Lab News!
April 2025
~Graduate Student Appreciation Week (GSAW)~
PhD students Himaddri Shakhar Roy and Aasma Dahal presented their research during Graduate Student Appreciation Week (GSAW)
~Undergraduate Conference~
Students Charles Policard, Shirel Belilty, Karla Vasquez, and Stephanie Amaro presented their research posters, while Oscar Infanzon delivered an oral presentation at the Undergraduate Research Conference at FIU
~GC2SHiP Semi-Annual Meeting~
Dr. Godavarty presented new research ideas on AI and wound care at the C2SHiP Semi-Annual Meeting at UCLA, in collaboration with Dr. Abderrachid Hamrani (FIU) and Dr. David Armstrong (USC).
~AIMBE Induction~
Dr. Godavarty was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in Washington, D.C. This prestigious honor recognizes her contributions to biomedical imaging research in diabetes wound care, peripheral vascular diseases, and cancer detection
March 2025
~BME Graduate Research Day Award ~
PhD Student Daniela Leizaola won first place in the BME Graduate Research Day Poster Presentation Competition for her project on the objective assessment of the healing status of diabetic foot ulcers of various skin colors using a smartphone-based NIRS device. – Congratulations Daniela
~BME Graduate Research Day~
PhD Students Daniela Leizaola, Himaddri Shakhar Roy and Aasma Dahal presented their research at the BME Graduate Research Day Symposium.
February 2025
~ BME Heart Day ~
PhD Student Aasma Dahal won 1st place in the BME Heart Day poster presentation competition for her research on peripheral hemodynamic changes during leg elevation using near-infrared spectroscopic imaging – Congratulations Aasma!
January 2025
~ SPIE Photonics West 2025 ~
Our Optical Imaging attended the SPIE Photonics West 2025 conference in San Francisco! Our team delivered four oral talks and presented six posters on innovative imaging techniques for wound assessment, vascular diagnostics, and small animal imaging. Special congratulations to Daniela Leizaola, Fernando Sebastián Chiwo, Himaddri Shakhar Roy, and Charles Policard for their contributions! A big thank you to our clinical and research collaborators for their continued support.
~CURE Program Recognition~
We are excited to announce that Shirel Belilty and Charles Policard have been selected as CURE Researchers for Spring 2025, while Karla Vasquez and Daniela Perez have joined as CURE Trainees. This achievement reflects their dedication to advancing biomedical research. Congratulations to all!
December 2024
~U.S. Patent ~
Our research lab has a new patent issued “Skin Color Independent Flow-Based Diffuse Optical Imaging,” with Dr. Anuradha Godavarty and Dr. Kevin Leiva as co-inventors. Congratulations to Dr. Leiva for his first patent ! He graduated in Dec 2022 with a PhD from our lab and this patent is a reflection of his PhD research and innovation.
~ Abstract Acceptance at WOCNext 2025 ~
Armando Caro and Daniela Leizaola’s abstract, “Development and Testing of a Clinical Tracing Tool to Demarcate Wound Tissue Types in Diabetic Foot Ulcers,” has been accepted for a poster presentation at the WOCNext 2025 conference in collaboration with Dr. Charles Buscemi from Nursing. Congratulations to Armando for his first first-authored abstract!
~ Paper Published in Cosmetics~
A new publication in collaboration with Dr. Hamrani in Mechanical and Materials Engineering department at FIU and Dr. Kirsner at Univ of Miami. Congratulations to our second-author Daniela Leizaola (as second-author) from our lab, apart from all past lab members as co-authors.
~ Paper Published in Bioengineering~
The paper “Breath-Holding as a Stimulus to Assess Peripheral Oxygenation Flow Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging” has been published in Bioengineering. Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Leiva, who graduated in December 2022 with a PhD from our lab, as the first author, and to all co-authors on this achievement!
November 2024
~SPIE Travel Award ~
SPIE Travel Award to Daniela Leizaola – to attend and present at SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco in Jan 2025.
~Diabetese Awareness Day ~
Dr. Anuradha Godavarty was the lead organizer of this event for the 3rd year in a row and also delivered a Faculty Focus Talk. Dr. Fernando Chiwo, Daniela Leizaola, Charles Policard, Oscar Infranzon, and Himaddri Shakhar Roy presented e-posters at Diabetes Awareness Day. Our Optical Imaging Laboratory hosted an interactive booth activity – led by Charles Policard, Divina Campbell, Ishara Omardeen, and Stephanie Amaro.
~BME Undergraduate Research Day Award Recognition ~
Charles Policard won second place in the BME Undergraduate Research Day Poster Presentation Competition for his project on a portable thermal imaging tool for quantitative wound assessment. Congratulations, Charles!
~ BME Undergraduate Research Day ~
Undergraduate students Shirel Belilty, Stephanie Amaro, Divina Campbell, and Charles Policard presented their research at the BME Undergraduate Research Day.
~DFCon 2024 Conference~
Dr. Anuradha Godavarty attended and presented at the DFCon 2024 Conference in Anaheim, CA (November 7-9).
October 2024
~ Opportunities for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS) Award ~
Undergraduate student Divina Campbell has been selected for the 2024-2025 OURS scholarship. We look forward to her contributions this academic year. Congratulations, Divina!
Learn more about the OURS program
~ PhD Proposal Defense ~
PhD student Daniela Leizaola has successfully defended her dissertation proposal. She now advances to the next stage of her doctoral journey. Congratulations, Daniela!
August 2024
~ New PhD Student ~
We are excited to welcome Armando Caro, who has joined the lab as a new PhD student. Welcome, Armando!
~ Bachelor’s Degree Completion ~
Congratulations to Maria Hernandez, one of our undergraduate researchers, on her recent graduation! She is starting her career as a Clinical Research Intern at Ophtec USA
May 2024
~Undergraduate students Sebastian Giraldo, Shirel Belilty and Charles Policard were awarded the Dr. Norman R. Weldon Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Student Research Internship for the Summer of 2024.
April 2024
~Ph.D. student Aasma Dahal won the second place for the Poster Competition at the 2024 Graduate Student Appreciation Week (GSAW).
February 2024
~Undergraduate student Maria Hernandez was selected for the CURE (Coulter Undergraduate Research Excellence) program as Researcher for Spring 2024.
~Undergraduate student Ricardo Avila was selected for the CURE (Coulter Undergraduate Research Excellence) program as Trainee for Spring 2024.
November 2023
~Undergraduate students Maria Hernandez and Sonu Durgappa presented their research poster at the FIU BME Undergraduate Research Day.
September 2023
~Undergraduate student Maria Hernandez was selected for the CURE (Coulter Undergraduate Research Excellence) program as Researcher for Fall 2023.
~Undergraduate student Sonu Durgappa was selected for the CURE (Coulter Undergraduate Research Excellence) program as Trainee for Fall 2023.
July 2023
~High school students Anarelis Galvez and Arundhathi Arun from Terra Environmental Research Institute joined the lab for summer term.
May 2023
~Undergraduate student Maria Hernandez joined the CURE program as a trainee for Summer 2023
March 2023
~Ph.D. student Kacie Kalie won 1st place for her talk at the FIU BME Graduate Research Day (March 6th)
~Ph.D. students Daniela Leizaola, and Himaddri Shakhar Roy presented their research posters at the FIU BME Graduate Research Day (March 6th)
February 2023
~Undergraduate student Sydni Spencer presented her research poster at the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC), Miami, FL (Feb 18th)
January 2023
~Undergraduate students Waleed Abusaid and Syndi Spencer won the Coulter Undergraduate Research Excellence Award for Spring 2023.
December 2022
~Dr. Kevin Leiva graduated as the Outstanding Ph.D. student in the College of Engineering and Computing.
October 2022
~Two Non-provisional US patents were issued to Kacie Kaile and Dr. Godavarty in our Optical Imaging Laboratory.
~Ph.D. student Daniela Leizaola participated in the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
September 2022
~Undergraduate student Sydni Spencer won 3rd Place for her poster presentation at the FIU BME Undergraduate Research Day.
~Undergraduate students Noble Amadi, Faiza Nazir and Sydni Spencer presented their research posters at the FIU BME Undergraduate Research Day.
~Undergraduate students Noble Amadi, Sydni Spencer and Faiza Nazir were awarded the Coulter Undergraduate Research Award for Fall 2022.
August 2022
~Dr. Anuradha Godavarty was awarded an R01 by the NIH-NIBIB for her research on smartphone optical imaging technology.
July 2022
~Ph.D. student Kevin Leiva defended his PhD succesfully.
May 2022
~Undergraduate students Noble Amadi, Sydni Spencer and Faiza Nazir won the Dr. Norman R. Weldom Biomedical Engineering Internship.
March 2022
~Dr. Anuradha Godavarty was recently spotlighted by the FIU Magazine as an “Inspiring Inventor”.
September 2021
~Undergraduate students Alexander Trinidad, Mariel Chavez and Haniyeh Alirezael were awarded the Coulter Undergraduate Research award for Fall 2021.
May 2021
~Undergraduate students Alexander Trinidad, Isabella Gonzalez, Raquel Vega, Mariel Chavez and Haniyeh Alirezael were awarded the Dr. Norman R. Weldom Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship at FIU.
February 2021
~Dr. Anuradha Godavarty was honorably nominated as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors.
September 2020
~Ph.D. student Kevin Leiva was awarded with the very prestigious NIH F31 Fellowship by NIDDK for two years.