People
We share the same passion in developing AI tools for better healthcare.
- Home
- People
OUR TEAM
Principal Investigator
Ulas Bagci, PhD
Dr Ulas Bagci is an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Northwestern University’s Radiology and Biomedical Engineering Department at Chicago. His research interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning and their applications in biomedical and clinical imaging. Dr. Bagci has more than 250 peer-reviewed articles on these topics. Previously, he was a staff scientist and lab co-manager at the National Institutes of Health’s radiology and imaging sciences department, center for infectious disease imaging. Dr. Bagci holds two NIH R01 grants (as Principal Investigator) and serves as a steering committee member of AIR (artificial intelligence resource) at the NIH. Dr. Bagci also serves as an area chair for MICCAI for several years and he is an associate editor of top-tier journals in his fields such as IEEE Trans. on Medical Imaging, Medical Physics, and Medical Image Analysis. Prof. Bagci teaches machine learning, advanced deep learning methods, computer and robot vision, and medical imaging courses. He has several international and national recognitions including best paper and reviewer awards.
Clinical Research Associates
Elif Keles, MD, PhD
Dr. Elif Keles, a respected physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology, holds both an MD and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Gazi University, Ankara. Currently, she serves as a Clinical Research Associate and Research Fellow at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. There, she harnesses the power of AI to facilitate significant advancements in disease diagnosis, treatment planning, and response prediction. Dr. Keles currently oversees two multi-million dollar projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), advancing interdisciplinary research in AI in pediatrics and neonatology. As a dedicated professional in the fields of neonatology, pediatrics, and neuroscience, Dr. Keles' vision is to foster collaboration between artificial intelligence and medical disciplines, contributing to the therapeutic use of AI in pediatrics.
Matt Antalek, MD
Dr. Matt Antalek, an integrated IR/DR resident at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, brings a unique blend of mathematics, biochemistry, and medical knowledge to his role. With an initial background in developing statistical models and image processing software at the NIH NIBIB, Dr. Antalek currently focuses on harnessing AI technologies to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. His work aims to automate the segmentation, detection, and analysis of tumors from MRI pre-treatment imaging studies, seeking to improve patient selection and therapeutic outcomes.
Medetalibeyoglu Alpay, MD
Dr. Medetalibeyoglu Alpay is an esteemed internal medicine specialist and associate professor at the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine. In collaboration with Professor Bagci, he has embarked on an ambitious artificial intelligence endeavor at the Hybrid AI Laboratory. Dr. Alpay offers invaluable clinical insights, particularly in pancreatic diseases, liver cirrhosis and diabetes. Anchored by a holistic approach, he is optimistic about achieving transformative outcomes in their research.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Debesh Jha, PhD
Dr. Debesh Jha is a senior research associate with a deep passion for creating robust deep learning algorithms, evaluation tools and open-access medical datasets for the machine learning community. His current work focuses on radiation oncology, dose prediction, radiation therapy, liver cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, colon cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Known for his significant contributions in medical image segmentation, Dr. Jha's broad research interests involve leveraging deep learning techniques for medical image analysis, and he has developed algorithms for fully automated support systems and datasets for lower GI endoscopy (colonoscopy), whole gastrointestinal tract, and surgical instruments.
Md Manjurul Ahsan, PhD
Dr. Md Manjurul Ahsan is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Northwestern University, working under the guidance of Dr. Ulas Bagci. His journey in academia began at the University of Oklahoma, where he completed his Ph.D. under Dr. Shivakumar Raman and Dr. Zahed Siddique, contributing to projects such as machine learning-based disease diagnosis and additive manufacturing. Dr. Ahsan has also developed two VBA software applications for Schlumberger. With a keen interest in making artificial intelligence solutions accessible and interpretable, he is currently focused on developing explainable deep learning algorithms for identifying patients at risk of developing PASC pulmonary fibrosis, utilizing both imaging and electronic health record data.
Hongyi Pan, PhD
Dr. Hongyi Pan is a dedicated postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, collaborating with Prof. Ulas Bagci. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Ahmet Enis Cetin. Dr. Pan is currently developing an AI system to integrate computer-aided detection and diagnosis system with radiologists’ perceptive knowledge/pattern via eye-tracking. His research interests include image processing, computer vision, and digital signal processing, with a focus on efficient computation, orthogonal-transform-based neural networks, and kernel PCA.
Koushik Biswas, PhD
Dr. Koushik Biswas is a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, working under the guidance of Dr. Ulas Bagci. He earned his P.hD. in Computer Science and Engineering from India. He is currently working on Adversarial robustness, diffusion models, brain tumor segmentation, and liver segmentation projects. His research interests are adversarial robustness, generalizable and interpretable ML, computer vision, medical image analysis, and the theory of deep learning.
Meghana Karri, PhD
Dr Meghana Karri is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Northwestern University, working under the guidance of Dr Ulas Bagci and Dr Yury Velichko. She earned her PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad (IIT Dhanbad), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, under the supervision of Dr Annavarapu Chandra Sekhara Rao. Dr Meghana's current work uses different medical image modalities to focus on sarcoma, brain tumours, and liver cancer. Her research interests include Computer vision, Image processing, and leveraging deep learning methodologies for medical image analysis. Dr Meghana is recognized for her contributions to the segmentation of medical images.
Graduate Students
Zheyuan Zhang
Zheyuan Zhang is a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, under the guidance of Prof. Ulas Bagci. His research focus includes continual learning and domain generalization, with an emphasis on robust and accurate biomedical image segmentation. Prior to his current studies, Zheyuan earned his B.S. at Tsinghua University and gained research experience as an intern at Johns Hopkins University.
Ilkin Isler
Ilkin Isler is a dedicated Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida, where she also serves as a research assistant under the dual supervision of Prof. Turgut and Prof. Bagci from Northwestern University. Her research lies at the intersection of deep learning and high-risk applications such as medical imaging. Specifically, Ilkin's objective is to develop trustworthy, explainable AI systems for use in radiation oncology and radiology systems.
Lanhong Yao
Lanhong Yao is a Research Specialist and recent graduate from Northwestern University, where she earned a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering. Her research, which initially focused on brain tumor segmentation, has now evolved to include radiomics for survival analysis for both IPMN (pancreas) and HGG glioma (brain) patients. Lanhong's interests lie in deep learning, computer vision, medical imaging, and healthcare, solidifying her commitment to improving patient outcomes through innovative research.
Bin Wang
Bin Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, under the supervision of Prof. Ulas Bagci. His research centers around object detection and the development of eye-tracking systems. Prior to his current academic pursuit, Bin earned his B.S. from ShanghaiTech University, laying a solid foundation for his current research interests.
Abhishek Srivastava
Abhishek Srivastava is a Post-Baccalaureate fellow at Northwestern University, working under the guidance of Dr. Ulas Bagci. He graduated with a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida in 2021. Before joining Northwestern, Abhishek was a computer vision research associate at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, under the supervision of Dr. Umapada Pal and Dr. Sukalpa Chanda. His research interests encompass medical image analysis, face super-resolution, document analysis, and remote vital measurement.
Ugur Demir
Ugur Demir is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at Northwestern University. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Computer Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. He started his Ph.D. at the University of Central Florida in 2019 focusing on video analysis and image generation. In 2021, he transferred to Northwestern University to join Machine and Hybrid Intelligence Lab. His fields of interest include model robustness, model interpretability, and representation learning for medical images.
Linkai Peng
Linkai Peng is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at Northwestern University under the supervision of Prof. Ulas Bagci. His research mainly focuses on domain adaptation, generalization, and medical image segmentation. Prior to his current study, Linkai earned his B.S. from Southern University of Science and Technology.
Visiting Scholars & Affiliates
Armstrong Aboah, PhD
Dr. Armstrong Aboah worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, under the guidance of Dr. Ulas Bagci. His academic journey has taken him from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he successfully earned his Ph.D. under the supervision of Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, to his current position where he leverages his extensive experience in research and development. Dr. Aboah is known for his proficiency in creating innovative database solutions, statistical models, data products, and computer vision systems, all aimed at revolutionizing transportation system management and operations.
Nikhil Kumar Tomar
Nikhil Kumar Tomar is a Research Volunteer at Northwestern University, working under the guidance of Dr. Debesh Jha and Dr. Ulas Bagci. Concurrently, he is pursuing his Master's degree from Indira Gandhi National Open University in India. Nikhil's research interests are primarily focused on the diverse applications of biomedical image segmentation, reflecting his commitment to contributing to the field of medical imaging.
Xin Zhu
Xin Zhu is a dedicated Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois Chicago's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he works under the supervision of Prof. Ahmet Enis Cetin. Xin's research focus is on signal processing, with a particular emphasis on developing deep learning algorithms for data compression applications and eye tracking. He holds a joint Masters by Research degree from Xidian University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2021, he gained practical industry experience as an intern at the Samsung Research Institute.
Necip Gengeç
Necip Gengeç is a Ph.D. candidate at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), where he is supervised by Prof. Dr. Ergin Tarı. He also received his BSc (2007) and MSc (2010) degrees from ITU. Having spent significant time in the industry, Necip has honed his research focus on the application of deep learning and computer vision to multimodal data and understanding model generalization. Currently, he is collaborating with Prof. Bagci and his lab at Northwestern University as part of his Ph.D studies.
Harmony Sosa
Harmony Sosa is an undergraduate student at Stanford University studying bioengineering. She is currently focusing on the early detection of pancreatic cancer using radiologic risk assessment. Harmony is interested in furthering medical and mathematical research with an emphasis on improving disease diagnosis and addressing community health disparities.
Berra Adli
Berra Adli is a summer intern from Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago. Over the past three years, she has acquired proficiency in Python, R, and HTML/CSS through both formal education and online platforms. Berra's research project revolves around devising an AI algorithm using PyTorch and UNET to automatically detect and quantify visceral fat tissue in CT and MRI scans. Her initiative showcases a blend of her academic learnings and application in the realm of medical imaging.
Alisa Spritulo
Alisa Spritulo is a high school student from a mathematical gymnasium currently undertaking an internship at the Hybrid Intelligence Laboratory of Northwestern University. With a deep interest in computer science, she's channeling her enthusiasm into deep learning-based pulmonary embolism detection. Alisa aspires to integrate her acquired knowledge to make impactful contributions to medical research in the future.
Zulal Vural
Zulal is a senior at Stevenson High School with a keen interest in melding her computer science skills with her passion for medicine. She's currently making strides at the Northwestern University AI Laboratory, focusing on tumor segmentation using ITK-SNAP and delving into deep learning with Python. Zulal envisions a future where she seamlessly integrates her expertise into advancing the healthcare sector.
Alumni
- Armstrong Aboah (PostDoc), Now Assistant Professor at University of Arizona.
- Rodney LaLonde (Ph.D. student), Now Senior R&D Engineer at Kitware.
- AliAsghar Mortazi (Ph.D. student), Now Post-Doc at UPenn.
- Naji Khosravan (Ph.D student), Now Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Zillow.
- Harish RaviPrakash (Ph.D. student), Now Senior Machine Learning Scientist at AstraZenaca.
- Sarfaraz Hussein (Ph.D. student), Now Principal Machine Learning Scientist at Symantec Corp.
- Ismail Irmakci (Ph.D. student), Now Research associate at Northwestern University after becoming faculty at Ege University, Turkey
- Samira Masoudi (Vising Ph.D. student), Now Post-Doc at University of California San Diego, after completing NIH post-doc fellowship.
- Neslisah Torosdagli (Ph.D. student, UCF), Now Software Engineer
- Arjun Watane (Undergraduate student), Now Resident at Yale University after finishing medical school at University of Miami.
- Nandakishore Puttashamachar (MSc. student), Now Applied Computer Vision Scientist at GumGum / Los Angeles
- Ziyue Xu (PostDoc), Now Senior Scientist at NVIDIA (previously became a staff scientist at NIH).
- Awais Mansoor (PostDoc), Now PostDoc at Children’s Hospital, DC.
- Mingchen Gao (PostDoc), Now Assistant Professor at University of Buffalo.
- Poay Hoon Lim (Ph.D. student), Now PostDoc at University of Montreal, Canada.
- Kirsten Jaster-Miller (Post-Bac student), Now Physician in Cleveland/OH (after her MedSchool at Case Western Reserce/Cleveland Clinics).
- Brent Foster (Post-Bac student), Now Post-doc at Yale University after finishing Ph.D. at University of California at Davis.
- Mario Buty (Post-Bac studet), Now Engineer in IMPAQ International.
- Aaron Wu (Post-Bac studet), Now Engineer in CuraCloud.
- Neil Mendhiratta (Intern, NIH), Now UCLA-Urology (MD, Resident).