Felix Dülmer

Ph.D. Candidate

I am a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the Technical University of Munich, supervised by Prof. Nassir Navab at the Chair for Computer Aided Medical Procedures and affiliated with the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging. My research combines learning-based scene representations with physical models of ultrasound image formation, with a focus on differentiable rendering, novel view synthesis and robot-assisted acquisition.

In 2026, I was a visiting researcher in Prof. Jeremy Dahl's lab at Stanford University, working on differentiable speed-of-sound estimation.

  • Email: felix-duelmer@online.de

News

Oct 2026
UltraDiff accepted at SIGGRAPH Asia 2026 Technical Communications. See you in Kuala Lumpur!
Oct 2026
OpenH-RF released: the largest open ultrasound channel dataset, from 38 institutions. Proud to be on the core team.
Sep 2026
UltraBend won the Best Presentation Award at ASMUS 2026 in Strasbourg.
Jul 2026
Presented UltraG-Ray at MIDL 2026.
Mar 2026
Started a research visit in Prof. Jeremy Dahl's lab at Stanford University.

Publications

Selected works are highlighted.

Mosaic of ultrasound images from the OpenH-RF dataset
Core Team

OpenH-RF: Open Ultrasound Channel Data

Open data initiative led by Stanford, TU/e & NVIDIA · 38 institutions · arXiv:2610.13616

The largest openly licensed dataset of pre-beamformed medical ultrasound measurements: 19,336 real and synthetic channel captures for training raw-to-insight foundation models (CC BY 4.0).

Stevens, T. S. W.*§, Penninga, S. W.*§, van Nierop, W. L.*§, Nolan, O.*§, Dülmer, F.§, Frey, B. N.§, … Dahl, J.†§, van Sloun, R. J. G.†§, & Simson, W.†§
* equal first authors · † equal senior authors · § core team · OpenH-RF Consortium, 181 authors

UltraDiff teaser image

UltraDiff: Differentiable Ray Tracing in Ultrasound for Shape Optimization

SIGGRAPH Asia 2026 Technical Communications (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) · arXiv:2610.07941

Dülmer, F., Wysocki, M., Navab, N., & Azampour, M. F.

UltraBend teaser image
Best Presentation Award

UltraBend: Refraction-Aware Propagation Modeling for Speed of Sound Imaging in Ultrasound

ASMUS 2026 (MICCAI Workshop)

Dülmer, F., Beuret, S., Frey, B. N., Azampour, M. F., Navab, N., & Dahl, J. J.

Ultra-Wide-NeRF reconstruction comparison

Multivariate Gaussian NeRF for Wide Field-of-View Ultrasound Reconstruction

ASMUS 2026 (MICCAI Workshop) · arXiv:2604.24187

Valera, P., Wysocki, M., Dülmer, F., Azampour, M. F., Herz, S., Wörz, S., & Navab, N.

UltraG-Ray teaser image

UltraG-Ray: Physics-Based Gaussian Ray Casting for Novel Ultrasound View Synthesis

MIDL 2026 · arXiv:2603.29022

Dülmer, F., Klaushofer, J., Wysocki, M., Navab, N., & Azampour, M. F.

Book chapter: Translational Research and Clinical Trends in Robot-Assisted Vascular Surgery

Translational Research and Clinical Trends in Robot-Assisted Vascular Surgery: A Narrative Overview

Book chapter · Handbook of Robotic and Image-Guided Surgery, 2nd ed. (Elsevier, 2026)

Dülmer, F., Reidl, M., Fasoula, N.-A., Katsouli, N., Huang, D., Bi, Y., Salz, R., Lees, R., Jiang, Z., Knappich, C., Wendorff, H., Branzan, D., Kallmayer, M., Eckstein, H.-H., Navab, N., & Karlas, A.

UltraScatter teaser image

UltraScatter: Ray-Based Simulation of Ultrasound Scattering

IEEE IUS 2025 (Utrecht, Netherlands) · arXiv:2510.10612

Dülmer, F., Azampour, M. F., & Navab, N.

UltraRay teaser image

UltraRay: Introducing Full-Path Ray Tracing in Physics-Based Ultrasound Simulation

MICCAI 2025 · arXiv:2501.05828

Dülmer, F., Azampour, M. F., Wysocki, M., & Navab, N.

UltrON teaser image

UltrON: Ultrasound Occupancy Networks

MICCAI 2025 · arXiv:2509.08991

Wysocki, M., Dülmer, F., Bal, A., Navab, N., & Azampour, M. F.

Annual Review paper teaser image

Machine Learning in Robotic Ultrasound Imaging: Challenges and Perspectives

Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems (2024)

Bi, Y., Jiang, Z., Dülmer, F., Huang, D., & Navab, N.

PHOCUS teaser image
Best Paper Runner-Up

PHOCUS: Physics-Based Deconvolution for Ultrasound Resolution Enhancement

ASMUS 2024 (LNCS) · arXiv:2408.03657

Dülmer, F., Simson, W., Azampour, M. F., Wysocki, M., Karlas, A., & Navab, N.

DopUS-Net teaser image

DopUS-Net: Quality-Aware Robotic Ultrasound Imaging based on Doppler Signal

IEEE TASE (2023) · arXiv:2305.08938 · ICRA 2024

Jiang, Z.*, Dülmer, F.*, & Navab, N.

Optoacoustic biomarkers paper teaser image

Optoacoustic biomarkers of lipids, hemorrhage and inflammation in carotid atherosclerosis

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine (2023)

Karlas, A., Fasoula, N.-A., Kallmayer, M., Schäffer, C., Angelis, G., Katsouli, N., Reidl, M., Dülmer, F., Al Adem, K., Hadjileontiadis, L., Eckstein, H.-H., Ntziachristos, V.

Experience

Visiting Researcher

03/2026 – 05/2026

Stanford University, Ultrasound Imaging and Instrumentation Lab (Prof. Jeremy Dahl), Stanford, CA, USA

  • Developed differentiable ultrasound image-formation models grounded in acoustic propagation physics.
  • Worked on continuous speed-of-sound representations using bent-ray tracing, differentiable ray-time modeling, and physics-based optimization.

Working Student — Mobile Software Developer

04/2021 – 12/2022

Workerbase GmbH, Munich, Germany

  • Developed and maintained two cross-platform industrial mobile applications deployed to several thousand factory workers
  • Worked with Android (Kotlin, Java), iOS (Swift), and Flutter (Dart) for scalable cross-platform development
  • Applied clean architecture, design patterns, and test-driven development

Research Assistant

09/2017 – 08/2020

Technical University of Munich, Germany

  • Maintained and extended a driving simulator for automated driving research
  • Onboarded and trained students on simulator usage and associated software platforms
  • Contributed to prototype development for higher levels of vehicle autonomy

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science

01/2023 – Present

Technical University of Munich, Germany

  • Ph.D. research in medical imaging, robotics, and physics-based simulation
  • Focus on ultrasound imaging, novel view synthesis, and differentiable rendering
  • Development of learning-based scene representations with physical image formation models
  • Robot-assisted ultrasound acquisition and analysis

M.Sc. Mechatronics and Robotics

10/2018 – 09/2022

Technical University of Munich, Germany

  • Specialization in robot-assisted medical systems and image-guided interventions
  • Development of robotic and software prototypes for medical applications

Exchange Semester (M.Sc.)

07/2019 – 12/2019

Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

  • Coursework in big data analytics, deep learning, and numerical optimization
  • Applied data-driven methods to large-scale and high-dimensional datasets

Term Paper — Cognitive Systems Lab

04/2019 – 06/2019

University of Tsukuba, Japan

  • Designed and evaluated a tactile steering wheel for autonomous driving
  • Conducted a controlled user study on a Japanese cohort with synchronized EEG recordings

B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering

10/2014 – 10/2018

Technical University of Munich, Germany

  • Focus on autonomous driving systems and vehicle dynamics
  • Engineering foundation in mechanics, control, and embedded systems

Talks & Teaching

Physics-Guided Ultrasound Image Formation

04/2026

Talk · Ultrasound Imaging and Instrumentation Lab (Prof. Jeremy Dahl), Stanford University

(Differentiable) Ray-Based Ultrasound Simulation

07/2025

Invited talk · NVIDIA Holoscan, Advanced Workflows team

Teaching: Computer Aided Medical Procedures I, Computational Surgineering

2023 – 2026

Technical University of Munich · ultrasound imaging lectures and hands-on exercises

Awards & Service

  • 2026Best Presentation Award, ASMUS Workshop @ MICCAI, for UltraBend
  • 2025Reviewer Award (Honorable Mention), MICCAI
  • 2025 – 26MCML AI-X Change Scholarship
  • 2024Best Paper Runner-Up Award, ASMUS Workshop @ MICCAI, for PHOCUS
  • 2022Runner-Up Award, Hamlyn Winter School on Surgical Imaging and Vision

Reviewing

  • ConferencesCVPR, ECCV, MICCAI, MIDL, IPCAI
  • JournalsIEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE)
  • WorkshopsASMUS, Off-Grid

Contact

For any research or collaboration enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Location:

Munich, Germany

Address:

IFL, Munich, Germany