The origin of my interest about Biomedical Engineering
My interest in Biomedical Engineering (BME) derived from my experience with the examination and the fitting process of orthokeratology. The ophthalmologist used corneal topography to map and measure the surface of my cornea, which helped him determine the refraction error of the cornea. I was so impressed by the sophisticated ophthalmology instrument that I made up my mind to explore medical imaging techniques when I started my undergraduate degree at Soochow University.
My first publication
To achieve my goal, I contacted Dr. Jianhua Mo and discussed the possibility of optical imaging research in his team—OIIT Lab. My work focused on improving the imaging quality of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) during the image reconstruction process. In the first project, where I acted as a team leader, I utilized the Compressive Sensing (CS) algorithm to OCTA to solve the problem of motion artifacts, and severe noise caused by the scattering effect and the speckle effect. At first, it seemed a big challenge for me since I needed to learn more about the data processing of OCTA while facing heavy course pressure. After reviewing many research papers about it, I gradually improved my skills in signal processing and worked with my teammates to conquer the problems we met one by one. My contribution was to speed up the acquisition of the device by CS, and improve the quality of the vessel images by the specially designed algorithm called CGM filter. We successfully applied this method to the OCT examination of the skin of burn patients. In May this year, I published a paper entitled “Compressive-sensing sweep-source optical coherence tomography angiography with reduced noise” as the first author in the Journal of Biophotonics, marking my growth in the road of medical imaging. This project’s success was vital for me because it taught me how to solve the difficulty through creative, collaborative teamwork and gave me the passion for keeping on working in this field. Also, I gained team leader experience, which was essential for a scientist.
My career goal of becoming a researcher
After that project, I had a deeper understanding of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), especially its limitations, and my career goal in this field seemed clearer and more objective. Therefore, I planned to conduct more challenging and creative work. My second project aimed to utilize a neural network in the process of wavefront encoding of the OCT, of which the light path in the sample arm was inserted by an annular phase plate, thus extending the depth-of-field. Although my undergraduate course didn’t cover the skills and knowledge required for this work, I learned several courses like Introduction to Fourier Optics and Deep Learning online. The work is still being conducted, and I will be highly devoted to this project.
During my research project, I met several researchers and always discussed my work with them. Their rigorous attitude towards science and rich knowledge deeply shocked me, and that motivated me to pursue a higher degree in BME because I knew my ability at the moment was not enough to be a qualified researcher. If I could get an opportunity to study Ph.D degree in BME, what I can get is not only the research skills but also some qualities such as creativity, desire to explore, and rigor which are meaningful for both my daily life and my future career.
I will be a PhD student at the Department of Bioengineering/the Department of Ophthalmology, the Univerisity of Pittsburgh, PA, United States in Fall 2023. And my research interest is about Medical Image Processing and Optical Imaging Technique. I would thrive and make a positive impact on the development and application of OCT during my future PhD period, which make sense to human health.