About Me

Picture
Yiming Xiao graduated from the honours program of B. Eng. of Electrical at McGill University in 2009, with main concentrations in telecommunication and Automation & Control. Under the supervision of Dr. Tal Arbel at Center for Intelligent Machines (CIM), Yiming finished his undergraduate honor thesis on the topic of MRI image normalization methods for patients with Multiple-Sclerosis. In 2011, Yiming Xiao completed his Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Louis Collins, at Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University. In 2016, he finished his Ph.D. studies under the supervision of Dr. Louis Collins, at the Neuro Imaging & Surgical Technologies Lab (NIST), on the topic of image-guided neurosurgery and medical imaging analysis. Between 2016 and 2017, he joined the PERFORM Centre, Concordia University as a postdoctoral associate with Dr. Hassan Rivaz. Currently, he is a BrainsCAN postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Drs. Terry Peters and Ali Khan, at the Robarts Research Institute, Western University.
​

Research interests

MRI sequence development & susceptibility-weight MR imaging
Subcortical brain structure segmentation 
3D human brain atlas
Image registration 
Image-guided neuro-surgery / deep brain stimulator implantation
Medical image analysis
Ultrasound
Medical image visualization
​Machine learning
Musculoskeletal imaging and image-based diagnosis
​

Publication


Journal articles
  1. M. Shah, Y. Xiao, S. Francis, D. Arnold, D. L. Collins and T. Arbel, "Evaluating intensity normalization on MRIs of human brain with multiple sclerosis," Medical image analysis, vol. 15, pp. 267-282, 2011.
  2. Y. Xiao, S. Beriault, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, "Multicontrast multiecho FLASH MRI for targeting the subthalamic nucleus," Magnetic Resonance Imaging, vol. 30, pp. 627-640, 2012. [Winner of 2014 John F. Davis Award (2nd place), McGill University]
  3. Y. Xiao, P. Jannin, T. D'Albis, N. Guizard, C. Haegelen, F. Lalys, M. Vérin and D. Louis Collins, “Investigation of morphometric variability of subthalamic nucleus, red nucleus, and substantia nigra in advanced Parkinson's disease patients using automatic segmentation and PCA-based analysis,” Human Brain Mapping, vol.35(9), pp. 4330-4344, 2014.  [Segmentation pipeline here]
  4. Y. Xiao, V. Fonov, S. Beriault, F.A. Subaie, M.M. Chakravarty, A.F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, “Multi-contrast unbiased MRI atlas of a Parkinson's disease population,” International Journal of Computer-Assisted Radiology and Surgery, vol. 10(3), pp. 329-341, 2015. [Download the atlas here]
  5. Y. Xiao, V. Fonov, S. Beriault, I. Gerard, A.F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, "Patch-based label fusion segmentation of brainstem structures with dual-contrast MRI for Parkinson's disease ," International Journal of Computer-Assisted Radiology and Surgery, vol. 10(7), pp. 1029-1041, 2015.
  6. S. Beriault, Y. Xiao, D. Louis Collins, and G. Bruce Pike, "Automatic SWI Venography Segmentation Using Conditional Random Fields," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 34(12), pp. 2478-2491, 2015.
  7. Y. Xiao, C. X. B. Yan, S. Drouin, D. De Nigris, A. Kochanowska, and D. Louis Collins, "User-friendly freehand ultrasound calibration using Lego bricks and automatic registration,"  International Journal of Computer-Assisted Radiology and Surgery, vol. 11(9), pp. 1703-1711, 2016.
  8. Y. Xiao, M. Fortin, Geirmund Unsgård , Hassan Rivaz, and Ingerid Reinertsen, “REtroSpective Evaluation of Cerebral Tumors (RESECT): a clinical database of pre-operative MRI and intra-operative ultrasound in low-grade glioma surgeries,” Medical Physics, vol. 44(7), pp.3875-3882, 2017. ​[Download the dataset here]
  9. M. Omidyeganeh, Y. Xiao, M.O. Ahmad, and H. Rivaz, “Estimation of strain elastography from ultrasound radio-frequency data by utilizing analytic gradient of the similarity metric,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol 36(6), pp.1347-1358, 2017.​
  10. Y. Xiao, V. Fonov, S. Beriault, F.A. Subaie, M.M. Chakravarty, A.F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, Gilles Betrand, and D. Louis Collins, “A dataset of multi-contrast population-averaged brain MRI atlases of a Parkinson's disease cohort,” Data in Brief, vol. 12, 370-379, 2017. 
  11. A.M. Karlberg, E.M. Bernsten, H. Johansen, M. Myrthue, O. Solheim, I. Reinersten, H.Y. Dai, A. Skyjulsvik, A. Jarstein, Y. Xiao, H. Rivaz, and L. Eikenes, “Case study: Multimodal 18F-fluciclovine PET/MRI and ultrasound-guided neurosurgery of anaplastic oligodendroglioma,” World Neurosurgery, 2017.​
  12. R. Shams, Y. Xiao, F. Hebert, M. Abramowitz, R. Brooks and H. Rivaz, “Assessment of rigid registration quality measures in ultrasound-guided radiotherapy,”  IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2017. 
  13. Y. Xiao, L. Eikenes, I. Reinertsen, and H. Rivaz, “Nonlinear deformation of tractography in ultrasound-guided resection of low-grade gliomas,” International Journal of Computer-Assisted Radiology and Surgery, 2018.
  14. Y. Xiao, H. Rivaz, H. Kasuya, S. Yokosako, C. Mindru, J. Teitelbaum, D. Dirhan, D. Sinclair, M. Angle, and B. Lo, “Intra-operative video characterization of carotid artery pulsation patterns in case series with post-enderterectomy hypertension and hyperperfusion syndrome,” Translational Stroke Research, 2018.
  15. Y. Xiao, M. Boily, H. Hashemi, and H. Rivaz, "High-dynamic-range ultrasound: application for imaging tendon pathology," Ultrasound in medicine and biology, 2018.
  16. Y. Xiao, S. Drouin, I.J. Gerard, V. Fonov, B. Aubert-Broche, Y. Ma, M. Kersten-Oertel, D. Tampieri, and D. Louis Collins, "An augmented-reality system prototype for guiding transcranial Doppler ultrasound examination," Multimedia Tools and Applications, 2018.
  17. Y. Xiao, M. Fortin, M.C. Battie, H. Rivaz, "Population-averaged MRI atlases for automated image processing and assessments of lumbar paraspinal muscles," European Spine Journal, accepted 2018. 
​
Conference/workshop articles and abstracts
  1. M. Shah, Y. Xiao, S. Francis, D. Arnold, D. L. Collins and T. Arbel, “Effectiveness of Intensity Normalization on Human Brain MRIs with Multiple Sclerosis,” in the MICCAI Workshop on Medical Image Analysis on Multiple Sclerosis (MIAMS 2009), pp. 37-48, 2009.
  2. Y. Xiao, M. Shah, S. Francis, D. Arnold, T. Arbel and D.L. Collins, "Optimal Gaussian Mixture Models of Tissue Intensities in Brain MRI of Patients with Multiple-Sclerosis," in Machine Learning in Medical Imaging, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 6357, F. Wang, et al., Eds., ed: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2010, pp. 165-173.
  3. A. F. Sadikot, F. A. Subaie, O. Lasry, R. Barecki, M. Podaras, K. Mok, Y. Xiao, and D. Louis Collins, “Application of Intraoperative O-arm CT and MR fusion in intracranial surgery,” Montreal Neurological Institute/Hospital Neurosurgical Conference Day, Montreal, Canada, 2011.
  4. Y. Xiao, L. Bailey, M. Chakravarty, S. Beriault, A. F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, “Comparing two atlas-based automatic segmentation methods for subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation,” 20th International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, 2012. 
  5. Y. Xiao, L. Bailey, S. Beriault, A. F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, “Validation of T1-weighted inter-subject MRI registration technique for atlas warping in identifying the subthalamic nucleus, red nucleus, and substantia nigra,” 20th International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, 2012.
  6. L. Bailey, Y. Xiao, M. Chakravarty, and D. Louis Collins, “Assessment of atlas warping of small basal ganglia on Colin27,” 20th International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, 2012.
  7. Y. Xiao, S. Beriault, A. F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, “Multi-contrast brain template for segmenting the deep brain nuclei,” 18th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Beijing, China, 2012.
  8. Y. Xiao, L. Bailey, M. Chakravarty, S. Beriault, A. F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins. “Atlas-based segmentation of the subthalamic nucleus, red nucleus, and substantia nigra for deep brain stimulation by incorporating multiple MRI contrasts,” Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions (IPCAI), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 7330, pp. 135-145, 2012.
  9. S. Beriault, Y. Xiao, L. Bailey, A. F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, “Towards Computer-Assisted Deep Brain Stimulation Targeting with Multiple Active Contacts,” Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention: MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, vol. 15, pp. 487-494, 2012.
  10. D. Louis Collins, V. Fonov, C. Haegelen, Y. Xiao, X. Morandi, P. Jannin, “Unbiased MRI atlases for Deep Brain Surgery,” MICCAI workshop on Deep Brain Stimulation Methodological Challenges (DBSMC 2012), pp. 10-19, 2012. 
  11. S.Bériault, S. Drouin, A. F. Sadikot, Y. Xiao, D. Louis Collins, and G. Bruce Pike, "A Prospective Evaluation of Computer-Assisted Deep Brain Stimulation Trajectory Planning," Clinical Image-Based Procedures. From Planning to Intervention. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 7761, K. Drechsler, et al., Eds., ed: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp. 42-49.
  12. Y. Xiao, V. Fonov, S.Bériault, A. F. Sadikot, G. Bruce Pike, and D. Louis Collins, "Nonlocal patch-based segmentation of midbrain nuclei from multiecho FLASH MRI", 2014 MICCAI workshop on the 2nd Deep Brain Stimulation Methodological Challenges (DBSMC 2014).
  13. H. Ghaderi, Y. Xiao, A. F. Sadikot, D. Louis Collins, and G. Bruce Pike, "Multi-contrast unbiased non-linear brain atlas of Parkinson's disease patients", 2014 MICCAI workshop on the 2nd Deep Brain Stimulation Methodological Challenges (DBSMC 2014).
  14. Y. Xiao, I.J. Gerard, V. Fonov, D. De Nigris, C. Therrien, B. Aubert-Broche, S. Drouin, A. Kochanowska, D. Tampieri, and D. Louis Collins, "Atlas-guided transcranial Doppler ultrasound examination with a neuro-surgical navigation system", Montreal Neurological Institute/Hospital Neurosurgical Research Day, Montreal, Canada, 2015.
  15. Y. Xiao, C. Yan, S. Drouin, D. De Nigris, A. Kochanowska, and D. Louis Collins, "Registration-based ultrasound calibration using simple Lego bricks for image-guided surgery", 29th International congress and exhibition of Computer-assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS 2015).
  16. Y. Xiao, I.J. Gerard, V. Fonov, D. De Nigris, C. Therrien, B. Aubert-Broche, S. Drouin, A. Kochanowska, D. Tampieri, and D. Louis Collins, "Atlas-guided transcranial Doppler ultrasound examination with a neuro-surgical navigation system: case study", 4th MICCAI workshop on Clinical Image-based Procedures: Translational Research in Medical Imaging (CLIP), LNCS 9401, pp. 19-27, 2016.
  17. V. Fonov, M. Dadar, Y. Xiao, D. Louis Collins, "MRI patch-based imaging biomarker for automatic detection of Parkinson's disease," Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2016.
  18. ​A.M. Karlberg, E.M. Bernsten, H. Johansen, M. Myrthue, O. Solheim, I. Reinersten, H.Y. Dai, A. Skyjulsvik, A. Jarstein, Y. Xiao, H. Rivaz, and L. Eikenes, “Case study: Multimodal 18F­fluciclovine PET/MRI and ultrasound­guided neurosurgery of anaplastic oligodendroglioma ,” Berlin Brain 2017: 28th Symposium on Cerebral Blood Flow, Metabolism and Function and 13th Conference on Quantification of Brain Function with PET, 2017.​
  19. Y. Xiao, D. De Nigris, I. Gerard, Y. Ma, D. Tampieri, D. Louis Collins, and H. Rivaz, “Automatic registration of individual MRI and transcranial ultrasound for the analysis of neurological disorders,” ISMRM 2017 annual meeting, 2017.​
  20. Y. Xiao, A. Alamer, V. Fonov, B. Lo, D. Tampieri, D. Louis Collins, H. Rivaz, and M. Kersten, “Automatic collateral circulation score evaluation in ischemic stroke using image decompositions and support vector machines,”  the MICCAI 2017 Stroke Workshop on Imaging and Treatment Challenges (SWITCH), LNCS vol. 10555, pp. 158-167, 2017. 
  21. A.M. Karlberg, E.M. Bernsten, H. Johansen, M. Myrthue, A. Skyjulsvik, I. Reinersten, M. Esmaeili, H.Y. Dai, Y. Xiao, H. Rivaz, P. Borghammer, O. Solheim, and L. Eikenes, “F-fluciclovine PET/MRI in the evaluation of brain glioma," submitted to 30th annual congress of European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), 2017.
  22. N. Masoumi, Y. Xiao and H. Rivaz, "MARCEL (inter-Modality Affine Registration with CorrELation ratio): an application for brain shift correction in ultrasound-guided brain tumor resection,” MICCAI 2017 Brain Lesion (BrainLes) workshop, 2017. 
  23. Y. Xiao, H. Rivaz, H. Hashemi, M. Boily, "High-dynamic-range ultrasound for imaging tendon pathology," the 103rd Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), 2017.
  24. M. Fortin, Y. Xiao, M. Battie, and H. Rivaz, "Building unbiased population-averaged MRI atlases for image processing and assessment of lumbar paraspinal muscle morphometry," accepted at the 45th International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine Annual Meeting, 2018.

​Thesis
Master's Thesis: Multi-modality multi-echo FLASH MR imaging for Deep Brain Stimulator Implantation
Doctoral Thesis: Imaging and Image-processing for the Surgical Treatment of Parkinson's Disease

Courses

ECSE 409 Digital Signal Processing Lab
ECSE 507 Optimization & Optimal Control
ECSE 509 Probability and Random Signal 2
ECSE 511 Introduction to Digital Communication
ECSE 512 Digital Signal Processing 1
ECSE 517 Neural Prosthetic System                                                   
Project:  Visual Imagery Reconstruction using fMRI
                Decoding motor intention using neural electrical recordings of the monkey brain 
COMP 652 Machine Learning                                                              
Project:  Mixed 3D Gaussian distribution for modeling and segmenting MRI intensity of brains
COMP 558 Fundamentals of Computer Vision                                 
Literature review:  Perspectives of image descriptors  
BMDE 501 Selected Topics in Biomedical Engineering                  
Project: Intra-operative Ultrasound in Image Guided Neurosurgery 
BMDE 650 Advanced Medical Imaging
Project: presented in the CHIR grant proposal format ( information upon request)
MDPH 607 Intro to Medical Imaging (previously called Physics of Medical Imaging)
ECSE 626 Statistical Computer Vision
Project: Multi-modal medical image registration by maximization of mutual information


Achievements

Prizes and Awards
2nd Prize in the 4th annual McGill GMCA Business Case Competition, 2017
​
Top 20 finalists of NSERC'S 'Science Exposed' scientific image contest, 2016

Best presentation in innovative research at Denis Melancon Neuroradiology Conference, 2015

The Joan and Warren Chippindale Outstanding Student Award, Montreal Neurological Institute, 2015

MICCAI Educational Challenge, 1st Prize (expert panel awards), 2014
Winning video: Your friendly guide to human brain atlases

John F. Davis award (2nd place), Department of Biomedical Engineering,  McGill University, 2014

Great Distinction, McGill University, 2009

Charles Michael Morssen Gold Medal for Exceptional Engineering Promise, McGill University ,2009
(awarded annually to one selected student from the entire faculty of engineering)

William L. Everitt Student Award of Excellence, International Engineering Consortium,2009
(awarded annually to two senior students in the field of telecommunication )


Scholarships 
2018-2020
​2016-2018
​2016
​2015
2014-2016
2014-2015
2014-2015
2011-2014
2011-2014
​2009-2011

2009-2011
2009
2005-2009
2006-2009

2005-2009

2010
BrainsCAN Postdoctoral Fellowship
PERFORM Postdoctoral Fellowship
Quebec Bioimaging Network Ph.D. scholarship
Jeanne Timmins Costello Award
BME Excellence Award
John McCrae Fellowship*
Graduate Excellence Fellowship*
Bourse de doctorat de recherche pour étudiants étrangers
Graduate Excellence Fellowship (BME recruitment)
IEEE Life Member Graduate Study Fellowship
(one new recipient is selected each year worldwide)
Principal’s Graduate Fellowship
Provost's  Graduate Fellowship
Student of Dean’s Honor List ( 4 academic years)
James McGill Award (3 academic years)
(awarded annually to top 5% of the students in Engineering)
Hugh Brock Entrance Scholarship (4 academic years)

Nominated for Vanier Fellowship by McGill University
Western University
PERFORM Centre, Concordia University
​QBIN
Montreal Neurological Institute
McGill University
McGill University
McGill University
FQRNT
McGill University
IEEE

McGill University
McGill University
McGill University
McGill University

McGill University
* The Faculty of Medicine Studentship Award is offered as a combination  of John McCrae Fellowship and Graduate Excellence Fellowship


Selected Talks and Presentations

Invited talk for PERFORM ABC seminar series
Podium presentation for Denis Melancon Neuroradiology Conference
Invited talk for Montreal Neurological Hospital Neurosurgical Research Day
Podium presentation for 2014 MICCAI workshop on the 2nd Deep Brain Stimulation Methodological Challenges 
Podium presentation for the 3rd International Conference on Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions
Invited talk for Montreal Neurological Hospital Neurosurgical Conference Day
Montreal, Canada
Montreal, Canada
Montreal, Canada
Boston, USA
Pisa, Italy
Montreal, Canada
October, 2016
October, 2015
​June, 2015
September, 2014
June, 2012
December, 2010

Teaching

Lecture: "A brief introduction to the principles of MRI"  for ELEC 498/691 Medical Image Processing, Concordia University [Lecture slides]
​

Experience & Activities


2015 Ultra-high field MRI winter school at Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping (CFMM), Robarts Research Institute, Feb 2015
(Scholarship-based program)

Visiting Researcher, MediCIS-INSERM (National Institute of Health and Scientific Research), University of Rennes I, France,  Apr 2013

Research Assistant, Montreal Neurological Institue, Sep, 2009 - Apr, 2011

Teaching Assistant for ECSE 323 Digital System Design, Feb - Apr, 2008
Responsibility: Providing guidance and evaluation for a one-semester long undergraduate digital system design project ( with VHDL and FPGA board) in a laboratory environment of 24 students;

Summer Research Assistant, Montreal Neurological Institute, May - Aug, 2008
Project: Validating the MRI intensity normalization method proposed by Nyul et al. (2009) for its application on clinical cases of Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Co-organizer & Web creator , Montreal Photographic Exhibition, 2012
Website: http://montrealphotographicexhibition.weebly.com/

Peer reviewer: Neuroimage, IEEE TMI, IEEE JBHI, JMRI, IJCARS, JMI, Frontiers in Neuroscience, MICCAI, Ultrasonics, JMBE
Certificate of Completion: Basic Business Skills for Non-Business Graduate Students 2012, McGill University
Member of Professional Societies: IEEE, ISMRM, Quebec Bio-imaging Network (QBIN/RBIQ)
​Member of Graduate Management Consulting Association (GMCA), McGill Chapter
Content manager of Neuro Imaging and Surgical Technologies Lab (NIST) youtube channel and official Facebook page