Methods In (Bio)Medical Image Analysis - Spring 2026

16-725 (CMU RI) : BioE 2630 (Pitt)

(Frequently also crosslisted as 18-791, CMU ECE : 42-735, CMU BME)

 
Instructor
John Galeotti
jgaleott+bmia ATandrew.cmu.edu
Meets students after class most Tuesdays
By email or appointment
TA
Tejus Surendran
tsurendr+bmia ATandrew.cmu.edu

Thursday 12-1pm, usually Scott Hall 4N203
Also by email or appointment

Syllabus

Meeting over Zoom (email for private link)

Classroom (when used):  WEH 5409
(at Carnegie Mellon University, see campus map)

Class begins Tuesday, Jan. 13th.
Last day of class is Thursday, April 23rd.


Lecture Times and Locations

We comply with both the U. Pitt. and CMU calendars. Lectures are Tuesday and Thursday from 2:00-3:20 PM, in WEH 5409, Carnegie Mellon University, and/or on zoom.

Class-discussion  Piazza Page


Shadow Program Times, Locations, & Details (currently 2025 details; 2026 will probably have changes posted in the future) 

Shadow Program:   Approximately 5 or 6 radiology sessions and maybe one or two pathology sessions, 8:30-9:30 AM weekday mornings (and possibly other times optional for shadowing pathology).

directions, and required UPMC confidentiality agreement. Reports should be emailed to your TA and Galeotti.


Textbooks, Downloads, & Other References

CMU students can get the Snyder Machine Vision textbook for free online through CMU's Library.  

2025's Website was archived.

Need extra disk space?  You can use your BOX and Google-Drive storage as if they were local network drives.  Having one or two 1 TB virtual network drives may be helpful when working with large datasets on a small laptop.

Key ITK Documentation:


Assignments (please do not start until assigned in the schedule)

Final Project (expect some updates in March 2026)

Additional hints and details for final project

If you have no idea what to do, consider one of the common topics in this short list of suggestions.


Schedule—Subject to Change
(Future plans are tentative and adapt to classroom discussion.  This starts out based on the old 2025 schedule)

Note about videos: Lecture videos were recorded in 2012, and you can downlaod the lecture videos from the 2012 schedule here. (Note: system may be down right now.) Be sure to download the videos (right-click the video's link then select either "download" or "save-as") rather than try to watch them in your browser. Please let me know if you notice any problems or video content that should be either fixed or trimmed out if it's not relevant to a general audiance (please reference the 2012 lecture number and the playing time into the video at which the problem occurs).

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Week # Date Location Material Older Video and .pptx files
Week 1
T 1/13

WEH 5409

Lecture 1: Introductions, purpose, Syllabus

Power Point
Video (from 2012)
 

H 1/15

WEH 5409

Lecture 2: Programming background:  C++ & Python; also finish discussing syllabus

You should accept the invitation for Canvas and Piazza

WARNING: Quiz on book reading next class!

Note: If you have a CMU Andrew account, you can get the book for free online through CMU's Library.  (For non-CMU students, the first chapters (ch 1, ch 2) of the text book may be freely accessible by scrolling down on Google's book page.)

Power Point
Video (from 2012)
         
Week 2
T 1/20
 WEH 5409

To prepare for the quiz, I suggest focussing on big-picture concepts and major themes, what algorithms/methods are trying to do, what they are good for, and (if the text goes over it) when/how they typically fail.

Lecture 3: Math & probability background
Short online  QUIZ on Snyder ch. 1-2 due on Canvas before the start of class.

Assignment 1 (on Canvas) is due midnight Friday night.

Power Point
Video (from 2012)
 
H 1/22
WEH 5409

Lecture 4: ITK background & basic usage; also finished image characterization

Assignment #2 should be assigned this week, probably today. Please wait until we announce it is ready; then try to finish it by the end of this weekend.

Power Point
Video (from 2012)
         
Week 3
T 1/27
 Zoom

Lecture 5: Image characterization (through dynamic range; will resume later with the Correspondence Problem)
Quiz #2 on Snyder ch. 4 (skip hexagonal coordinates on pp 57-59)

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

 
H 1/29
Zoom 

Lecture 6: Linear processing
Quiz #3 on Snyder 5.1-5.6,5.8-5A (through page 101, but skip hexagonal coordinates on pp 71-73 and skip 5.7)

Power Point
Video (from 2012)
         
Week 4
T 2/3

WEH 5409

Lecture 7: Image relaxation: restoration & feature extraction
Quiz #4 on Snyder ch. 6
Assignment 2 due next week.

Power Point
Video (from 2012)
 
H 2/5
 WEH 5409

Lecture 8: ITK registration; finish feature extraction

Power Point
Video (from 2012)
     
Week 5
T 2/10
WEH 5409 

Lecture 9: Segmentation, part 1; finish registraiton starting on slide 28
Quiz #5 (the most in-depth quiz of the class) on Snyder ch. 8 (skip 8.3.2 on pp. 189-196 & 8A.1.1 on pp. 208-209)

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

 
H 2/12
WEH 5409 

Segmentation lecture continued

 
         
Week 6
T 2/17
WEH 5409 or zoom

Lecture 11: Segmentation, part 3 (active contours)

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

 
H 2/19
WEH 5409 or zoom

Lecture 12a: Level set segmentations (Snyder 8.5.2 ) [not required, but recommended: Insight into Images ch 8]

Lecture: Parametric transforms (Snyder 11.1-11.6)
Quiz on Snyder 11.1-11.6

Lecture: Imaging Modalities

Shadow program details still being worked out; expect to discuss in class and schedule sometime in the next 2 weeks.  

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

Imaging Modalities Power Point (contains embedded movies)
Video (from 2012, skip to end for imaging modalities)

     
Week 7
T 2/24
 WEH 5409

Finish discussing Imaging Modalities.

Be sure to submit your UPMC confidentiality agreements using the assignment on Canvas by this Friday February 28th.

Shadow Program starts Monday March 10--show up on your days at 8 am (with ink-signed UPMC form!) until you know where you're going.

Mini-lecture discussion of the  Shadow Program & signup procedure

Be sure to sign up for the Shadow Program THIS WEEK, starting 8pm tonight 8pm Thursday night the 27th.

The link will automatically be announced on Canvas at 8pm on the 27th.

I suggest creating an account on signup.com in advance so that you can sign up for stations faster.

Reminders: Assignment #3 is also due soon, at date posted on Canvas.
Start looking through example final projects and thinking about topics. You can also look at the slides and links below.

Shadow Program Power Point

Final Project Power Point

 
H 2/26
WEH 5409 

Discuss final projects and go over example projects.
Be sure to submit your initial project idea / tentative proposal on Canvas by the due date listed on Canvas.

 
         
CMU then Pitt Spring Breaks
3/3 - 3/12
N/A 

CMU Spring Break then Pitt Spring Break the week after
Additional hints and details for final project
If you have no idea what to do, consider one of the common topics in this short list of suggestions.

 
         
 DARPA Triage Week? T 3/17 WEH 5409 or Zoom 

Instructor may be in all-week DARPA Triage Event (TBD 9th-19th)

Lecture 13 Registration in depth (Insight into Images ch 10 + Viola & Wells)
Simple Registration homework should be assigned sometime this week.

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

DARPA Triage Week?  H 3/19  WEH 5409 or Zoom 

Instructor may be in all-week DARPA Triage Event (TBD 9th-19th)

Lecture 14: Shape
Quiz on Snyder ch. 9 (read 9.1-9.8, 9.12-9.14)

Power Point (shape)
Video (from 2012)

         
Week 9
M 3/24
WEH 5409 

Lecture 15: Summarize Cootes and Taylor ASM (Cootes CVIU 1995). (password protected extra slides)

Project feedback should be given by tonight.

Power Point (public version of ASM)

 
W 3/26
WEH 5409

Lecture 16 Mathematical morphology & image matching
Quiz on Snyder 7.1-7.5 & 13.1-13.5 will be posted on Canvas.

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

         
Week 10
T 3/31
WEH 5409

Intro to artificial neural networks. (password required)

 
 
H 4/2

WEH 5409

Deep neural networks. (password required).

 
       
Week 11
T 4/7
Zoom

Lecture 19 Deformable registration (Insight into Images ch 11).

Power Point
Video (from 2012)

 
H 4/9
N/A

CMU Break for Spring Carnival - No Class

 

Week 12
T 4/14
WEH 5409

Student project presentations  in class
(Each presentation must be 7.0-9.0 minutes long.)
Everyone's powerpoint slides due by 9 AM today! (.pptx format preferred, or else .ppt or .pdf)

Important: Your presentation should use this name format:
presentation_{Your_last_name}_{Your_first_name}.pptx


 
H 4/16
WEH 5409

Student project presentations

 
         
Week 13
T 4/21
WEH 5409

Student project presentations

 
H 4/23 
WEH 5409

Student project presentations
Project code and all 6 shadow reprots due at date(s) posted on Canvas (probably 11:59pm tonight)