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Chih Lai

Professor

Software Engineering and Data Science

  • Education

  • PhD, Oregon State University, 1999
    MSCS, Oregon State University, 1992
    BA, Fu-Jen Catholic University (Taiwan), 1987

  • Expertise
  • Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision, Image Processing, Counterfeit Detection, Medical Bioinformatics, Gene Imputation & Disease Prediction, Precision Agriculture
  • Research Interests
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Apply AI and ML to multimedia data like images, videos, audio, and text. Please see Dr Lai’s projects at his LinkedIn

Before joining the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Lai was a principal software engineer, working on a new aircraft collision avoidance system (ADS-B) which FAA has mandatory installation on most aircraft by 2020. Dr. Lai received three U.S. patents and three European patents, all related to aircraft collision avoidance algorithms. Dr. Lai also worked with the University of Minnesota and Medtronic with patents on sacrum neural modulation and monitoring/evaluating Parkinson patients. Other industry experience includes using A.I. for detecting counterfeit products,  predicting power generation, and predicting equipment health for hydro/wind energy industry.

Courses taught at St. Thomas:

  • Vision AI - SEIS 764
  • Artificial Intelligence—SEIS 764
  • Machine Learning - SEIS 763
  • Healthcare Analytics and AI Case Study - SEIS 735
  • AI for Healthcare- SEIS 639
  • Data Mining - SEIS 734
  • Multimedia Information Retrieval - SEIS 772
  • Real-Time Systems and Applications - SEIS 740
  • Professor, University of St. Thomas, Graduate Program in Software, School of Engineering (present)
  • Visiting Scientist, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung / National Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany, Deutsch Fellowship from German Government for Academic Exchange Scientists (present)
  • Research Consultant, Medtronic Neuromodulation Division, St. Paul, MN, 2012-2014.
  • Visiting Professor, Informatics Department of Trier University of Applied Science, Trier, Germany (2010)
  • Lead Software Engineer, Garmin Aviation Technology (previously UPS Aviation) on airplane collision avoidance system / ADS-B
  • More than $1.3 million project funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Minnesota State, German government, Amazon, and industry
  • Deutsch Fellowship from German Government for Academic Exchange Scientist, 2019
  • Medtronic Idea Disclosure Contributor Award, 2013
  • Best Paper Award in ACM Multimedia Data Mining, 2006
  • Aerospace Industry Pioneer Project Award, 2000
  • Chih Lai, et. al., “Device and methods for using AI-mediated imaging to measure, optimize, implant, track and program surgically implanted neuromodulation in research and clinical applications”, 2024 (with U. St. Thomas and U. of Minnesota)
  • Chih Lai, et. al., “Motion Analysis for Behavior Identification”, US-Patent US20140371599A1, 2022 (with Medtronic)
  • Chih Lai, et. al., “Apply A.I. for Counterfeit Product Detection”, US-Patent application, 2021 (with Microtrace)
  • Chih Lai, et. al., “Motion-Based Behavior Identification for Controlling Therapy”, US-Patent application 14-104-078, 2013 (with Medtronic)
  • Chih Lai, “Detection and removal of self-alerts in an airborne tracking system”, US-Patent 6-594-578, 2003
  • Chih Lai, “Method for determining conflicting paths between mobile airborne vehicles and associated system and computer software program product”, US-Patent 6-564-149, 2003
  • Chih Lai, “Multisource target correlation”, US-Patent 6-542-810, 2003
  • Chih Lai, “Detection and removal of self-alerts in an airborne tracking system”, EU-Patent EP1299747
  • Chih Lai, “Method for determining conflicting paths between mobile airborne vehicles and associated system and computer software program product”, EU-Patent EP1299742, 2003
  • Chih Lai, “Multisource target correlation”, EU-Patent EP1374205, 2003

Dr. Lai’s research interests include Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning on multimedia data (numerical, images, videos, audio, text). Dr Lai’s recent projects include:

  • Work with a surgical team in University of Minnesota to apply A.I. Vision to medical fluoroscopy images in evaluating surgical results
  • Develop an AI chatbot (TommieBot) for University St. Thomas, allowing users to Q&A questions more than 6,000 UST’s web sites and PDF files (patent application)
  • Work with Mayo Clinic Neurosurgery Physician to apply A.I. and to help severe spinal cord injury patients rehab during COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Apply A.I. and machine vision to identify organs and predict morphological changes in fish embryos that were exposed to different chemicals
  • Apply A.I. to learn from more than 16-million medical journal papers and predict chain effects in life science (i.e. from chemicals to cells to tissues to diseases), see details at https://sites.google.com/view/aop-international-research/home
  • Apply A.I. to understand input sentences and generate next sentences based on sentence vectors
  • Apply A.I. to predict power generation and equipment health for hydro/wind energy industry
  • Apply machine learning to predict patients’ brain activities from fMRIs (Brain Neural Connectome Analysis)

For more details, please visit Chih Lai's LinkedIn

Please see a complete list at https://sites.google.com/view/dr-chih-lai/home