2/27 – Stephen Boppart, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Biomedical Engineering Seminar
February 27, 2026
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location
BME Seminar in SEO 236
Address
851 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
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Stephen Boppart, PhD
Professor and Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering
Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title: Optical Coherence Tomography: A History of Technological Innovations and Biomedical Applications
Abstract: Innovations in biomedical imaging have historically led to new fundamental discoveries in the life sciences and new detection and diagnostic technologies in medicine and surgery. Since its inception in the early 1990s, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has had a profound impact on medicine and surgery, particularly in ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, and more recently in primary care for the detection and diagnosis of otitis media, and surgical oncology for real-time intraoperative assessment of breast surgical margins and loco-regional lymph nodes. OCT functions as the optical analogue to ultrasound imaging, generating depth-resolved label-free images of cells and tissues in real-time and at the micron-scale by detecting reflections of near-infrared light instead of sound waves. This presentation will highlight some of the early historical OCT studies and retina images in ophthalmology, the fundamental principles of operation including several multi-functional extensions of OCT, and recent medical and surgical applications that utilize AI models to improve disease detection, classification, and diagnosis.
Date posted
Jan 8, 2026
Date updated
Jan 8, 2026