Human visual perception is part-“eye” and part-“brain”. In the context of imaging, imaging algorithms form the brain of our optical instruments. In doing so, these algorithms can help us measure instead of merely see.

High-throughput detectors and efficient computation have enabled us to create computational versions of physical lenses. These computational lenses are capable of imaging very small objects in noisy and challenging situations, often beyond the designed capabilities of their physical counterparts. For example, we are able to augment the functions of computational lenses by inserting known prior knowledge about the capabilities of the underlying optics and/or characteristics of the specimen under study. Our group pushes and helps define the capabilities of such computational lenses.