Fei Xia, Ph.D., Principle Investigator.
Fei is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the University of California, Irvine. She completed her Ph.D. at Cornell and her postdoc at École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris. She leads a research team working at the interface of optics, computation, and the brain, with a particular interest in designing advanced optical systems to image, sense, and process biomedical information probed by light. She aims to provide innovative solutions to challenging biomedical needs through the co-design of hardware and software. Fei has been recognized by several major awards and honors, including the 2024 Rising Star in Light, 2023 Optica Foundation Challenge Award, 2022 Seal of Excellence for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, the 2022 SPIE Women in Optics, 2020 Data Open Championship and the 2019 Mong NeuroTech Fellowship.
Members
Jyothsna Konkada Manattayil, Ph.D., Postdoc
Jyothsna is a postdoc in the lab. She received her Ph.D. in Photonics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. She has hands-on experience in designing and developing custom optical setups for biomedical and nanophotonic applications. She is interested in experimental photonics for biomedical imaging, diagnostics, and sensing. She is also keen on computational imaging.
Ming-Liang Wei, EECS PhD student
Ming-Liang is a Ph.D. student in EECS at UC Irvine. He received his M.S. in Medical Engineering from Caltech, and his B.S. and M.S. from National Taiwan University in Physics and Zoology, and in Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, respectively. His research focuses on nonlinear microscopy, clinical trials, and quantitative analysis. He is particularly interested in lasers, optical systems, and bioimaging.
Joonhyuk Seo, EECS PhD student
Joonhyuk is a Ph.D. student in EECS at UC Irvine. He received his M.E. in Artificial Intelligence from Hanyang University, South Korea. His research focuses on applying deep learning to optics and nanophotonics. He is particularly interested in the multidisciplinary intersection of photonics, deep learning, and computational imaging.
Yunong Sun, EECS PhD student
Yunong is a Ph.D student in EECS at UC Irvine (2025 Fall). He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in EE from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) respectively. Now, he is interested in computational speckle imaging and low-level computer vision.
Sicheng Chen, EECS PhD student
Sicheng is a Ph.D student in EECS at UC Irvine (2025 Fall). He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in EE from Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) and UC Irvine respectively. Now, he is interested in digital pathology diagnosis.
Ellie Huang, EECS MS student
Ellie is a Master's student in EECS at UC Irvine. She earned her B.S. in EECS from UC Berkeley, and her interests span data science, photonics, and semiconductor technology. With experience across both software and hardware domains, she is particularly interested in exploring how computational techniques can advance optical systems and emerging device technologies.
Nanxuan Li, EECS MS student
Nanxuan is a MS student in EECS at UC Irvine. He got B.E. in Computer Science from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHKSZ). He had an internship experience about camera system development in Omnivision and Vivo Mobile Company. He is interested in Image Processing and Computational Imaging.
Aileen Kim, EECS Undergraduate student
Aileen is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Engineering at University of California, Irvine. She starts working with us from summer 2025.
Aidan Fernandez, Undergraduate intern
Aidan is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Engineering at California State University - Bakersfield. He is working with us during summer 2025. He is supported by UCI SURF and NSF Cal-Bridge programs
Rashad Hall, Undergraduate intern
Rashad is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science and Physics at California State University - Dominguez Hills. He is working with us during summer 2025. He is supported by NSF Cal-Bridge program.
Chad Wong, EECS Undergraduate student
Chad is an undergraduate electrical engineering student at UC Irvine who is specializing in signal processing and semiconductors/photonics. He is interested in researching computer vision and optical devices for medical purposes.
