Miguel Ángel Lago Ángel
PhD, Postdoctoral researcher
- Vision & Image Understanding Laboratory
Dept. of Psychological & Brain Sciences
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660 - lago@psych .ucsb. edu
RESEARCH INTERESTS
During my PhD I developed a methodology for the in-vivo characterization of the biomechanical behavior of the breast using medical images. This estimation was performed using an iterative search algorithm which optimizes the elastic constants of the constitutive models of the breast tissues. The search is based on the iterative variation of these parameters in order to increase the similarity between a simulated deformation of the organ and the real one. The methodology is based on the simulation of the compression of the breast during an MRI-guided biopsy. This research allowed me to stay at the University of Pennsylvania in one of the best research groups dedicated to simulate the breast anatomy, the X-ray Physics Laboratory.
I moved to University of California, Santa Barbara after finishing my PhD to work on image quality assessment. At UCSB I have been developing models of the human visual system. We study how humans explore 3D volumes such as Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) or Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) by using an eye tracker. We developed a new foveated visual model observer that processes the image differently depending on the distance to the fixation point. Thus, things that are far from the fixation point would be processed with less accuracy. This model was incorporated to an eye movement model and a 3D scroll model (for 3D images) and proved to predict human performance when reading volumetric images, unlike traditional standard model observers. This new human model observer can be used to get an estimation of the image quality and, ultimately, can be used to improve it.
EDUCATION
2014
PhD. in Computer Engineering
Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
- Thesis topic: A new approach for the in-vivo characterization of the biomechanical behavior of the breast and the cornea
- Advisors: Prof. Dr. Carlos Monserrat Aranda and Dr. María José Rupérez Moreno
- Qualification: Excellent Cum Laude
- Download
2011
Master Degree in Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition and Digital Imaging
Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
- Thesis topic: Volume Comparison: application to the analysis of the behavior of biomechanical models of organs
- Advisor: Prof. Dr. Carlos Monserrat Aranda
2009
Computer Engineer
Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
- Best student record award
EXPERIENCE
2016 - now
Postdoctoral Researcer at Vision and Image Understanding LabUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Development of foveated visual model observers to assess imagequality in 3D Digital Breast Tomosynthesis.
- Supervision of Prof. Miguel P. Eckstein and Dr. Craig K. Abbey
2015 - 2016
Research Engineer at Universitat Politècnica de València
2012 - 2013
Visiting scholar at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
- Department of Radiology: X-ray Physics Lab
- Supervision of Dr. Andrew D. Maidment and Dr. Predrag R. Bakic
2009 - 2014
PhD Student at Universitat Politècnica de València
- Thesis Topic: A new approach for the in-vivo characterization of thebiomechanical behavior of the breast and the cornea
2009
Internship at SETIVAL
- Software developer for mobile devices and interactive television
2009
Internship at Tissat
- Software developer for mobile devices
- Press release
JOURNALS
2020
Miguel A. Lago, Ioannis Sechopoulos, François O. Bochud, Miguel P. Eckstein, Measurement of the useful field of view for single slices of different imaging modalities and targets, J. Med. Imag. 7(2) 022411 (2020) doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.7.2.022411
2016
Delia Lorente, Francisco Martínez-Martínez, María J. Rupérez, Miguel A. Lago, Marcelino Martínez-Sober, P. Escandell-Montero, José M. Martínez-Martínez, Sandra Martínez-Sanchis, Antonio J. Serrano-López, Carlos Monserrat, José D. Martín-Guerrero (2016). A framework for modelling the biomechanical behaviour of the human liver during breathing in real time using machine learning. Expert Syst. Appl. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2016.11.037
2015
Miguel A. Lago, María J. Rupérez, Carlos Monserrat, Francisco Martínez-Martínez, Sandra Martínez-Sanchis, Eugenia Larra, María A. Díez-Ajenjo, Cristina Peris-Martínez (2015). Patient-specific simulation of the intrastromal ring segment implantation in corneas with keratoconus. J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. doi:10.1016/j.jmbbm.2015.07.023
Miguel A. Lago, María J. Rupérez, Francisco Martínez-Martínez, Sandra Martínez-Sanchis, Predrag R. Bakic, Carlos Monserrat (2015). Methodology based on genetic heuristics for in-vivo characterizing the patient-specific biomechanical behavior of the breast tissues. Expert Syst. Appl. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2015.05.058
Miguel A. Lago, María J. Rupérez, Francisco Martínez-Martínez, Carlos Monserrat, Eugenia Larra, José L. Güell, Cristina Peris-Martínez (2015). A new methodology to in-vivo estimate the elastic constants that characterize the patient-specific biomechanical behavior of the human cornea. J. Biomech. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2014.11.009
2013
Francisco Martínez-Martínez, Miguel A. Lago, María J. Rupérez, Carlos Monserrat (2013). Analysis of several biomechanical models for the simulation of lamb liver behaviour using similarity coefficients from Medical Image. Comput. Meth. Prog. Bio. doi:10.1080/10255842.2011.637492
Francisco Martínez-Martínez, María J. Rupérez, José D. Martín-Guerrero, Carlos Monserrat, Miguel A. Lago, Eugenia Pareja, Sara Brugger, Rafael López-Andújar, Estimation of the elastic parameters of human liver biomechanical models by means of medical images and evolutionary computation. Comput. Meth. Prog. Bio. doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2013.05.005
CONFERENCES
2020
Miguel A. Lago, Bruno Barufaldi, Predrag R. Bakic, Craig K. Abbey, Andrew D. Maidment, and Miguel P. Eckstein, Foveated Model Observer to Predict Human Search Performance on Virtual Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Phantoms. In Proc. SPIE, Medical Imaging, 2020. doi.org/10.1117/12.2550485
Aditya Jonnalagadda, Miguel A. Lago, Bruno Barufaldi, Predrag R. Bakic, Craig K. Abbey, Andrew D. Maidment and Miguel P. Eckstein, Evaluation of Convolutional Neural Networks for Search in 1/f2.8 Filtered Noise and Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Phantoms. In Proc. SPIE, Medical Imaging, 2020. doi.org/10.1117/12.2549362. This paper obtained a honorable mention student poster.
2019
Miguel A. Lago, Craig K. Abbey, Miguel P. Eckstein, A foveated channelized Hotelling search model predicts dissociations in human performance in 2D and 3D images. In Proc.SPIE, Medical Imaging, 2019. doi.org/10.1117/12.2511777
2018
Miguel A. Lago, Craig K. Abbey, Bruno Barufaldi, Predrag R. Bakic, Susan Weinstein, Andrew D. Maidment,Miguel P. Eckstein, Interactions of lesion detectability and size across single-slice DBT and 3D DBT. In Proc. SPIE, Medical Imaging, 2018. doi.org/10.1117/12.2293873
Craig K. Abbey, Miguel A. Lago, Miguel P. Eckstein, Observer templates in 2D and 3D localization tasks. In Proc. SPIE, Medical Imaging, 2018 doi.org/10.1117/12.2293026
Miguel P. Eckstein, Miguel A. Lago, Craig K. Abbey, Evaluation of search strategies formicrocalcifications and masses in 3D images. In Proc. SPIE, Medical Imaging, 2018 doi.org/10.1117/12.2293871
Bruno Barufaldi, Predrag R. Bakic, David D. Pokrajac, Miguel A. Lago, Andrew D. Maidment, Developing populations of software breast phantoms for virtual clinical trials. In Proc. of International Workshop on Breast Imaging (IWBI 2018), 2018 doi.org/10.1117/12.2318473
2017
María J. Rupérez, Francisco Martínez-Martínez, Marcelino Martínez-Sober, Miguel A. Lago, Delia Lorente, Predrag R. Bakic, Antonio J. Serrano-López, Sandra Martínez-Sanchis, Carlos Monserrat, José D. Martín-Guerrero, Modeling the Mechanical Behavior of the Breast Tissues Under Compression in Real Time.In VipIMAGE 2017. ECCOMAS 2017 doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68195-5_63
Miguel A. Lago, Miguel P. Eckstein, Craig K. Abbey. Foveated model observers to predict human performance in 3D images. Proc. SPIE 10136, Medical Imaging 2017 doi:10.1016/10.1117/12.2252952
Miguel P. Eckstein, Miguel A. Lago, Craig K. Abbey. The role of extra-foveal processing in 3D imaging. Proc. SPIE 10136, Medical Imaging 2017 doi:10.1117/12.2255879
2014
Miguel A. Lago, María J. Rupérez, Francisco Martínez-Martínez, Carlos Monserrat (2014). Genetic algorithms for estimating the biomechanical behavior of breast tissues. In Proceedings of IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI), pages 760-763 doi:10.1109/BHI.2014.6864475
HONORS
2014
Student Oral Communication Award, IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics, Valencia, Spain
2013
Student Poster Award at the 11th International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanichs and Biomedical Engineering, Salt Lake City, UT
2012
TEE Erasmus Mundus Scholarship
2010
Doctoral Scholarship of Spanish Ministry of Education
2009
Best Student Record Award of the Promotion
2006
Second category award in Data Structures and Algorithms course
OTHER SKILLS
Programming Languages: Matlab, Python, PHP, C, C++, Java, JavaScript
Others: HTML, SQL, CSS, LATEX
Coursera: Machine Learning, Data Science