A 2nd-year Doctoral Student of the University of Aizu Receives the Best Paper Award at the EUVIP2023

"FEES-IS: Real-time Instance Segmentation of Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing," by Mr. WENG Weihao, a second-year student of doctor program, his supervisor Prof. ZHU Xin, (※1) and their collaborators at Fukushima Medical University, garnered significant recognition at EUVIP2023(※2) and was honored with the Best Paper Award(※3). The contents of this paper are about the automatic detection of aspiration using endoscopy. Aspiration pneumonia occupies 86.7% of pneumonia causing the death of senior subjects over 70 years old. Therefore, the detection of aspiration is extremely significant in clinical practice(※4).

The European Workshop on Visual Information Processing (EUVIP) is a globally renowned conference, particularly influential in Europe. The conference's primary objective is to promote the advancement of research in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Feature Extraction, and Visualization.

The first author of the award-winning paper, WENG Weihao, earned his M.S. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from The University of Aizu (UoA), Japan, in 2021. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Aizu, Japan, with an expected graduation date in September 2024. His research interests encompass Medical Image Processing, Image-Guided Interventions, and Deep Learning, with a particular focus on enhancing the interpretability of neural network principles for the benefit of medical professionals. According to ResearchGate (ref: https://www.researchgate.net/), a paper titled "INet: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation," published in 2021 with WENG Weihao as the first author, is the most cited paper in 2022 among all the papers whose first authors are from the University of Aizu (Citation: 226 (27/9/2023)).

Comments from Mr. WENG Weihao: "I am deeply honored to receive this Best Paper Award, especially as a student. This recognition means a lot to me and our team, as it allows us to further promote our methods and contribute to helping others. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my parents; I did not come from a wealthy family, but their support enabled me to focus on my research without the need for part-time work during my studies. I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor ZHU Xin, for his guidance throughout my academic journey, particularly for providing me with opportunities to work on medical projects. I am grateful and fortunate to have been under his mentorship. Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor Imaizumi Mitsuyoshi from Fukushima Medical University for providing invaluable medical data and timely medical guidance. Additionally, I want to extend my gratitude to Professor ZHAO Qiangfu and Professor Faouzi Alaya Cheikh for giving me the opportunity to study at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway. These two exchange experiences greatly broadened my horizons and allowed me to collaborate with international researchers. Finally, I would like to thank all the teachers and staff at the University of Aizu who provided me with support during my studies, especially the staff from SAD and Professor CHEN Wenxi. "

Comments from Prof. ZHU Xin: "We feel very glad that our research achievement was appreciated by experts from EU. The Best Paper Award of EUVIP was very competitive. Last year's Best Paper Award was presented to the team from Apple Inc. This year's Best Student Paper Award was awarded to a candidate from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (ranked #36 in QS World University Rankings) with similar university ranking as that of The University of Tokyo. Our research collaborators from Fukushima Medical University were also encouraged by the award and they are active in collecting new data to perfect this study. A clinical trial is also considered."

(※1) Senior Associate Professor ZHU Xin
(※2)EUVIP2023
(※3) List of award winners
(※4)Statistical results about aspiration pneumonia
Teramoto S et al. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2008)