Carlos Castillo Passi
Carlos Castillo-Passi began his academic journey at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC), where he earned both a degree and an MSc in Electrical Engineering in 2018. He then pursued a PhD in Biological and Medical Engineering through a joint program between PUC and King’s College London (KCL), completing it with maximum distinction in 2024. His research focused on the design of low-field cardiac MRI sequences using open-source MRI simulations. In 2023, his work on open-source MRI simulations was highlighted by the editor of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (MRM). Furthermore, his application of this work to low-field cardiac MRI earned him the Early Career Award in Basic Science from the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) in 2024. In addition to his research, Carlos is an active member of JuliaHealth, contributing to the development of high-performance, reproducible tools for health and medicine. In 2025, he joined Stanford University as a postdoctoral researcher, where he continues his work in cardiac MRI and open-source technologies.
Sessions
Radio frequency (RF) pulse design in MRI is important but can be slow. We used reverse-mode AD on MRI simulations using GPU kernels, reducing a 2D RF pulse optimization from 5 hours to 5 seconds. We validated this by “drawing with spins” the Julia logo in a water-bottle phantom on a scanner. In this talk, we explain how this works and why fast RF pulse design can be clinically useful for applications such as subject-specific RF design, imaging near metal, and fat suppression.
Since 2020, the JuliaHealth community has experienced steady growth. This talk will highlight the continued development of the JuliaHealth ecosystem, reflecting on where the community has been, where it is today, and where it is headed.