Ruitong Sun

The PhD will focus on computational methods for medical imaging, with an initial emphasis on image-guided surgery and augmented reality (AR). Building on my MEng project, the research will extend a 3D–2D registration framework that aligns pre-operative CT anatomy with operating-microscope images for cochlear implantation. The project will investigate robust multi-case and multi-view registration, automated image processing and segmentation, uncertainty-aware visualisation, and validation using phantom and cadaveric data. More broadly, the research will explore how information from different imaging and data modalities can be combined for clinical guidance and decision-making. The precise scope may evolve with research findings and available clinical data, allowing methods developed through the AR application to be extended to wider problems in medical image analysis and multimodal data integration.

Who or what inspired you to pursue your research interests?

My interest in medical imaging stemmed from my MEng project at Cambridge. Working with Prof. Andrew Gee and clinical collaborators at Addenbrooke’s Hospital were both stimulating and rewarding. I enjoyed the way engineering and imaging methods could be connected directly to real clinical problems, and seeing that the technology I developed might eventually contribute to safer or more intuitive surgical guidance gave the work a strong sense of purpose. This experience motivated me to continue in medical imaging research, while using the PhD to explore a broader range of imaging methods, data modalities and clinical applications.