Optics, sensors and AI: Synergic computational imaging to go beyond the limits imposed by conventional imaging

Professor Ashok Veeraraghavan at ECE's Fall 2025 Colloquium

Synergic computational imaging to go beyond the limits imposed by conventional imaging

In this talk, I will discuss about several projects in my lab at the confluence of optics, sensors and artificial intelligence. In particular, I will provide examples of how co-designing sensors, optics and AI algorithms results in superior performance capabilities for imaging systems. I will provide a few example projects: (1) how co-designing imaging optics along with AI algorithms can enable high-throughput 3D imaging, and microscopy, (2) how novel diffractive and meta-optical elements allow us to realize imaging systems with novel functionalities and form-factors and finally time permitting, (3) how emerging neural representations along with high resolution spatial light modulators can allow us to image through thick scattering media without the need for guidestars. 

I will use these projects to argue that we should look at the three computational blocks within an imaging system, optics, sensors and algorithms together and that co-designing them can result in significant performance improvements over the state of art.