CIS Spring 2026 Projects

To CIS II Students: Project Ideas

Here is a list of the project ideas and each individual set of slides for 2026. These will be presented in class over the first few sessions of class.

Remember several points, however:

This list is not necessarily complete. More will be added.
You are ultimately responsible for finding and proposing a project.
You must get agreement from your mentors that your proposed project is one for which you are appropriate.
Your project does not have to be one of the ones in this suggested list.
- However, if it is not one of these, you should also get my agreement that it is appropriate for the course.
- Also, feel free to fill out a “potential project” template if you have a project idea but want to recruit additional students

To Potential CIS II Project Mentors: How to Propose a Project Idea

Our Advanced CIS II projects course has a large enrollment this year, and we are actively soliciting possible projects. As you may recall, CIS II is intended for graduate students and upper-level undergrads, in which students work in teams of 1-3 on semester-long projects broadly related to computer-integrated interventions, AI in medicine, medical image analysis, or related topics. In addition to material covered in lectures/seminars by the instructor and other faculty, students are expected to read and provide critical analysis/presentations of selected papers in recitation sessions. Students taking this course are required to undertake and report on a significant term project. Project mentors may include faculty, engineering staff, postdocs, and (with appropriate approvals) advanced graduate students. Students taking the course sign a non-disclosure agreement at the start of the semester, in order to enable free discussion without compromising patentability. We also keep project web pages restricted for at least a year, or until the mentor(s) agree that they can be made public.

Generally, students select projects in the first 2-3 weeks of class, although some come with an idea beforehand. In order to suggest a project, you can fill out this template (typically about 2-3 slides) and send it to me (rht@jhu.edu) and to the TA (jbarrag3@jh.edu), along with an indication if you would like to present the idea yourself or if you would like us to present it for you. If the file is too big to email, then feel free to send a link.

A note to Project Mentors

First, thank you for mentoring a CIS II project this year. This course provides a great educational experience for the students, and also can produce useful research results. Its success depends greatly on the project mentors, and I hope that your experience this year has been productive both for you and for the students.

As part of our grading process, we are encouraging project mentors to provide some input. You all should have been granted access to the course web site and to the individual project(s) that you are mentoring.

We would really appreciate it if you can answer a few questions. Either edit the linked form and email it to me (rht@jhu.edu) and the TA (Juan Barragan, jbarrag3@jh.edu), with a file name like “Project xxx mentors report.docx” or just sent an email with a similar subject line.

Finally, note that the annual final exam / poster session will be on the assigned final exam day on Zoom (https://wse.zoom.us/j/635091574). I very much hope that you can attend. Also, the project reports are due on the day of the poster session, but the students have been told that you need an opportunity to review the reports before then. Also, we will need your comments to us by 9 PM on the day of the poster session, since we will be using them to help us with our evaluation of the projects.

Instructions to 456/496/656 Students

The links below point to the Wiki pages for your projects. You should follow the link. This will bring you to a project home page that you can edit once you log in. The two little gear symbols on the upper right give access to functions like login, logout, edit page, etc. The login/logout is on the leftmost gear. Note that there are many styles of Wiki, with different syntax. This one is “dokuwiki”. There is a link to help pages from the edit page.

The current default access settings are “read” for the CiiS lab, no access to members of the general public, and full power to members of your group. If you want to restrict read access to smaller group (e.g., all 456 students, etc.) contact Prof. Taylor. Prof. Taylor can also implement access control for individual pages if you so desire. If you want the whole world to be able to read your project pages, that can be arranged. Do not post anything to unprotected pages that you want kept private until you have arranged with Prof. Taylor to protect them.

Also, verify that each member of your group can log in. If you have trouble, contact Prof. Taylor via email providing correct name and JHED id.

Finally, if you want to give other individuals (e.g., your mentors) access to your project pages, provide name and JHED id to Prof. Taylor

NOTE: At the end of the semester, all projects will be made readable to the general public, unless you make arrangements otherwise with Prof. Taylor

Resources

Google Cloud Credits: Some projects (especially those involving machine learning) many require significant computing resources. We have obtained a small Google Cloud Platform Education Grant to help support these projects. See the TA if you need a coupon.
Sample background reading presentation from 2022
Sample background reading report from 2022

Nondisclosure agreement for in-class discussion

As we discussed in class, some of the projects may contain potentially patentable material or other material that should not be disclosed publicly until a later time. In order to permit free in-class discussion of this material, we have developed a non-disclosure agreement. When asked, the entire class agreed to sign such an agreement, a copy of which is linked below.

Here is a link to current year's agreement
If any member of the class has any reservations about this, please inform us immediately.
Also, class members are reminded to identify potentially confidential material on any slides or other presentation material used in class

Project signups

First, contact the mentors to get approved.

Then, please email Prof. Taylor and the TA (rht@jhu.edu, jmangul1@jhu.edu) with the name of your project and your mentors CC'ed.

A project number will then be assigned to you and your project page will be created.

01: Simulation-Based Uncertainty Propagation in Geometric Networks for Surgical Robotics

Team Members: Christine Zhu
Mentors: Russell Taylor, Manish Sahu, Adnan Munawar
Project Pages: Simulation-Based Uncertainty Propagation in Geometric Networks for Surgical Robotics

02: LPN: Differentiable Physics-based Simulation for Soft Tissue Cutting

Team Members: Shouyue Hu
Mentors: Laura Connolly, Jiawei Ge, Ethan Kilmer, Axel Krieger
Project Pages: LPN: Differentiable Physics-based Simulation for Soft Tissue Cutting

03: Motorized Mechanism for Encoding Endoscope Rotation

Team Members: Mishtee Gandhi
Mentors: Manish Sahu, Russell Taylor, Masaru Ishii
Project Pages: Motorized Mechanism for Encoding Endoscope Rotation

04: Development of a real-time non-contact ultrasound imaging algorithm for robotic surgery

Team Members: Seongjun Park
Mentors: Mahban Gholijafari, Emad Boctor
Project Pages: Development of a real-time non-contact ultrasound imaging algorithm for robotic surgery

05: Eye Snake Localization Using Vision

Team Members: Chuntung Zhang
Mentors: Adnan Munawar, Iulian Iordachita, Mojtaba Enfandiari
Project Pages: Eye Snake Localization Using Vision

06: Surgical Report Generation

Team Members: Vishalroshan Anil
Mentors: Lalithkumar Seenivasan, Mathias Unberath
Project Pages: Surgical Report Generation

07: Mesh Atlas for Lifetime Radiation Dose Tracking

Team Members: Emi Lou Mondragon, Lance Yang
Mentors: Todd McNutt, Jared Baggett
Project Pages: Mesh Atlas for Lifetime Radiation Dose Tracking

08: Surgical Action Understanding

Team Members: Lurui Wang
Mentors: Lalithkumar Seenivasan, Mathias Unberath
Project Pages: Surgical Action Understanding

09: Autonomous Packing for Trauma with MIRA

Team Members: Rishi Koneru, Miranda Qing, Ryan McGovern
Mentors: Axel Krieger, Jesse Haworth
Project Pages: Autonomous Packing for Trauma with MIRA

10: Natural Language Interface for Surgical Robotic System

Team Members: Jecia Mao
Mentors: Manish Sahu, Russell Taylor
Project Pages: Natural Language Interface for Surgical Robotic System

11: Autonomous Robotic Surgical Manipulation with Haptics Enhanced Imitation Learning

Team Members: Shreya Terala, Honghao Zhao, Vibha Kamath
Mentors: Ugur Tumerdem, Adnan Munawar
Project Pages: Autonomous Robotic Surgical Manipulation with Haptics Enhanced Imitation Learning

12: Magnetic Fidelity During Automated Collision Avoidance

Team Members: Aarushi Manian
Mentors: Nicholas Jensen
Project Pages: Magnetic Fidelity During Automated Collision Avoidance

13: Autonomous Wound Closure System

Team Members: Thuy-Anh Le, Natalie Uyehara Smith, Shaun Ku
Mentors: Axel Krieger, Andrey Zuskov, Jesse Haworth, Haoying “Jack” Zhou
Project Pages: Autonomous Wound Closure System

14: Keypoint-Based Multi-Tool Tracking

Team Members: Emily Guan, Yao Chen, George Yang
Mentors: Sarah Chiu, Peter Kazanzides
Project Pages: Keypoint-Based Multi-Tool Tracking

15: iCrutch: Human–Computer Interface for Reading Stabilization in Eye Movement Disorders

Team Members: Zhuoxuan Li
Mentors: Peter Kazanzides, Kemar Green, Haochen Wei
Project Pages: iCrutch: Human–Computer Interface for Reading Stabilization in Eye Movement Disorders

16: Dual Tracking of Surgical Robot Instruments

Team Members: William Li, Angela Appiah, Ishita Unde
Mentors: Peter Kazanzides, Sarah Chiu, Nick Greene
Project Pages: Dual Tracking of Surgical Robot Instruments

17: Synthetic-to-Real Learning for 3D Shape Prediction of FBG-Sensorized Stylets

Team Members: Sichen Deng
Mentors: Yinsong Ma, Jacynthe Francoeur, Iulian Iordachita
Project Pages: Synthetic-to-Real Learning for 3D Shape Prediction of FBG-Sensorized Stylets

18: LPN: Autonomous bleeding control for partial nephrectomy

Team Members: Hongting (Chester) Pan, Lujia Yang, Yvonne Zhang
Mentors: Laura Connolly, Jiawei Ge, Ethan Kilmer, Axel Krieger
Project Pages: LPN: Autonomous bleeding control for partial nephrectomy

19: Automatic segmentation and surgical planning for neurovascular interventions

Team Members: Thoya Raman, Aditya Shrinivasan
Mentors: Junghoon Lee, Ali Uneri, Gayoung Kim
Project Pages: Automatic segmentation and surgical planning for neurovascular interventions

20: Robot motion planning for automated anatomy harvesting

Team Members: Bingxin Xiao
Mentors: Manish Sahu, Adnan Munawar, Russ Taylor, Francis Creighton, Amanda Lauer
Project Pages: Robot motion planning for automated anatomy harvesting

21: Robotic Assistant for Image-Guided Low Back Pain Injections

Team Members: Chenbowen Li, Jiaming Du
Mentors: Daniel Wang, Tyler Scott Lehrfeld, Iulian Iordachita
Project Pages: Robotic Assistant for Image-Guided Low Back Pain Injections

22: Real-Time Multimodal Failure Detection for Autonomous Surgical Tasks

Team Members: Maya Sharma, Anishka Bhartiya
Mentors: Nural Yilmaz, Mariana Smith, Axel Krieger
Project Pages: Real-Time Multimodal Failure Detection for Autonomous Surgical Tasks

23: LPN: Tumor bed segmentation and tracking from laparoscopic surgical scene

Team Members: Kailai Li
Mentors: Laura Connolly, Jiawei Ge, Ethan Kilmer, Axel Krieger
Project Pages: LPN: Tumor bed segmentation and tracking from laparoscopic surgical scene

24: Teleoperation Control of the Eye Robot (SHER 2.1) and Eye Snake (I2RIS)

Team Members: Yu-Chieh Lee, Runyu Wan, Xuyang Wang
Mentors: Mojtaba Esfandiari, Qian Gao, Haochen Wei, Iulian Iordachita
Project Pages: Teleoperation Control of the Eye Robot (SHER 2.1) and Eye Snake (I2RIS)

25: Objective Video-based Assessment of Mastoidectomy Surgical Skill

Team Members: Aakash Gurram
Mentors: Lalithkumar Seenivasan, Mathias Unberath
Project Pages: Objective Video-based Assessment of Mastoidectomy Surgical Skill

26: Autonomous Scleral Trocar Insertion

Team Members: Alan You, Tianyou Liu, Luiza Buhrer
Mentors: Tianle Wu, Iulian Iordachita, Zih-Yun “Sarah” Chiu
Project Pages: Autonomous Scleral Trocar Insertion