Awarded in 2026
Home Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisors: Bruce Daniel (Radiology), Allison Okamura (Mechanical Engineering), Brian Hargreaves (Radiology), and Jacqueline Tsai (Surgery – General Surgery)

Research Title: Sensing the Unseen: Multimodal Augmented Reality Guidance for Precision Breast Surgery

Over two million women worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, yet one in four patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery requires re-excision because surgeons cannot reliably feel the tumor boundaries. Yuxuan proposes to develop a multimodal augmented reality system that makes otherwise imperceptible tumors intuitively visible and palpable. Yuxuan will develop algorithms for tumor localization and rendering, along with haptically augmented surgical instruments that provide tactile guidance, with the ultimate goal of improving the precision of breast-conserving surgery.