Fei Xia, Ph.D., Principle Investigator.
Email: fei.xia[at] uci.edu | [Google Scholar] | [Linkedin]
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 smart 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 Scialog Fellow for RCSA Initiative, Rising Star in Light, Optica Foundation Challenge Award, Seal of Excellence for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, the SPIE Women in Optics, Data Open Championship and the Mong NeuroTech Fellowship.
Members
Jyothsna Konkada Manattayil, Ph.D., Postdoc
Email: jkonkada[at]uci.edu | [Google Scholar] | [Linkedin]
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
Email: mlwei[at]uci.edu | [Google Scholar] | [Linkedin]
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.
Yunong Sun, EECS PhD student
Email: yunongs1[at]uci.edu | [Google Scholar] | [Linkedin] | [Website]
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 and Xi'an Jiaotong University respectively. Now, he is interested in computational speckle imaging and low-level computer vision.
Sicheng Chen, EECS PhD student
Email: sichenc5[at]uci.edu | [Google Scholar] | [Linkedin] | [Website]
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 and UC Irvine respectively. Now, he is interested in digital pathology diagnosis.
Nanxuan Li, EECS MS student
Email: nanxual[at]uci.edu | [Linkedin]
Nanxuan is a MS student in EECS at UC Irvine. He got B.E. in Computer Science from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He had an internship experience about camera system development in Omnivision and Vivo Mobile Company. He is interested in Image Processing and Computational Imaging.
Bohao Dang, EECS MS student
Email: bohaod1[at]uci.edu | [Linkedin]
Bohao is a MS student in EECS at UC Irvine. He got his bachelor's in Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering from Shenzhen University. He had internship experience in laser shock peening, circuit design and electronics, as well as optical lens processing in multiple companies. He is interested in optical systems, laser and biophotonics.
Aileen Kim, EECS Undergraduate student
Email: aileenjk[at]uci.edu
Aileen is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Engineering at University of California, Irvine. She starts working with us from summer 2025.
Tiffany Zhang, CSE Undergraduate student
Email: tiffz13[at]uci.edu
Tiffany is an undergraduate student at UC Irvine majoring in Computer Science Engineering. She is interested in researching applications of machine learning models in software development.
Chad Wong, EECS Undergraduate student
Email: chadkw[at]uci.edu
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.
Nicholas Baldivino, Applied Physics Undergraduate student
Email: nbaldivi[at]uci.edu
Nicholas studies applied physics at UC Irvine. He is interested in optical science and his current interests include photonic computing.
Oscar Alvarez Harth, Applied Physics and EE Undergraduate student
Email: oharth[at]uci.edu
Oscar is an undergraduate student at UC Irvine majoring in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering. He is interested in optical physics and computational imaging, with a current research focus on wavefront shaping and adaptive optics.
Theone Martin, Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate student
Email: theonem[at]uci.edu
Theone is an undergraduate student at UC Irvine studying mechanical engineering. She is interested in design of optical systems and researching optical tools for biological and fundamental sciences.
Samarth R Koundinya, EE Undergraduate student
Email: koundins[at]uci.edu
Samarth is an undergraduate student at UC Irvine studying electrical engineering.
Kassandra Pham, Public Health Sciences Undergraduate student
Email: kassanpp[at]uci.edu
Kassandra is an undergraduate student at UC Irvine studying Public Health Sciences. She is interested in integrating optics and computational approaches to develop imaging solutions that enhance diagnostic efficiency.
Alumni
Aidan Fernandez, Undergraduate intern (Summer 2025)
Aidan is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Engineering at California State University - Bakersfield. He worked with us during summer 2025. He was supported by UCI SURF and NSF Cal-Bridge programs.
Rashad Hall, Undergraduate intern (Summer 2025)
Rashad is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science and Physics at California State University - Dominguez Hills. He worked with us during summer 2025. He was supported by NSF Cal-Bridge program.
Nithin Aruswamy, High school student intern (Summer 2025)
Nithin is a senior at Dublin High School and a USPTO Patent holder. He has experience in computer vision and obstacle avoidance through VEX AI and is interested in operations research. He worked with us during summer 2025.