Seoul National University
서울대학교 지능형 이미징 연구실
We develop computational imaging systems in which the optics record encoded measurements and algorithms reconstruct the image, allowing us to measure what standard microscopes and cameras cannot. Our work spans computational microscopy and computational photography, including quantitative phase, polarization, and spectral imaging, imaging with scattered light, and other unconventional imaging systems. Using AI-based reconstruction and analysis, we apply these systems to bioimaging, in vivo imaging, and metrology and inspection.
Research
Fourier ptychographic microscopes built in the laboratoryImaging Intelligence Laboratory
Fourier ptychography, phase and polarization imaging, virtual staining
Phase mask fabricated for lensless cameras.Imaging Intelligence Laboratory
Lensless camera hardware designed for each application, and the algorithms that reconstruct its images
Time-lapse of rolling-shutter speckle decorrelation maps of a mouse cortex, recorded at 28 fps; vessel signals pulse with the heartbeat.C. Yi et al., Optica 2022
Analyzing speckle from dynamic scattering to measure sample dynamics, such as blood flow
MicroAquarium: visitors move their hands in front of the projected live view, and the light patterns steer living Euglena.K. Lee, J. Jung, S. A. Lee, CHI EA 2020
Interactive experiments with living microorganisms
News and events
SA is co-chairing the 6th Quantitative Phase Imaging Symposium, 20 November 2026, at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Seoul National University co-organizes the symposium with CUHK, KAIST and the IEEE Photonics Society Hong Kong Chapter. Poster abstracts are due 30 October.
SJ's paper on a physics-guided neural network for single-shot real-time dynamic speckle imaging is published in Journal of Physics: Photonics.
SA gave a keynote talk, “Learning to Teach with AI,” at the 2026 Rising Stars Women in Engineering (RSE) workshop at HKUST.
IIL introduced its research on computational optical imaging and AI to students at the SNU Mechanical Engineering Open Lab.
SA leads the new SNU–Caltech Innovation Research Center for Semiconductor Inspection and Metrology. The center is selected for the Top-tier International Research Institution Collaboration Hub program of the Ministry of Science and ICT (10 years), with Caltech as the partner institution and KAIST, UC Berkeley and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) taking part.
ICCP 2026SA gave an invited talk, “Design and Implementation of Task-Specific Lensless Cameras,” at IEEE ICCP 2026.
SA gave an invited talk on physics-guided learning and learned optical design for computational imaging at the Optica Imaging Congress 2026 (COSI).
SA gave an invited talk, “High-Speed Virtual Staining Using Computational Microscopy,” at the OSK Optics and Photonics Congress (OPC 2026).
D. Bae et al., ECCV 2026DG's IFIN paper is accepted at ECCV 2026.
Y. G. Kang et al., Opt. Express 2026YG's GAPC-ASM paper is published in Optics Express.
SA receives the Commendation of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT (Science Day 2026) for contributions to the promotion of science and technology.
YG and HS's commentary article is published in Advanced Imaging.
SA receives an NRF Core Research grant (2026–2028).
IIL starts an exploratory research project with COSMAX (2026).
H. Chae et al., Laser Photonics Rev. 2026HS's paper on vectorial Fourier ptychography is accepted in Laser & Photonics Reviews, and KC's paper on virtual staining with learned-illumination Fourier ptychography is accepted in Journal of Physics: Photonics.
SA gave an invited talk at the KSPE Fall Conference 2025 and received the KSPE Young Engineer's Award.
IIL was at SPIE ABC 2025 in Jeju. HS wins the Young Investigator Award and JW wins the Best Poster Award.
SA gave an invited talk at Photonics Asia in Beijing, China.
Hojin joins IIL as a new MS/PhD student.
SA gave a seminar at Caltech EE.
SA gave an invited talk at the Optica Imaging Congress 3D conference in Seattle, WA.
SA gave an invited talk at the 13th Asia-Pacific Laser Symposium in Jeju, Korea.
Our new lab at SNU is now open. Visit us at 302-411A.
NK wins the best oral presentation award at the SPIE PW 2025 BiOS Computational Optical Imaging and AI conference.
H. Yoon et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 2025Hansol Yoon's single-shot FP paper is published in Applied Physics Letters.
The lab moves to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University in March 2025.
HS and HJA won the best poster awards at OSK ABC 2024.
H. Chae et al., APL Photonics 2024HS's paper on virtual staining is published in APL Photonics.
SA gave an invited talk at the 2024 KPS Fall Meeting.
SA serves as the lead guest editor of the Optics Express and Applied Optics COSI feature issue.
K. C. Lee et al., Opt. Express 2024KC's paper on regularized FP is published in Optics Express.
DG and HJA join the group as MS/PhD candidates. HY joins the group as an MS candidate.
HS wins the 2024 SPIE scholarship.
SA wins the 2023 Yonsei Teaching Excellence Award.
SA gave a talk at the Department of Physics at Ajou University.
SA gave an invited talk at OPIC BISC in Yokohama, Japan.
Dr. Kang joins OISL as a research professor.
SA gave a talk at the Department of Physics at KAIST.
HS wins the best oral presentation award at the SPIE PW 2024 BiOS Computational Optical Imaging and AI conference.
T. Kim et al., Proc. SPIE 13076 (2024)TY's paper on a lensless eye tracker is published in the SPIE Proceedings.
Kyungwon Lee et al., Opt. Lasers Eng. 2024KW's paper on OLED FP illumination is published in Optics and Lasers in Engineering.
Y. Lee et al., Biomed. Opt. Express 2024YJ and SJ's paper on speckle plethysmography is published in Biomedical Optics Express.
C. Yi et al., Biomed. Opt. Express 2024CY's paper on rolling shutter speckle imaging is published in Biomedical Optics Express.
SA joins the editorial board of Optics Express as an associate editor.
SPIE Photonics West 2024SA gave a keynote presentation at SPIE Photonics West 2024, and OISL gave two oral presentations and one poster presentation.
SJ, JH, and JS join the group as MS/PhD candidates.
OISL starts a collaborative research project with Meta (2024–2025).
OISL starts a collaborative research project with Samsung Research (2024–2025).
OISL starts a collaborative research project with LG Innotek (2024).
SA served as a TPC co-chair of the CLEO-PR 2024 optical sensors, display, and imaging systems session.
SA joins the editorial board of Advanced Imaging as an associate editor, starting in 2024.
TY wins the Young Investigator Award at the SPIE ABC 2023. CY wins the best poster award.
KC wins the NRF fellowship for next-generation researchers.
SA gave an invited talk at the OSK OPC 2023. DG, HS, and NK each won the best poster awards.
Y. Lee et al., Biomed. Opt. Express 2024HS, KC, CY, and YJ gave oral presentations at the Optica Imaging Congress in Boston. YJ's paper was nominated as one of the best student paper finalists.
T. Kim et al., APL Photonics 2023TY's paper on lensless HSI is published in APL Photonics and featured in AIP Scilight.
SA is named Conference Co-chair of the Computational Optical Imaging and Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Sciences conference at SPIE Photonics West, starting in 2024.
SA is named Program Chair of the COSI conference at the Optica Imaging Congress in July 2023.
OISL is selected as a “Target Lab” of LG Electronics.
CY's work is featured on the NRF website.
SA's micro-HBI mini-review paper wins the Outstanding Article Award from Frontiers in Computer Science (FCOMP).
SA gave an invited talk at the SPIE PW 2023 QPI conference.
K. C. Lee et al., Optica 2023KC's paper is featured as a cover article for the January issue of Optica.
We were at CES 2023 to present our smartphone FPM.
OISL starts a collaborative research project with Sony Research (2023–2025).
K. C. Lee et al., Optica 2023KC's paper on the design and fabrication of phase masks is accepted for publication in Optica.
KC wins an excellence prize at the 14th Electronics Times Paper Awards.
SA gave an invited talk at the IEEE Photonics Conference in Vancouver, BC.
ABC 2022CY wins the Young Investigator Award and the Best Presentation Award at the OSK Advanced Biophotonics Conference (ABC) 2022, and JW wins the best poster award.
SA gave an invited talk at IEEE TENCON 2022.
N. Baek et al., APL Photonics 2022NK's paper on a lensless polarization camera is accepted for publication in APL Photonics.
C. Yi et al., Optica 2022CY's paper on rolling shutter speckle imaging is accepted for publication in Optica.
Muhyeon wins the best poster award at the OSK OPC 2022.
OISL has 5 posters and 1 oral presentation at the OSK OPC 2022 in Jeju.
KW's paper is accepted for oral presentation at the ACM Multimedia Conference 2022.
KW and YJ presented at the Optica Imaging and Applied Optics Congress, and SA gave an invited talk.
OISL starts a project on Fourier ptychography-based organoid analysis equipment under the MSIT Future-Leading Research Equipment Development program (2022–2025).
Y. Lee, H. Chae et al., IEEE Photonics J. 2022YJ and HS's paper on lensless cameras is published in IEEE Photonics Journal.
KC wins a silver prize at the Samsung Humantech Paper Awards.
HS joins the group as an MS/PhD candidate.
OISL starts a collaborative research project with the Camera Innovations Group of Samsung Electronics (2022–2023).
CY's interview is featured on the ACM SIGGRAPH blog.
OISL has 4 oral and 1 poster accepted for SPIE Photonics West 2022 in SF, CA.
SA gave a tutorial at the SPIE Advanced Biophotonics Conference 2021 in Busan, and OISL presented three posters.
SA gave an invited talk at the OSA Imaging and Applied Optics Congress.
OISL presented 6 posters at OPC 2021 in Jeju. SA gave an invited talk at the OSK-OSA-OSJ joint symposia.
CY and NK's paper is accepted for ACM SIGGRAPH 2021.
K. C. Lee et al., ACS Photonics 2021KC's smartphone-FPM paper is published in ACS Photonics.
OISL joins the KHIDI Medical Data AI program with a sub-project on computational-imaging-based virtual whole-slide image reconstruction (2021–2025).
SA wins the NRF Outstanding Young Scientist Grant, which supports our research for five years.
TY and MH join the group as graduate research assistants. Dr. Heejung Lee joins as a postdoctoral researcher (50% appointment).
KC presented his work at SPIE Photonics West 2021.
OISL starts a collaborative research project with the Samsung Electronics Mobile Communications Business on ultra-thin cameras for eye tracking (2021–2022).
KC and NK won the bronze prize at the Samsung EM Best Paper Awards (in collaboration with KHU).
KC wins the best poster award at KSM Annual Fall Conference 2020.
CY wins the best poster award at OSK ABC 2020.
DG, KC and TY presented their work at the IEEE/IEIE ICCE-Asia 2020 conference in Busan.
KC and TY had poster presentations at the OSK Summer Meetings in Busan.
SA receives an NRF Basic Research grant to develop 3D lensless cameras for secure face recognition (2020–2021).
K. Lee et al., CHI EA 2020KW and JW's work on interactive biology is accepted for the interactivity/demo session at CHI 2020.
JW, NK, and CY join the group as graduate research assistants.
SA's work with the Riedel-Kruse lab is accepted for presentation at CHI 2020 (ACM CHI).
We win a grant on wearable smart devices, funded by the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
SA's work with the Riedel-Kruse lab and the Exploratorium is published in Nature Biotechnology.
We are selected for the NRF Basic Research Laboratory program together with three partner laboratories.
We win an Incubation grant from LG Display.
Our undergraduates (JW, TY, NK, and Minhyeok) win the KOFAC Undergraduate Research Program (URP) grant.
SA receives an NRF Basic Research grant to develop a self-imaging fundus camera for eye disease diagnosis (2019–2020).
SA wins a Microsoft Research Asia collaborative research grant for 2019.
KC and KW join the group.
SA joins the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Yonsei University.
Team
18 people: Prof. Seung Ah Lee, a research professor, a postdoctoral fellow, a visiting faculty member, graduate students and undergraduate interns.
