Our Team
Meet the researchers and students of the SMILE Lab.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Ruogu "Rena" Fang
Associate Professor · Pruitt Family Endowed Fellow
J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering
Research focus: AI-empowered precision brain health and brain/bio-inspired AI. President of Women in MICCAI, Associate Editor of Medical Image Analysis. Ranked Top 100 (top 1%) worldwide in image analysis.
Current Members
Postdoctoral Researchers
Peng Liu
Postdoc, 2023 - Present
Ph.D. BME, UF 2021
Wasif Khan
Postdoc, 2024 - Present
Ph.D. Students
Seowung Leem
Ph.D. Candidate, 2021 - Present
BME
IEEE NextGen Scholar, UF Outstanding Merit
Joseph Cox
Ph.D. Student, 2022 - Present
BME
NIH NIAAA T32 Fellow
Junfu Cheng
Ph.D. Student, 2024 - Present
ECE
Zhimin Zong
Ph.D. Student, 2022 - Present
ECE
Zeyun Zhao
Ph.D. Student, 2025 - Present
BME
Co-advised / Collaborating Ph.D. Students
Boxiao Yu
Ph.D. Student, 2022 - Present
BME
Ziqian Huang
Ph.D. Student, 2022 - Present
BME
M.S. Students
Qixuan Wu
M.S. Student, Jan 2026
CISE
Sivaramakrishnan (Siva)
M.S. Student, Sep 2025
CISE
Lakksh Tyagi
M.S. Student, Aug 2025
CISE
Junfan Bai
M.S. Student, Aug 2025
ECE
Dev Patel
M.S. Student, Jan 2025
CISE
Chintan Acharya
M.S. Student, 2024 - Present
CISE
Post-Baccalaureate Researchers
Undergraduate Students
Brady Stemac
Undergraduate Student
BME
Yixuan (Zoey) Cao
Undergraduate Student
Mathematics, Statistics
Sanjana Dundigalla
Undergraduate Student
Data Science and Psychology
Samuel Zheng
Undergraduate Student
BME
NSF REU Awardee
Tara Sahni
Summer Research Intern
Cognitive Science, Rutgers University
Veronica Ramos
Undergraduate Student
BME
Collaborators
Jiang Bian
Indiana University
Health Department
Mingzhou Ding
University of Florida
Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Andreas Keil
University of Florida
Dept. of Psychology
Adam Woods
UT Dallas
Dept. of Neuroscience
Aprinda I Queen
University of Florida
Dept. of Clinical and Health Psychology
Samuel Wu
University of South Florida
Dept. of Biostatistics
My Thai
University of Florida
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
Leonid L. Moroz
University of Florida
Dept. of Neuroscience, Genetics, Chemistry & Biology
Marco Salemi
University of Florida
Dept. of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine
Ivana Parker
University of Florida
Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Yonghui Wu
University of Florida
Dept. of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics
Alumni
Former members of the SMILE Lab who have gone on to impactful careers.
M.D. Alumni
Simeng Zhu
Doctor of Medicine, 2018 - 2022
Medical Resident, Henry Ford Hospital Radiation Oncology
Assistant Professor, Ohio State University
Photo
PostDoc Alumni
Diandra Ojo
Postdoc, 2023 - 2024
Co-mentor with Dr. Ivana Parker, ECE
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Ph.D. Alumni
Skylar Stolte
Ph.D. BME, 2020 - 2025
NIH F31 Fellow, UF Graduate Student Preeminence Award
PostDoc Associate, University of Florida
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Chaoyue Sun
Ph.D. ECE, 2020 - 2024
Best Paper Award, HEALTHINF 2024
Applied Scientist, Amazon
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Yao Xiao
Ph.D. BME, 2017 - 2020
BMES 2020 Career Development Award, Commencement Speaker
Assistant Professor, Mayo Clinic
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Peng Liu
Ph.D. BME, 2016 - 2021
Best Abstract Award, Montreal AI & Neuroscience Conference
Postdoc Associate, University of Florida
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Kyle See
Ph.D. BME, 2019 - 2024
UF Graduate Student Preeminence Award, NIH CTSI TL1 Fellowship
Postdoc Associate, University of Florida
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Tianqi Liu
Ph.D. ECE, 2019 - 2024
Senior Researcher, Tencent Americas
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M.S. Alumni
Yuetong Lu
M.S., May 2025
DeveloperWeek 2024 Overall Winner
University of Washington, Technology Innovation
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Dong-You (Sam) Jhong
M.S. ECE, Jan 2025
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Travis Koenig
M.S. BME, 2023 - 2025
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Pratyush Shukla
M.S. Computer Science, 2023 - 2025
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Everett J. Schwieg
M.S. BME, 2022 - 2024
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Fan Yang
M.S., 2022 - 2024
Ph.D. student, NJIT
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Ayesha Naikodi
M.S. CISE, 2022 - 2023
Ph.D. student, University of Florida
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Huang Hong
M.Eng. ECE, 2021 - 2023
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Jimmy Ossa
M.Eng., 2020 - 2022
Software Engineer, Infotech
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Shen Kai
M.Eng., 2021 - 2022
PhD Student, University of Florida
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Jiaqing Zhang
M.Eng. ECE, 2020 - 2022
PhD student, University of Florida
Shreya Verma
M.Eng. BME, 2019 - 2021
Ph.D. student, Penn State University
Bhavin Soni
M.Eng. BME, 2019 - 2021
Neuroimaging Engineer, Washington University at St. Louis
Yangjunyi Li
M.S. BME, 2017 - 2018
Senior Scientist, Eli Lilly and Company
Yun Liang
M.S. BME, 2018 - 2019
PhD student, UF BME
Micheal Adeyosoye
MS-PhD, FIU Bridge to PhD Fellowship, 2016 - 2017
PhD Student, FIU
Jingan Qu
M.S., 2015 - 2017
Data Scientist, Applied Research Center FIU
Daniel Parra
M.S., 2015 - 2016
Software Engineer, ProActive Technologies
Haodi Jiang
M.S., 2014 - 2015
PhD student, NJIT
Sherman Ng
M.Eng. ECE, 2010 - 2011 (Cornell)
Software Engineer, Microsoft
Undergraduate Alumni
Ritika Samanta
CS & Psychology
Sanandan Ojha
BME
Thrisha Acharya
Microbiology
Jason Chen
CS
Amy Lazarte
BME
Surya K. Vijayalakshmi
CS
Minhyeok Wi
EE
Akshay Ashok
CS
Grace Cheng
BME
Michelle Mu
Biology
Thomas Howland
BME
Kevin Liu
Physics
Ethan Smith
Psychology
Justin Broce
CS
Kyle Douglas
BME
Joshua Lamb
CS
Cynthia Liu
BME
Jordi Bardia
CS
Benjamin Arnold
BME
Hely Lin
BME
Yiru Mu
CS
Garrett Fullerton
BME
Gianna Sweeting
BME
Simon Kato
Math & Statistics
Brian “John” Braddock
BME
Maria Cardei
BME
Alvin Naiju
Biochemistry
Michael McGaha
CS & Statistics
Nathan Barkdull
Math
Keyur Patel
CS
Jason Chen
CS (2019-2021)
Maximillian Diaz
BME
Neeva Sethi
CS
Daniel El Basha
BME
Akshay Mathavan
BME
Akash Mathavan
BME
Visiting Students Alumni
Yuanyuan Zhu
Visiting Undergraduate Student, 2016 Summer
Software Engineer, Indeed.com
Xing Pang
Visiting Graduate Student, 2015 - 2016
Nanjing University of Science and Technology
K-12 Teachers
Edda Rivera
NSF DoD RET Teacher, 2016 Summer
Best NSF RET Poster Award
High School Teacher, John A. Ferguson Senior High School
Christian McDonald
NSF DoD RET Teacher, 2016 Summer
Best NSF RET Poster Award
High School Teacher, Miami Jackson Senior High School