WUHAN, China (January 14, 2019) - Wuhan Optoelectronics Forum No. 151 was successfully held in Auditorium A101 at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO) in the morning of January 14. Prof. Pheng Ann Heng from Chinese University of Hong Kong delivered an exciting talk entitled Medical Image Analysis and Surgical Simulation – AI and VR Applications for Medicine. Dr. Qiang Li, from WNLO chaired the forum. Prof. Dan Zhu, Deputy Director of WNLO, awarded Prof. Pheng Ann Heng the forum medal.
There are many successful applications of deep learning in solving challenging and difficult problems in recent years. An excellent example is its application in medical image analysis. Dr. Heng’s group is the first to employ 3D convolutional neural networks for automatic detection of cerebral micro-bleeds from MR images. They also proposed multi-level contextual 3D convolutional neural network framework for false positive reduction in automated pulmonary nodule detection. They further proposed a novel and efficient 3D CNN equipped with a 3D deep supervision mechanism to comprehensively address the challenges of optimization difficulties of 3D networks and inadequacy of medical training samples. Their successful deep learning applications cover a wide spectrum of medical image modalities, include histopathological imaging, ultrasound imaging, MR/CT imaging, dermoscopy imaging and colonoscopy videos. Concurrently, there are also many significant and promising developments in virtual reality that are applicable for medical applications. Virtual reality based surgical simulation can provide a cost-effective and efficient way to train novices. In order to achieve the goal of delivering specialized training of a surgical procedure, one practical solution is to construct a realistic virtual environment through intelligent integration of medical imaging, motion tracking, physically based simulation, haptic feedback and visual rendering. In this talk, Dr. Heng shall present their recent works in using deep learning for medical image analysis and introduce some VR-based surgical simulators they have developed.
Dr. Pheng Ann Heng is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He has served as the Director of Virtual Reality, Visualization and Imaging Research Center at CUHK since 1999. He has also served as the Department Chairman (2014-2017) and Head of Graduate Division (2005-1008 and 2011-2016). He has served as the Director of Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2006 and has been appointed by China Ministry of Education as a Cheung Kong Scholar Chair Professor in 2007. He is the author of over 470 peer-reviewed publications, including 190 international journal articles and 280 international conference papers. His group has received three best paper awards in medical image analysis in recent years, including MIA-MICCAI 2017 best paper award. His research interests include artificial intelligence and virtual reality for medical applications, surgical simulation, visualization, graphics and human-computer interaction.
