Four College of Engineering faculty inducted to AIMBE College of Fellows

Four College of Engineering faculty have been inducted to the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering’s College of Fellows.

AIMBE fellows represent the top 2% of medical and biological engineers. They include the most accomplished medical and biological engineers in academia, industry, education, clinical practice, and government.

New UIC Engineering fellows include:

• Department of Computer Science Warren S. McCulloch Collegiate Professor Barbara Di Eugenio
• Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering Professor Kamran Avanaki
• Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering Robert Uyetani Collegiate Professor Salman Khetani
• Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Chair, John H. Panton MD Professor, and UIC Distinguished Professor R.V. Paul Chan

A formal induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE Annual Conference on April 13, 2026. UIC College of Engineering Dean and AIMBE President Lola Eniola-Adefeso was a chosen speaker for the 2026 event.

Avanaki—who is also a professor of dermatology, and adjunct professor of electrical and computer engineering, pediatrics, neurosurgery, and with the University of Illinois Cancer Center—was nominated to AIMBE for pioneering imaging innovations in understanding neonatal brain injury and melanoma detection using photoacoustic, thermoacoustic, and optical coherence tomography technologies.

“Dr. Avanaki’s work exemplifies translational biomedical engineering with lasting global relevance,” said Tom Royston, BME department head and professor. “His contributions in imaging science, device development, AI integration, and educational infrastructure have not only pushed the field forward but have made cutting-edge technology more accessible to clinicians, researchers, and students alike.” 

As part of UIC for the last six years, Avanaki has developed advanced photoacoustic, thermoacoustic, ultrasound, and optical coherence tomography technologies to address real clinical problems, especially neonatal brain injury and skin disease.

For him, a collaborative culture and the chance to mentor outstanding students and trainees while keeping the work closely connected to patient needs has been especially meaningful.

In a similar manner, he noted how joining AIMBE’s efforts to bring together leaders in research, education, clinical translation, and public advocacy has been meaningful to him as well.

“The honor recognizes sustained contributions to research, practice, education, and innovation,” Avanaki said. “What makes it even more meaningful is that it is peer-recognized. It tells you that colleagues across the field see your work as having made a lasting impact.”

As a fellow, Avanaki feels a recognition and responsibility that gives him a platform to build collaborations, support trainees, and help advocate for biomedical engineering research and translation. More so, he is interested in using this platform to advance clinically accessible imaging technologies and to help move innovations more efficiently from the lab to the bedside.

He added that this recognition as a fellow reflects the kind of interdisciplinary, clinically grounded research environment that makes UIC such a strong place for biomedical engineering, and he’s proud to represent UIC and excited to keep contributing to research, education, and mentorship.

Chan is a BME-affiliate professor.

He was nominated for his pioneering work in the development and global implementation of technology and artificial intelligence for pediatric eye care.

“Through education, research, and advocacy, Dr. Chan is making a lasting impact in how we approach the development, education, and implementation of ophthalmic imaging,” said Xincheng Yao, Richard and Loan Hill Chair and Chan’s long-time collaborator.

Throughout his 11 years part of the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in the UIC Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Chan’s expansive work has focused on providing better care of patients with ophthalmic disease. His work with Yao, in particular, has focused on developing more cost-effective ways of imaging pediatric ophthalmic diseases, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), as well as developing home monitoring devices, using AI and novel technologies.

Chan is also a founding member and senior investigator of the Imaging and Informatics for Retinopathy of Prematurity (i-ROP) Consortium. The group has focused on projects related to telemedicine, artificial intelligence, and risk factors for ROP, a leading and preventable cause of blindness in children. In fact, the group developed the first AI algorithm, i-ROP DL, to receive breakthrough status by the FDA in 2019.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with an incredible multi-disciplinary team, and as a clinician, I’m excited to bring our work to patients,” Chan said. “Both in the U.S. and globally, we’ve been focused on the implementation of technology and AI in clinical care.”

AIMBE holds a deep commitment to advocacy, which resonates with Chan and his passion to advocate for science and the profession of medicine.

“As physicians, as educators, and as scientists, and as researchers, we care for patients, train future leaders, and develop technologies to care for patients and our community,” he said. “I’m very proud to represent UIC and the University of Illinois system. My induction to the AIMBE College of Fellows is a testament to the team and collaborators I’ve worked with over the past two decades. Together, we’ve established sustainable programs to care for children at risk for ROP and we are developing technology to improve pediatric eye care worldwide. At UIC, I’ve had the privilege to work with amazing faculty and leaders, and the community here is special because it’s an extremely collaborative and supportive environment.”

Di Eugenio was nominated for pioneering natural language processing innovations that advance patient care, health equity, and human-centered AI in biomedical applications.

Di Eugenio has conducted research in AI and NLP for more than three decades, seeking to develop computational models of language as interaction. The applications of Di Eugenio’s work include educational technology, human-robot interaction and data visualization.

In the last ten years, she has focused on  language usage in and for healthcare – from the production of patient-centered summaries of hospital stays to the development of a virtual health coach for behavioral change that advises patients over time via text messaging; the analysis of minority patient education conversations, in order to develop a culturally competent dialogue agent; and designing algorithms to effectively query time-dependent information, known as temporal modeling, of free text clinical notes for diagnosis.

Becoming an AIMBE fellow, Di Eugenio said, is a recognition of the value of the interdisciplinary research she has conducted during her entire scientific career, with a particular emphasis on the healthcare domain.

“I intend to pursue trustworthy and fair AI in healthcare and other areas,” she said. “I am concerned about the way AI is being pushed on society by companies that are only interested in profit, not in benefits to humanity. My group and many others have studied falsehoods and bias in these models; the popular press is full of examples of dangerous, even tragic interactions between the public and AI – and of course, of many positive ones as well.”

Khetani—who is also the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering professor, associate department head, and director of graduate studies—was nominated for pioneering human micro physiological systems that transform drug development, disease modeling, and translational testing of human-relevant tissue platforms.

His work focuses on developing human tissue models that replicate how organs function in the body and using those models to answer questions that matter to patients.

Part of the UIC community for the last decade, Khetani said that UIC has been a remarkable place to grow both as a scientist and as an educator.

“UIC has given me the platform to build a research program, mentor the next generation of engineers and scientists, and contribute to the broader community in ways that genuinely excite me every day,” he said.

Khetani first became involved with AIMBE in 2025. Working with AIMBE to bring science directly to policymakers, conducting scientific impact presentations to state senators’ staffers alongside his students, and hosting lab visits and live research demonstrations gave him and his students the chance to show why biomedical engineering research deserves sustained investment.

For Khetani, being elected an AIMBE fellow represents some of the most meaningful peer recognition in biomedical engineering.

“Fellows are elected by other fellows, which means the people who know this field most deeply looked at the body of work my students, trainees, and collaborators, and I have built together and said it matters,” Khetani said. “Diseases affecting the liver, gut, and other organs touch hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and microphysiological systems have the potential to fundamentally change how we develop and test therapies for those patients. To have that work recognized by AIMBE is both humbling and energizing. It also comes with responsibility. Fellows are expected to be voices for the field, for science policy, and for the next generation of engineers.”

Khetani noted that he was filled with a deep sense of honor upon hearing of his induction as a fellow. The AIMBE fellowship not only represents the top two percent of achievers in biomedical engineering, he added, but it also reflects the cumulative effort of every student, postdoc, and collaborator who has passed through his lab and contributed to this work.

“Biomedical engineering at its best sits at the intersection of engineering rigor and genuine human need,” he said “and staying anchored to that intersection, through the inevitable setbacks and the moments of real progress, is what I’d point to as the through-line of my career. I’m proud of what we’ve built, and I’m genuinely excited about where the field is heading.”