Magnetic Resonance Imaging Group

Prof. Elfar Adalsteinsson

People: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Group

PROFESSOR

Professor Elfar Adalsteinsson

Professor Elfar Adalsteinsson

Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Professor, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science

I hold appointments in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) at MIT. Our trainees apply their interdisciplinary skills to medical imaging with MRI at the intersection of engineering, physics, science, and medicine.

My current research interests include algorithms and hardware for parallel transmission (pTx), quantitative estimation and management of local power deposition and temperature in MRI, imaging of the fetus and placenta, oxygenation parameter imaging with MRI, sparsity properties in excitation and acquisition in MRI, compressed sensing, magnetic resonance fingerprinting, and reconstructions of dramatically undersampled MR imaging and spectroscopy.

From 2010 to 2016 I served as the Associate Director of the Madrid-MIT M+Visión Consortium https://www.rle.mit.edu/madrid-mit-mvision-consortium/. The Consortium is a partnership of leaders in science, medicine, engineering, business, and the public sector dedicated to catalyzing change in Madrid’s healthcare innovation ecosystem by accelerating translational research and encouraging entrepreneurship.

STAFF

Megumi Masuda-Loos

Administrative Assistant
mriAdmin@mit.edu

Megumi is the administrative assistant for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Group. She provides administrative support to Prof. Elfar Adalsteinsson and his students.

STUDENTS

Sebo Diaz

Sebo graduated from the University of Arizona in 2023 with a BS in Biomedical Engineering before starting the HST MEMP PhD program at MIT. Previously, he designed novel radiofrequency pulses that can accelerate fetal scans by ~20%. Currently, he is working on spectroscopic and machine learning methods aimed at gaining new insights into fetal health.

ALUMNI

Audrey Peiwen Fan

Audrey graduated from Stanford University in 2008 with B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Biological Sciences. She completed her S.M. degree with the MRI Group in 2010. Audrey is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She is interested in quantification of venous oxygen saturation (Yv) and the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) in human brains using MRI. Her project includes development of a technique called PROM (Phase-based Regional Oxygen Metabolism) and application to functional imaging and clinical studies, including in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Molin Zhang

Molin received his B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from Tsinghua University in 2019 before starting his EECS PhD program at MIT. Currently he’s working on reinforcement learning methods for landmarks detection of fetal pose and zoomed fetal imaging using shimmed coils.

Obaidah Abuhashem

Alumni: M.Eng. 2013
ohashem@mit.edu

Obaidah joined the MRI group in January 2011. He completed his M.Eng. degree with the MRI Group in 2013. His research interest includes medical images reconstruction and MRI imaging acceleration.

Berkin Bilgic

Alumni: Ph.D. 2013
berkin@mit.edu 

Berkin received his B.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Physics from Bogazici University in 2008, and his S.M. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2010. He joined the MRI group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics in February 2010, and completed his Ph.D. degree in 2013.

At MIT, he worked on fast object detection algorithms with Prof. Berthold Horn and Dr. Ichiro Masaki which concluded with his S.M. thesis.

After switching to MRI from computer vision for his doctoral degree, his main research interests include developing image reconstruction algorithms to speed up data acquisition, magnetic susceptibility mapping and artifact reduction in spectroscopic imaging.

Berkin is supported by an MIT/CIMIT Fellowship, and he is the recipient of an MIT-DuPont Presidential Fellowship.

S.M. Thesis: “Fast human detection with cascaded ensembles” [pdf]
Ph.D. Thesis: “Reconstruction Algorithms for MRI” [pdf]

Trina Kok

Alumni: Ph.D. 2012
trina@mit.edu

Trina received her bachelors degree from Duke University in 2005 and masters degree from MIT in 2009. She is a recipient of Singapore’s A*STAR BS-PhD National Science Scholarship from 2002-2010 and joined A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research upon graduation from Duke in 2005. At MIT, Trina’s work involves fast spiral spectroscopic imaging with 2D spectroscopy sequences e.g. CT-PRESS. She in interested in improving the detection and quantitation of metabolites and works to apply such techniques in clinical settings. She enjoys jogging, dancing, learning languages and traveling.

S.M. Thesis: “Detection of brain metabolites in magnetic resonance spectroscopy”
Ph.D. Thesis: “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging with 2D Spectroscopy for the Detection of Brain Metabolites”

Shao Ying Huang

Shao Ying did electromagnetic modeling and experiments for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in high field systems. Her expertise includes electromagnetic modeling using numerical methods and analytical approaches.

She has rich experiences on computational electromagnetic using integral equation methods, EM modeling and designs for surface plasmonic circuits and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), designs of microwave circuit components.

She likes jogging, hiking, traveling, photographing, and cooking.

S.M. Thesis: “Detection of brain metabolites in magnetic resonance spectroscopy”

Ph.D. Thesis: “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging with 2D Spectroscopy for the Detection of Brain Metabolites”

Borjan A. Gagoski

Alumni : Ph.D. 2011
gagoski@mit.edu

Borjan Gagoski received his BS degree with distinct honors from RPI in 2004. He came to MIT in the Fall of 2004, finishing his MS degree at 2006, and PhD in 2011. His early research included the implementation of fast encoding schemes for spectroscopic imaging on Siemens MR platforms. During the last several years of his PhD, he was involved in the development of RF pulse designs using parallel RF transmission (pTx) at 7T MRI systems, for the purpose of improved spectral-spatial mitigation used in chemical shift imaging (CSI) applications. His current work as a postdoctoral associate still mainly focuses on the improvement of the excitation part of a pTx experiment. In addition, some of his time is also spent on applying the fast CSI encoding readouts in clinical settings at 3T, obtaining volumetric metabolites’ maps on patient populations diagnosed with Tay-Sachs, X-link adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) and brain tumors.

Borjan comes from Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. He likes to spend his free time playing tennis, hiking and skiing.

S.M. Thesis: “Fast magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging using RF coil arrays”
Ph.D. Thesis: “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging using Parallel Transmission at 7 Tesla” [pdf]

Joonsung Lee

Alumni: Ph.D. 2011
joonsung@mit.edu

Ph.D. Thesis: “Excitation and Readout Designs for High Field MR Spectroscopic Imaging”

Lohith Kini

Graduate Student
lkini@mit.edu

M.Eng. Thesis: “Fast simulation of E1, B1 and Specific Absorption Rate for 7T MRI with the use of graphical processors”

Divya S. Bolar

Alumni: Ph.D. 2010
dbolar@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu

S.M. Thesis: “Accuracy of pulsed arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging in the human brain : tag width and timing effects”
Ph.D. Thesis: “Magnetic resonance imaging of the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2)”

Currently, finishing M3/M4 years at Harvard Medical School.

Padraig Cantillon Murphy

Alumni: Ph.D. 2008
padraig@alum.mit.edu 

Ph.D. Thesis: “On the Dynamics of Magnetic Fluids in Magnetic Resonance Imaging” [pdf]

Currently, Lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University College Cork, Ireland.

Joseph Cheng

Alumni: M.Eng. 2007
joseph.cheng@alum.mit.edu

M.Eng. Thesis: “Gradient Characterization in Magnetic Resonance Imaging” [pdf]

Currently, Ph.D. student at Stanford University Dept of EE.

Adam Zelinski

Alumni: Ph.D. 2008
zelinski@alum.mit.edu | Website

Ph.D. Thesis: “Improvements in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Excitation Pulse Design” [pdf]

Currently, High Frequency Trader at GETCO.

Kawin Setsompop

Alumni: Ph.D. 2008
kawin@alum.mit.edu

Ph.D. Thesis: “Design Algorithms for Parallel Transmission in Magnetic Resonance Imaging” [pdf]

Currently, Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School/MGH.

Jessica Bernier

Graduate Student
jbernier@mit.edu

Jessica graduated from the University of Arizona in 2009 with B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics.  She is aiming to complete her S.M. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2011.  Her current research focus is the numerical simulation of electromagnetic fields generated in parallel RF transmission (pTx) coils in 7T MRI systems.

When she is not in the lab, Jessica enjoys ballroom dancing, both socially as the Treasurer of the MIT Ballroom Dance Club and competitively with the MIT Ballroom Dance Team.

Itthi Chatnuntawech

Graduate Student
ichatnun@mit.edu

Itthi graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011 with B.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering. He received his S.M. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2013. He joined the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Group in February 2012, and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree. He is interested in developing data reconstruction algorithms for MRI.

S.M. Thesis: “Model-Based Reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging”

Adrian Martin

adrian.martin@urjc.es

Adrian graduated from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in 2010 with a double degree in Mathematics, and Computer Science. He received his Master’s degree in Computer Vision in Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in 2013. He has been working since 2011 with the Professor Emanuele Schiavi in the developing of variational techniques for image processing, specially in the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. He joined the MRI group as a visiting student between September and December in 2013, and between March and December 2014. He obtained his PhD in Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in the application of variational techniques to reconstruction algorithms for MRI.

 

S.M. Thesis: “Model-Based Reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging”

Jeffrey Stout

Graduate Student
jstout@mit.edu

Jeff earned his BS in Physics from the University of Denver, and an MPhil in the History of Science from Oxford before starting the Health Sciences and Technology, Medical Engineering and Medical Physics PhD program at MIT and Harvard Medical School. He is interested in using MRI to quantitatively measure brain physiology. His current projects include measuring the effects of motion on cerebral oxygenation measurements using TRUST and developing the turbo spin echo variant of QUIXOTIC, called turboQUIXOTIC.

 

S.M. Thesis: “Model-Based Reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging”

Eren Can Kizildag

Graduate Student
kizildag@mit.edu

Eren has received his BS degree from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2014. Since then he has been with the MIT and currently working on medical image reconstruction in the MRI group.

 

S.M. Thesis: “Model-Based Reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging”

Filiz Yetisir

Graduate Student
filiz@mit.edu

 Filiz graduated from Bilkent University in 2011 with a B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. During her undergraduate study she worked on topics including catheter construction for ablation and imaging of shear waves caused by a mechanical actuator to measure tissue elasticity. She joined the MRI Group in MIT in July 2011. She is the recipient of Merrill Lynch Fellowship. She received her S.M degree from MIT in February 2014. She is interested in RF excitation pulse design. Her current work is focused on uniform RF excitation pulse design with specific absorption rate (SAR) minimization using parallel transmission (pTx) systems at 7T and zoomed RF excitation pulse design for fetal imaging at 3T.

 

S.M. Thesis: ‘Local and global SAR constrained large tip angle 3D kT-points parallel transmit pulse design at 7 T’

Sayeri Lala

Sayeri graduated from MIT in 2017 with an SB in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She is currently pursuing her MEng. thesis research on improving the reconstruction quality of accelerated HASTE acquired images of the fetus.

Yamin Arefeen

Yamin earned his BS in Electrical Engineering at Rice University in 2017 before starting the EECS PhD program at MIT.  He is currently working on improving the image contrast one can acquire in fetal MRI imaging using forward simulations of pulse sequences and accelerated image reconstruction techniques.

Junshen Xu

Junshen graduated from Tsinghua University in 2018 with a BS in Engineering Physics before starting his PhD at MIT EECS. He is currently working on deep learning methods for fetal pose estimation from volumetric MRI and automatic slice-prescription system.

M+VISION CATALYST FELLOWS

Margaret Frances Bennewitz

Germán González Serrano

Joaquín López Herraiz

Soledad Betanzos-Lara

Javier Jiménez Gonzaléz

Carlos Castro González

Álvaro Sánchez-Ferro

Jason Tucker-Schwartz

Luis Soenksen Martínez

Berta Martí Fuster

Osasere Mary Evbuomwan