Zhennan Yan is currently a gradute student working toward Ph.D. in Computer Science at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His advisor is Prof. Dimitris N. Metaxas.

His research interests are medical image processing, deformable models, sparse learning methods, computer vision and Finite Element Method.

(Curriculum Vitae).

Human brain segmentation

This is an on-going project for human brain parcellation in structural MR images. The project is designed to segment human brain into 30+ structures (including cortical GM, WM, CSF and sub-cortical structures) simultaneously and accurately. Proposed an Extended Adaptive Statistical Atlas (EASA) based approach, and a hybrid extension.
Supported by Dr. Albert Montillo, GE Global Research, Niskayuna, NY, USA.

• [ISBI'13] Zhennan Yan, Shaoting Zhang, Xiaofeng Liu, Dimitris N. Metaxas, Albert Montillo, AIBL research group: Accurate Segmentation of Brain Images into 34 Structures Combining A Non-Stationary Adaptive Statistical Atlas and A Multi-atlas with Applications to Alzheimer's Disease.
  

Lung segmentation in CXR

This is a course project for human lung segmentation in chest X-Ray images, based on landmark detection and sparse shape representation. The project is designed to make significant improvements for organ segmentation in accuracy and time cost. The application is now limited to 2D medical images. And it will be extended to 3D images later.

• [STMI'12] Zhennan Yan, Jing Zhang, Shaoting Zhang, and Dimitris N. Metaxas: Automatic Rapid Segmentation of Human Lung from 2D Chest X-Ray Images.

Prostate elasticity reconstruction

This is an on-going project for prostate elasticity reconstruction based on ultrasonic displacement and strain images. The project is designed to make significant improvements in detection and evaluation of prostate cancer by developing advanced ultrasonic elastographic methods for sensing and imaging cancerous foci in the prostate based on their relative stiffness. The project is now limited to 2D finite element model of prostrate, which segmented from ultrasound image. And it will be extended to 3D model later.
Supported by Dr. S. Kaisar Alam, Riverside Research Institute, Lizzi Center for Biomedical Engineering

• [SPIE'12] Zhennan Yan, Shaoting Zhang, S. Kaisar Alam, Dimitris N. Metaxas and Ernest J. Feleppa: Modulus Reconstruction from Prostate Ultrasound Images using Finite Element Modeling.

Dou Di Zhu (Fight the Landlord)

This was AI course project. Dou Di Zhu is a partially observable, multi-agent adversarial game. We designed the game framework and intelligent agents for 2 farmers and 1 landlord. Using QT, C++ Compiler, CMake, we made a crossplatform project. And for agents, we designed and implemented Random Agent, Simple strategy Agent, Advanced Agent, and Predictive Agent. (Details can be found in the report.)
Instructor: Dr. Casimir A. Kulikowski
Team members: Zhennan Yan, Xiang Yu, Tinglin Liu, Xiaoye Han.

Craniofacial Surgery Simulation

This project is designed to pursue a realistic 3D simulation of craniofacial plastic surgery. The project aims to provide an easy-to-use 3D platform to surgeons and assist them to do planning before the practical surgery. It combines, extends some methods from image processing, geometric modeling and finite element method (FEM). The input is CT data of head. Appling image processing and our improved meshing algorithm, we can use our improved FEM procedure to predicate the result facial shape after truncating the prominent mandible angle.
IGST-Lab, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

• [ICAT'08] Lei Pan, Lixu Gu, Zhennan Yan, Sizhe Lv, Bo Zhu: An Improved Facial Orthopedic Surgery Planning System with Pre-processing FEM Modeling.

Deformation Toolkit (DTK) for Virtual Surgery Simulation

This project aimed to design and implement an improved toolkit suitable for modeling and simulation of soft tissues, which can be easily reused in different surgery related applications. DTK is based on Finite Element Method (FEM). And the linear/nonlinear FEM computation is based on the 3D tetrahedron mesh. DTK can generate very nice tetrahedron mesh by our improved meshing algorithm which is based on Delaunay criterion and Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations structure. DTK also uses sparse structure, CUDA technology, and etc. to improve the efficiency of FEM.
IGST-Lab, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Team members: Zhennan Yan, Sizhe Lv.

CS323, Numerical Analysis and Computing

TA for this course in Spring 2012. The instructor is Prof. Gerard Richter. The main aim of CS323 is to expose the student to the development, application, and analysis of basic numerical algorithms. Contents include:

• Solution of non-linear equations; Solution of linear algebraic systems; Approximation, interpolation; Numerical differentiation and integration; Solution of ordinary differential equations.

CS314, Principles of Programming Languages

TA for this course in Fall 2011. The instructor is Prof. Louis Steinberg. The main aim of CS314 is to teach students new ways to think about problems and programs. Contents include:

• Topics of grammars (RE, NFA, DFA), parameter passing modes, types and type checking;
• Functional programming (Scheme), logic programming (Prolog), scripting (Python).

CS111, Introduction to Computer Science

TA for this course in Spring 2011. The instructor is Pradip Hari. The aim of CS111 is to introduce the student to the fundamental techniques used in computer science and software development. Upon completion of this course, the successful student should be able to design, write, test, and analyze programs to solve simple real-world problems. CS111 uses Java programming language.

CS110, Introduction to Computers and Applications

TA for this course in Fall 2010. The instructors were Alan Belowich, Kate Goelz and Jt. The course gave students hands-on experience with applications in presentation software, electronic spreadsheet, database management, network applications, web page design and TRUE BASIC programming.