Dr. Luca Giancardo is an Associate Professor at the Center for Precision Health, School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) with co-appointments at the McGovern Medical School and the Institute for Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, UTHealth. He directs the Giancardo Lab.
He is a computer scientist with extensive experience in image analysis and machine learning. He has worked on developing new machine learning-based methodologies to discover computational biomarkers from patterns in biomedical data such as optical images, magnetic resonance imaging, X-rays, computer tomography, laboratory animal videos or tracking devices. His work has been applied to a number of biomedical applications, such as stroke diagnosis, diabetic retinopathy screening or neurodegenerative disease tracking and successfully translated to industry with two startups based on his methods. One, Hubble Telemedical, was acquired by Welch Allyn in 2015, another, nQ-Medical has raised multimillion dollars in investment. He has authored/co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles which were featured by news outlets such as MIT Technology Review, Smithsonian magazine, and others. He has received multiple awards, including the prestigious 100k Singapore Challenge (judging panel composed of Nobel Prize and Millennium Technology Prize winners). One of his projects (neuroQWERTY) has been included in the MIT Museum permanent exhibit “Essential MIT”. He was awarded competitive grants from NIH (R01), Translational Research Institute for Space Health, foundations, and private companies.
Education
- M+Vision Research Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (USA), 2013-2016
- RLE Translational Fellow at MIT (USA), 2014-2015
- Postdoctoral Associate at Italian Institute of Technology (Italy), 2011-2013
- PhD, Computational Image Analysis, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Burgundy (France) 2008-2011
- MSc, Computer Vision and Robotics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (UK), University of Girona (Spain) and University of Burgundy (France), 2006-2008
- BSc (Hons), Software Engineering, Southampton Solent University (UK) 2002-2005
Current Members
Shikha Tripathi
SBMI PhD Student
Shikha Tripathi completed her Master in Computer Science from the University of Houston. She is currently working on developing machine learning models using keystroke dynamics and other sensors for neurodegenerative diseases.
Yingjun Dong is Ph.D. in System Science, she graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Currently, she works as a postdoc research fellow in the group.
Xiaomin Liang
SBMI PhD Student
Xiaomin Liang received her master's degree from Duke University Medical Physics program. Her research interest is medical imaging informatics. She is currently working on using deep learning models for inverted papilloma detection and imaging segmentation.
Visiting Student
Uma Lal-Trehan Estrada, PhD candidate from University of Girona, Spain,
Past Members
Tracy Asibu, MSc candidate
Chinmay Mokashi, MSc candidate -old role: Research Assistant
Samiksha Pachade, PhD -old role: Postdoc
Haaniya Dawoodally, MSc candidate -old role: Research Assistant
Uma Lal-Trehan Estrada, MSc, -old role: Research Assistant
Juntao Yan, MSc candidate -old role: Graduate Research Assistant
Runzhi Zhou, PhD candidate -old role: Graduate Research Assistant
Dr. Luca Giancardo is an Associate Professor at the Center for Precision Health, School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) with co-appointments at the McGovern Medical School and the Institute for Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, UTHealth. He directs the Giancardo Lab. 
