Yuling Yan

Yuling Yan serves as Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Santa Clara University's School of Engineering, holding the Phil and Bobbie Sanfilippo Professorship. She maintains an affiliation as Consulting Faculty at Stanford University's Department of Otolaryngology. Her academic journey includes faculty positions at the University of Hawaii-Manoa (2002-2005), University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of the Ryukyus (1997-1999), with postdoctoral training at McGill University and Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry.

Professor Yan's research focuses on AI-driven medical diagnostics, specializing in machine learning applications for early disease detection including vocal pathologies, cardiac arrhythmia, skin cancer, brain aneurysms, and breast cancer. Her work integrates biomedical imaging (MRA, ultrasound, CT), biosignal analysis, and fluorescence microscopy with molecular switch probes. Current projects involve collaboration with radiologists at Santa Clara Valley Hospital to develop deep learning systems for medical image analysis.

Her publication trends reveal an evolution from foundational work in vocal fold dynamics and optical probe development (2011-2015) toward AI/ML applications in medical diagnostics (2017-present), with increasing emphasis on deep neural networks for cancer detection and cardiac monitoring. Key contributions include novel methodologies for high-speed laryngeal imaging analysis and optical lock-in detection microscopy.

Active research funding includes NIH Multi-Investigator Awards for high-contrast single-molecule imaging and NSF grants for laryngeal imaging tools development. She teaches graduate courses including Machine Learning for Biomedical Applications and Deep Learning for Medical Image Analysis, alongside undergraduate bioengineering fundamentals.