Yike N. Zhang
Hello! I'm Dr. Yike Zhang, a computer scientist with a research focus on
LLM, Computer Vision, 6D Pose Estimation, and surgical navigation systems. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, where I developed a deep-learning-based navigation system for image-guided cochlear implant surgery. My work bridges machine learning and medical imaging processing, aiming to improve surgical accuracy, safety, and future clinical translation with real-time image analysis and intraoperative navigation tools.
Beyond research/teaching, I’m passionate about mentoring students, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration, and creating open-source tools that support the wider medical imaging processing community. I enjoy building robust, intuitive systems that are both theoretically grounded and practically useful in high-stakes environments like the OR.
Outside of work, I enjoy hiking and traveling, and I love exploring new places and discovering local food scenes. Baking is one of my favorite creative activity — whether it’s sourdough, cakes, or cookies, I enjoy sharing what I make with friends. I also appreciate fun conversations about science, life, and technology.
📍 Currently based in San Antonio, TX
📫 yzhang5@stmarytx.edu
Teaching
| Fall 2025 | EG3353/EG3361 Engineering Project Management |
|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | EG4338/EG6338 Machine Learning |
Latest Posts
| June 10, 2025 | Completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science |
|---|---|
| May 2, 2025 | Dissertation Completed 🎉 |
| Feb 15, 2025 | Our paper "SSDD-GAN: Single-Step Denoising Diffusion GAN for Cochlear Implant Surgical Scene Completion" got accepted to MIDL 2025 |
Selected Publications
2025
-
SSDD-GAN: Single-Step Denoising Diffusion GAN for Cochlear Implant Surgical Scene CompletionAccepted to Medical Imaging with Deep Learning 2025
2025
-
Self-supervised Mamba-based Mastoidectomy Shape Prediction for Cochlear Implant SurgeryMedical Imaging 2025: Image Processing
2025
-
Zero-shot Surgical Tool Segmentation in Monocular Video using Segment Anything Model 2Medical Imaging 2025: Image Processing
2025
-
Surgical Depth Anything: Depth Estimation for Surgical Scenes using Foundation ModelsMedical Imaging 2025: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling
2024
-
A First Step in Using Machine Learning Methods to Enhance Interaction Analysis for Embodied Learning EnvironmentsInternational Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education
2024
-
Monocular Microscope to CT Registration Using Pose Estimation of the Incus for Augmented Reality Cochlear Implant SurgeryMedical Imaging 2024: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling
2023
-
Self-supervised Registration and Segmentation on Ossicles with A Single Ground Truth LabelMedical Imaging 2023: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling
2023
-
Chimerapy: A Scientific Distributed Streaming Framework for Real-time Multimodal Data Retrieval and ProcessingIEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData)
2022
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
