effective and cutting-edge technologies for patient care. A triple Gator, Sasank also completed his undergraduate degrees, in physics and mathematics, and his masters degree, in biomedical engineering, at UF.