Since late 2021, Dr Li has been building up her own research group on cardiovascular imaging at School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (the University of Adelaide) and got promoted to Associate Professor in late 2023. Her group aims to enable more accurate diagnosis of high-risk heart disease patients by 3D-printed multimodal microcatheters, and is supported by her CIA grants by NHMRC, Heart Foundation, the Hospital Research Foundation and L'Oréal-UNESCO. In addition to research and innovation, Dr Li also enjoys teaching Medical Imaging (https://www.adelaide.edu.au/course-outlines/110988/1/sem-2/2022/).

Funded by National Heart Foundation and Uni Adelaide, Dr Li has started to work as an independent researcher since Jan. 2019. Her current research focus is to develop miniaturised multimodal fibre probes by two-photon polymerisation 3D printing technology. The probe enables cross-sectional visualisation of vascular arteries with high resolution, molecular contrast, and sensitivity that are not possible with any other existing technologies. This cutting-edge tool will underpin biological studies to help answer fundamental questions at cellular level of how atherosclerotic plaques evolve, how they cause heart attacks, and how they respond to different treatment.

Integrated intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) optical coherence tomography (OCT) system and catheter for identification of high-risk patients with both deep penetration depth and high resolution.• Lead a team made of 5 medical doctors, 3 engineering PhD students and 2 undergraduates • In charge of optical and electrical system design, operation and troubleshooting. Built IVUS-OCT system and pull-back console from scratch• A 50kHz 1310nm swept source laser, Gb/s speed digitizer (DAQ) and GPU were used in the system• Used Zemax simulation to design the lens system of the endoscope and evaluate its performance (aberration, depth of focus and resolution) by both geometric ray tracing and physical optics propagation• Designed and developed the prototypes of a high-yield low-cost ball-lens-based endoscope, a miniature back-to-back probe sensor for real-time co-registration and a micro beam-splitter probe sensor for tracking probe trajectory. Hand-made over 100 pcs of imaging endoscope with an outer diameter of less than 0.5 mm• Modified the C++ code for real-time signal processing and developed Matlbab code for image processing• Wrote and submitted FDA-IDE application. Conducted FDA required electrical and laser safety test and contacted external source for mechanical and biocompatibility testing• Proficient in designing and conducting in vivo animal experiments. Designed and performed statistical analysis of the accuracy for coronary plaque characterization, lipid, fibrosis, calcification and thin cap fibroatheroma (TCFA). Spectrum domain OCT (SDOCT) system for biomedical applications• Built a 1310nm SDOCT system with linear wavenumber spectrometer, superluminescent diode light source and two-axis galvanometers• Developed Matlab algorithm to quantify blood flow speed in microvascular networks http://www.eng.uci.edu/news/2012/11/combining-passion-research-search-cure

(Project detail not revealed due to NDA)Optical modeling of lens system design, aberration and tolerance analysis, and simulating optical response with each manufacturing process by Zemax were frequently conducted. Translated the design concept into working prototypes. Identified the root cause of failed products by simulation and bench testing. Very experienced with non-sequential design (to simulate beam splitters or prisms), aberration analysis (spherical, chromatic aberration, astigmatism, distortion, etc), optimization & Merit function, defect analysis and modeling prisms and gradient index optics.

Led a multicultural committee to serve international students’ needs. This involved long-term planning, scheduling the execution of multiple projects in parallel, careful budgeting, and conflict resolution.

Project title:"Three dimensional velocity vector quantification of microvascular flow using Doppler OCT"Developed an 890nm SDOCT system to achieve ultrahigh resolution (2 microns), using a CCD.Individually came up with three different approaches to solve the problem. With collaborators' help, developed and implemented algorithms for the most feasible one. Jie Meng, Zhihua Ding*, Jiawen Li ect, “Transit-time analysis based on delay-encoded beam shape for velocity vector quantification by spectral-domain Doppler optical coherence tomography”, Optics Express 18,1261-70(2010) * corresponding author