Biomedical Ultrasound Research Group (BURG)

Current Ph.D. Students

Antarjot Kaur
Ph.D. Student, Engineering Education, Virginia Tech (Aug 2023 - present)
M.S. in Bioengineering, George Mason University (2023)
B.S. in Bioengineering, George Mason University (2021)

Antarjot is focused on investigating and understanding muscle function using ultrasound techniques, while also developing computational models to advance the understanding and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions. Outside of the lab and in the classroom, she is also interested in biomedical and broadening participation research in engineering education. Her hobbies include video games, cooking, and embarking on adventures to new places.

Arlo Gow
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2025 - present)
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester (2024)

Arlo is interested in the use of computational acoustic modeling to improve understanding of ultrasound diagnostics and therapeutics. Outside of the lab, Arlo likes reading, video games, and going on hikes.

Jingyi Zuo
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2023 - present)
M.S. in Bioengineering, UIUC (2023)
B.S. in Computer Science, UCLA (2021)
B.S. in Applied Mathematics, UCLA (2021)

MD Rizwanul Kabir
Ph.D. Student (ICTAS Scholar), Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2023 - present)
B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Islamic University of Technology (2021)

Oliver Liao
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2026 - present)
M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore (2026)
B.E. in Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University (2025)

Samira Mali
Ph.D. Student, Computer Science, Virginia Tech (May 2021 - present)
M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago (2020)
B.S. in Computer Science, Sharif University of Technology

Wilhelm (Wil) Smith
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2026 - present)
B.E. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Maryland (2026)

Yixuan Peng
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2024 - present)
M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan (2024)

Yuanbin Zhu
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2023 - present)
M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan (2023)
B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Automation, North China Electric Power University (2020)

Current Undergraduate Students

Elisabeth Tershak
Undergraduate Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2024 - present)

Peter Lu
Undergraduate Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (May 2023 - present)

Shuborno Zaman
Undergraduate Student, Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech (Aug 2024 - present)

Former Postdoctoral Research Associate

• Quang Tran (2020-2021) –> Postdoc at Harvard Medical School –> Assistant Professor at Michigan Technological University
  

Former Graduate Students

• Haotian Chen (Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC, 2022-2026)
  –> Machine Learning Software Engineer at Google
  Ph.D. Dissertation: Development of ultrasound pulse-echo speed-of-sound imaging

• Zixuan Tian (Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC, 2021-2026)
  –> Camera Imaging Software Engineer at NVIDIA
  Ph.D. Dissertation: Computational methods for Advancing transcranial ultrasound imaging and tomography

• Benny Antony (M.S. in Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2023-2024)
  –> Agentic AI Engineer at Apple
  

• Karthik Nagabhushana (M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC, 2020-2021)
  –> Application Engineer at Texas Instruments
  M.S. Thesis: Simulating acoustic wave reflection, transmission, and scattering in k-Wave for quantitative ultrasound applications
• Yashuo Wu (M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC, 2019-2021)
  –> PhD Student at UC Irvine
  M.S. Thesis: Examining ultrasonic scattering mechanisms in fatty liver parenchyma via histopathological liver image analysis

Former Senior Undergraduate Thesis Students

• Andrew Li (ECE@UIUC, 2022-2023) –> Software Engineer Intern at Capital One
  
• Zikui Wang (ECE@UIUC, 2022-2023) –> MS Student at Stanford
  
• Churan He (ECE@UIUC, 2021) –> MSCS Student at Stanford; Software Engineer at NVIDIA
  
• Shi “Mike” Chen (ECE@UIUC, 2018-2019) –> MS Student at Stanford
  

Former Undergraduate Research Assistants

• Connor Murphy (BMES@VT, 2023-2025)
• Pablo Sanchez (ECE@UIUC, 2020-2022)
• Qiuyu “Tod” Wang (ECE@UIUC, 2020-2022)
• Rohan Mohta(ECE@UIUC, 2021-2022)
• Furkan Yazici (ECE@UIUC, 2021-2022)
• Qi Chen (ECE@UIUC, 2022)
• Calvin Lee (ECE@UIUC, 2022)
• Yu Li (ECE@UIUC, 2022)
• Elie Masanka (Statistics@UIUC, 2019-2021)
• Daniel Ahn (ECE@UIUC, 2021)
• Adam Morgan (ECE@UIUC, 2021)
• Rubin Zhou (ECE@UIUC, 2021)
• Aditya Umakanth (ECE@UIUC, 2019-2020)
• Leonardo Lopez (CS@UIUC, 2020)
• Ziyang Xu (ECE@UIUC, 2019)