Title:Fusion of Imaging and Robotics for Healthcare and Human-Machine Interface Abstract:Medical robotics has been widely applied in areas such as surgical assistance, enabling higher precision, reduced fatigue, and enhanced performance and tele-operation, allowing surgeons to perform procedures remotely without being physically present with the patient. A key enabler of medical robotics is imaging, which has rapidly evolved over the past two decades to support more minimally invasive, personalized, and low-risk diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. My research group focuses on the intersection of medical robotics, sensing, and imaging, with the aim of developing robotic-assisted imaging systems and image-guided robotic interventional platforms leveraging AI. In this talk, I will highlight two projects in our lab. First, I will discuss autonomous robotic imaging, which aims to reduce user dependency during image acquisition, resulting in higher-quality images and more comprehensive scanning. This includes our development of an autonomous ultrasound robot for diagnosing lung diseases. Second, I will introduce AI-powered biosignal-based human-machine interaction that harnesses signals from the human body to estimate hand movements and forces. This research is crucial for designing effective human-machine interaction systems, which can control robots, augmented/virtual/mixed reality interfaces, and digital media. Ultrasound data from the forearm provides valuable insights by visualizing a cross-section of the forearm, revealing the underlying causes of hand movements and interaction. These advancements in robotic imaging and human-machine interaction have the potential to significantly enhance both healthcare and our daily quality of life. Speaker:Haichong (Kai) Zhang, Ph.D.Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Robotics Engineering Program, WPIBio:Dr. Haichong (Kai) Zhang is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Robotics Engineering with an appointment in Computer Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He is the founding director of the Medical Frontier Ultrasound Imaging and Robotic Instrumentation (Medical FUSION) Laboratory. His research interests include advanced medical imaging and robotic instrumentation with an emphasis on ultrasound and photoacoustics. Dr. Zhang received his B.S. and M.S. in Human Health Sciences from the Kyoto University, Japan, and subsequently earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Zhang is the recipient of the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5) in 2019 and the Early Investigator Research Award from the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program in 2018. He has served as a Program Committee Member for two tracks at the Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling and Ultrasonic Imaging and Tomography at the SPIE Medical Imaging Conference. He has been a member of the Young Professionals Committee of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society (UFFC-S) since 2021.Host: Professor Ulkuhan Guler

These trainings are divided into a 101- and 201-level and will be offered on a termly basis in Stratton Hall 311. Both trainings will include creating an action plan and discovering new resources for continued learning. Please contact Lauren Feldman (they/she) at diversity@wpi.edu with any questions or accommodations requests. All are welcome to attend! 101: Learn about identities, pronouns, and how to advocate for your students and colleagues. A-Term: Wednesday, September 17, 2:00-3:30pm ET Zoom: Tuesday, October 14, 1:30-3:00pm ET B-Term: Tuesday, October 28, 11:00am-12:30pm ET 201: Learn about LGBTQIAP+ history, queer identity in other cultures, and queer liberation. Participants are encouraged to either attend the 101 training or have solid foundational knowledge before attending the 201 training. A-Term: Wednesday, September 24, 2:00-3:30pm ET B-Term: Wednesday, November 5, 1:30-3:00pm ET

Department of Mathematical SciencesQIT Thinking SeminarWednesday, September 17th, 20254:00PM-4:50PMStratton Hall 207Speaker: Harmony Zhan, WPITitle: An introduction to continuous-time quantum walksAbstract: A continuous-time quantum walk models the evolution of a quantum system under a time-independent Hamiltonian. We can represent such a system by a graph, where each vertex encodes a qubit, and each edge encodes the interaction between two qubits. This talk introduces continuous-time quantum walks whose Hamiltonians are determined by the adjacency matrices or the Laplacian matrices. We will survey some interesting behaviors of the walk and explain them using the spectral information of the graph.

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DIY Wednesdays are craft activities for you to de-stress and build social connections. This week, join us to make your own shrinky dink! Drop-by, relax, have fun, and create with your friends or make new friends.

Staff from the Pre-Award team in Office of Sponsored Program will host 2 in-person trainings to help guide you through the WPI proposal process and get you registered in the systems we use.