The Virtual Bioimaging Laboratory (VBIL) was conceived in the Bioengineering department as an undergraduate class that would allow students to interact via computer to control simulated bioimaging instruments. They would have the capability to manipulate instrument parameters and view the effects on the resulting image, helping them to learn firsthand how these parameters affect the imaging modalities.

The University of Illinois Bioengineering department has a strong specialty in biomedical imaging, and VBIL currently is focusing on five different imaging modalities—ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, and computed tomography.

Created from scratch by a CISL group member, Charles Feng, VBIL features a custom-built Wiki backend and user account system that facilitates the easy creation and editing of both content pages and experiments for each modality. It features a organization tree structure for both the content pages and the navigation within each modality, allowing instructors to fully customize how they want to display content. Capabilities for linking between pages, adding images and documents, and adding LaTeX equations were also implemented into the software to maximize the website's performance. Featuring an elegant, easy-to-use interface, the Laboratory is secure and intuitive to use for users wishing to contribute content and for students who will be accessing the content in the future.

See below for several images of the site. Click an image to zoom in.

VBIL Team:

Michael Insana
mfi@illinois.edu

Rohit Bhargava
rxb@illinois.edu

Michael Haney
m-haney@illinois.edu

Charles Feng
feng4@illinois.edu

David Mahr
dmahr@illinois.edu

Rohith Reddy
rkreddy2@illinois.edu