Miles Wernick

Education

NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Radiology, University of Chicago, 1991
Ph.D. Optics, University of Rochester, 1990
B.A. Physics, Northwestern University, 1983

Research Interests

Miles N. Wernick is the Motorola Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Director of Illinois Institute of Technology's Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC). Wernick has diverse research interests related to medical imaging, image processing, predictive technologies, and crime analysis.

Wernick's research focuses on applications of machine learning and image processing in the fields of medical imaging and crime analysis, and he has been involved in the hardware and software development of several novel imaging systems, including new forms of phase-sensitive x-ray (DEI/MIR) imaging and multispectral imaging of the eye. In the field of medical imaging, Wernick and his Illinois Tech colleagues have developed methods of performing automated image processing, reconstruction and/or analysis for imaging of the breast, heart, brain, prostate, and joints. He and his colleagues have developed new 4D image reconstruction algorithms that promise to dramatically reduce radiation dose in SPECT imaging.

Wernick is currently serving as technical lead on a research program in "predictive policing" in collaboration with the Chicago Police Department, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). In this program, machine learning, social network analysis, and methods drawn from image processing are being applied to produce forward-looking analysis of crime data to promote data-driven policing.

Wernick has co-founded two companies, Predictek, Inc., and ADM Diagnostics, LLC which provide image analysis services to the pharmaceutical industry, and which have developed automated systems for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and other dementias from brain scans.

Wernick was co-editor of the book, Emission Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT . He was guest editor of a special issue on medical imagingIEEE Signal Processing Magazine, and has served as Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, SPIE/IS&T Journal of Electronic Imaging, and Medical Physics. He has been elected to the IEEE BioImaging and Signal Processing Technical Council and the IEEE Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences Technical Council, and Chaired the IEEE Medical Imaging Awards Committee for many years.

Awards

British Medical Association, “High Commendation” for the book Emission Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT.

Two papers in Physics in Medicine and Biology recognized by Institute of Physics (IOP) Select (“selected by the Editors for their novelty, significance and potential impact on future research”)

Illinois Tech Professor of the Month (voted by students)

Outstanding Faculty Award, ECE Dept., Illinois Institute of Technology (first recipient).

Co-author, Best Paper award, 2006 IEEE Medical Imaging Conference

Sigma Xi / Illinois Tech Award for Excellence in University Research (senior level)

Publications

Mingwu Jin, Xiaofeng Niu, Wenyuan Qi, Yongyi Yang, Joyoni Dey, Michael A. King, Seth Dahlberg, and Miles N. Wernick, “4D reconstruction for low-dose cardiac gated SPECT,” Medical Physics, vol. 40, no. 2, 2013.

Grigori Yourganov, Xu Chen, Ana S. Lukic, Cheryl L. Grady, Steven L. Small, Miles N. Wernick, and Stephen C. Strother, “Dimensionality estimation for optimal detection of functional networks in BOLD fMRI data,” Neuroimage, vol. 56 no. 2, pp. 531-543, 2011.

Yusuf Artan, Masoom A. Haider, Deanna L. Langer, Andrew J. Evans, Yongyi Yang, Miles N. Wernick, and Imam Samil Yetik, “Prostate cancer localization with multispectral MRI using cost-sensitive support vector machines and conditional random fields,” IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 2444-2455, 2010.

Miles N. Wernick, Yongyi Yang, Jovan G. Brankov, Grigori Yourganov, and Stephen C. Strother, “Machine learning in medical imaging,” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 25-38, 2010.

Jovan G. Brankov, Yongyi Yang, Liyang Wei, Issam El-Naqa, and Miles N. Wernick, “Learning a nonlinear channelized observer for image quality assessment,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 28, pp. 991-999, 2009.

Gocha Khelashvili, Jovan G. Brankov, Dean Chapman, Mark A. Anastasio, Yongyi Yang, Zhong Zhong, and Miles N. Wernick, “A physical model of multiple image radiography,” Physics in Medicine and Biology, vol. 51, pp. 221-236, 2006. [Recognized by IOP Select]

Issam El-Naqa, Yongyi Yang, Robert N. Nishikawa, and Miles N. Wernick, “A similarity learning approach to content-based image retrieval: application to digital mammography,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 23, pp. 1233-1244, 2004.

Miles N. Wernick, Oliver Wirjadi, Dean Chapman, Zhong Zhong, Nikolas P. Galatsanos, Yongyi Yang, Jovan G. Brankov, Oral Oltulu, Mark A. Anastasio, and Carol Muehleman, “Multiple-image radiography,” Physics in Medicine and Biology, vol. 48, pp. 3875-3895, 2003.

Issam El-Naqa, Yongyi Yang, Miles N. Wernick, Nikolas P. Galatsanos, and Robert M. Nishikawa, “A support vector machine approach for detection of microcalcifications,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 21, pp. 1552-1563, 2002.

Miles N. Wernick, E. James Infusino, and Milos Milosevic, “Fast spatio-temporal image reconstruction for dynamic PET,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 18, pp. 185-195, 1999.

Miles N. Wernick, “Pattern classification by convex analysis,” Journal of the Optical Society of America, vol. 8, pp. 1874-1880, 1991.

Miles N. Wernick and G. Michael Morris, “Image classification at low light levels,”Journal of the Optical Society of America A, vol. 3, pp. 2179-2187, 1986.

Books

Miles N. Wernick and John N. Aarsvold, eds., Emission Tomography: The Engineering and Physics of PET and SPECT, San Diego: Academic Press, 2004, pp. 596.

Patents

Miles N. Wernick, Daniel Roberts, Yongyi Yang, and Ana S. Lukic, “Method and apparatus for diagnosing conditions of the eye with infrared light,” U.S. Patent Number 11/999,529, March 29, 2010.

Miles N. Wernick and Yongyi Yang, “Method for detecting a mass density image of an object,” U.S. Patent Number 11/732,343, 2008.

Miles N. Wernick, L. Dean Chapman, Oral Oltulu, and Zhong Zhong, “Imaging method based on attenuation, refraction, and ultra-small-angle scattering of x-rays,” U.S. Patent Number 6,947,52, September 20, 2005.

Miles N. Wernick and Chin-Tu Chen, “Method of recovering tomographic signal elements in a projection profile or image by solving linear equations,” U.S. Patent Number 5,323,007, June 21, 1994.

Expertise

Medical imaging, machine learning, predictive analytics, image processing