Yuan Zhang
Adelaide Medical School
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Dr Yuan Zhang is a Grant-Funded Researcher specializing in integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into medical diagnostics, with a focus on women’s reproductive health. Her research aims to address critical challenges in diagnostic delays and accessibility, particularly for conditions such as endometriosis.
Yuan is a core contributor to the award-winning IMAGENDO® project (https://imagendo.org.au/), which received the Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology in 2023. This groundbreaking initiative focuses on developing non-invasive, AI-driven tools to transform the diagnosis of endometriosis. Within IMAGENDO®, Yuan has played a pivotal role in designing and optimizing AI models that integrate MRI and transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) data, overcoming key technical challenges such as unpaired datasets while ensuring the solutions are clinically relevant.
With a multidisciplinary background in bioengineering, chemical engineering, data science, and computer science, Yuan brings a unique perspective to tackling complex medical challenges. She is a member of the Robinson Research Institute (RRI) and the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML). She combines advanced AI methodologies with clinical insights through these affiliations, ensuring her work bridges technical innovation and practical healthcare applications.
Yuan’s contributions have resulted in high-impact publications, recognition at international conferences, and a provisional patent for an AI-based diagnostic tool. Her research continues to advance the integration of AI in women’s health diagnostics, driving innovation and improving patient outcomes.
Yuan Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher at the Robinson Research Institute and the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML), University of Adelaide, specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for medical imaging, with a focus on advancing diagnostic tools in women’s reproductive health. Her research tackles major clinical challenges such as diagnostic delay, limited access to expertise, and the need for scalable, non-invasive solutions—particularly in the context of endometriosis.
As a core member of the award-winning IMAGENDO® initiative, Yuan has developed state-of-the-art multi-modal AI models that integrate unpaired MRI and transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) data, addressing limitations in current diagnostic practice. Her contributions have led to a provisional patent, high-impact publications, and international recognition, including the Best Oral Award at ISBI 2023.
Yuan is the recipient of several competitive grants as lead investigator, including the Lloyd Cox Research Accelerator Grant ($29,122), the Lloyd Cox People Support Scheme ($55,515), and the 2025 Surrey–Adelaide Partnership Fund ($20,000). These projects support her work to build the first anatomical MRI dataset for women's health and to develop and validate AI-driven diagnostic tools for more general populations.
She also serves as a co-Investigator on major collaborative initiatives, including an NHMRC IDEAS Grant ($1.98M, CI-I) aimed at reducing diagnostic delay for young people with endometriosis, and the Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) Seed Grant ($498,291), which supports her team’s efforts to accelerate clinical translation of the IMAGENDO® AI platform.
By working closely with sonographers, radiologists, gynecologists, and international collaborators, Yuan ensures that her innovations are not only technically robust but also clinically meaningful. Her long-term goal is to bring AI-driven diagnostic tools from the lab to the clinic—improving accuracy, reducing delays, and transforming outcomes in women’s healthcare.
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2024 - ongoing Grant-Funded Researcher University of Adelaide 2017 - 2018 Research Scholar Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education 2017 - 2017 Research Scholar US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -
Awards and Achievements
Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount 2023 Award Best Oral Presentation Award in the 20th IEEE-ISBI 2023 International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging The 20th IEEE-ISBI 2023 International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging Colombia - -
Language Competencies
Language Competency Chinese (Mandarin) Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 2021 - 2025 University of Adelaide Australia PhD of Computer Science 2019 - 2021 University of Adelaide Australia Master of Data Science 2014 - 2017 Southwest University of Science and Technology China Master of Chemical Engineering 2010 - 2014 Southwest University of Science and Technology China Bachelor of Bioengineering -
Research Interests
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Journals
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Conference Papers
Year Citation 2025 Zhang, Y., Xie, Y., Wang, H., Avery, J. C., Hull, M. L., & Carneiro, G. (2025). A Novel Perspective for Multi-Modal Multi-Label Skin Lesion Classification. In Proceedings - 2025 IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision, WACV 2025 (pp. 3549-3558). Tucson, AZ, USA: IEEE.
DOI2023 Hull, M. L., Wang, H., Zhang, Y., Avery, J., To, M. S., Carneiro, G., & Butler, D. (2023). The Effectiveness of Self-supervised Pre-training for Multi-modal Endometriosis Classification.. In Proceedings of the 45th IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Vol. 2023 (pp. 5 pages). Online: IEEE.
DOI Scopus42023 Butler, D., Wang, H., Zhang, Y., To, M. S., Avery, J. C., Hull, M. L., & Carneiro, G. (2023). The Effectiveness of Self-supervised Pre-training for Multi-modal Endometriosis Classification. In Proceedings of 45th IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Online: IEEE.
DOI2023 Zhang, Y., Wang, H., Butler, D., To, M. -S., Avery, J. C., Hull, M. L., & Carneiro, G. (2023). Distilling Missing Modality Knowledge from Ultrasound for Endometriosis Diagnosis with Magnetic Resonance Images. In Proceedings of the IEEE 20th International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2023) Vol. 2023-April (pp. 1-5). Cartagena de Indias, Colombia: IEEE.
DOI Scopus72023 Wang, H., Ma, C., Zhang, J., Zhang, Y., Avery, J., Hull, L., & Carneiro, G. (2023). Learnable Cross-modal Knowledge Distillation for Multi-modal Learning with Missing Modality. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) Vol. 14223 (pp. 216-226). Vancouver, BC, Canada: Springer Nature Switzerland.
DOI Scopus242022 Butler, D., Zhang, Y., Chen, T., Shin, S. H., Singh, R., & Carneiro, G. (2022). In Defense of Kalman Filtering for Polyp Tracking from Colonoscopy Videos. In Proceedings of the 19th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2022)) Vol. 2022 (pp. 5 pages). Online: IEEE.
DOI Scopus2
Research Grants
Lloyd Cox Obstetrics & Gynaecology Research Fund – 2025 Research Accelerator Grant
Recipient | Amount: $29,122
Project title: Closing the Data Gap: Building the First Anatomical MRI Dataset for AI-Based Diagnosis of Endometriosis
Surrey–Adelaide Partnership Fund – 2025
Recipient | Amount: $20,000
Project title: Advancing AI-Driven Diagnostic Tools for Endometriosis
Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) – Department of Education
Co-investigator | Amount: $498,291
Project title: IMAGENDO® – Revolutionising Endometriosis Diagnosis with Machine Learning and Imaging
NHMRC IDEAS Grant – 2024
Chief Investigator (CI-I) | Amount: $1.98 million
Project title: Enhanced Outcomes for Young People with Endometriosis through Diagnostic Delay Reduction
Lloyd Cox Obstetrics & Gynaecology Research Fund – 2025 People Support Scheme
Recipient | Amount: $55,515
Travel Grants
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences – 2025 Research Travel Awards
Recipient | Amount: $1,000
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences – 2025 Research Travel Awards Scheme
Recipient | Amount: $4,000
Adelaide Graduate Research School – 2023 Travel Grant
Recipient | Amount: $2,000
Robinson Research Institute – 2023 Travel Grant
Recipient | Amount: $2,000
Tutor | The University of Adelaide (Feb 2023 – Jul 2023)
- Supported undergraduate students in Python programming courses, assisting with tutorials, assignments, and assessments.
Research Collaboration
- Supervising undergraduate student.
- Worked with Honours and PhD researchers on projects, resulting in joint publications and shared research outcomes
Connect With Me
External Profiles
