Zijun Sun
Image:
Petter Bjørklund / SFI Visual Intelligence

Zijun Sun

Meet Zijun, our newest Doctoral Research Fellow

We happily welcome Zijun Sun as a new Doctoral Research Fellow at SFI Visual Intelligence in Tromsø, Norway.

Meet Zijun, our newest Doctoral Research Fellow

We happily welcome Zijun Sun as a new Doctoral Research Fellow at SFI Visual Intelligence in Tromsø, Norway.

By Petter Bjørklund, Communications Officer at SFI Visual Intelligence

Sun is from China and earned his master's degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Bologna.

Having an academic background in modern machine learning, Sun's research has focused on how one can move from strong benchmark performance to clinical value developing AI systems that are not only accurate, but interpretable, reliable and aligned with how medical professionals make decisions.

Sun's doctoral project will focus on foundational multimodal models for ophthalmology. Explainability will play a central role in his project.

"The goal is to develop models that can learn from multiple types of clinical information, for example medical images alongside accompanying context, so the resulting systems can support ophthalmologists with robust, clinically relevant outputs," Sun explains.

A big part of his project involves bridging the gap between AI and medical professionals. This means designing methods that do not operate as an unintelligible "black box", but instead offer transparency, clear visual and concept-level evidence, and well-calibrated uncertainty estimates.

"This is important for making clinicians understand what the system is basing its suggestions on, and when it is likely to be wrong. My ambition is to contribute to AI tools that clinicians can trust, critique, and use responsibly in real-world workflows," he says.

Sun says he is looking forward close collaboration between AI researchers and medical professionals, and to work in an environment where research is continuously informed by real clinical needs and constraints.

"For me, the most rewarding outcome is when methodological progress translates into something tangible: a system that helps a clinician make faster, safer, and more consistent decisions, while still leaving the clinician fully in control," Sun says.

Latest news

Two Visual Intelligence-authored papers accepted for MICCAI 2026

June 17, 2026

Visual Intelligence will be well represented at MICCAI 2026, one of the leading AI conferences on medical imaging and computer assisted intervention, with two accepted research papers.

Visual Intelligence represented at the Datacloud Global Congress' Talent in Tech programme

June 8, 2026

PhD Candidates Solveig Thrun and Christian Salomonsen attended the Datacloud Global Congress' Talent in Tech programme, which invited emerging talent to a unique programme designed to inspire, educate, and connect young professionals with senior leaders from global tech giants.

Kyst og Fjord: Råfisklaget tester AI-teknologi for å knipe syndere

June 2, 2026

En ny AI-løsning utviklet ved UiT kan gjøre det enklere å avdekke feilrapportering og ulovlig fiske. Nå skal Norges Råfisklag teste teknologien i praktisk bruk (News article on kystogfjord.no)

Geo365.no: Norges nye seismikkekspert

May 28, 2026

En ny, åpent tilgjengelig KI-modell kan endre hvordan geologer tolker seismikk. Den norske grunnmodellen lover raskere analyser, lavere terskel for innovasjon og nye måter å forstå undergrunnen på.

NRK Radio interview on AI for sustainable fisheries

May 27, 2026

Centre Director Robert Jenssen was interviewed by Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) about AI in fisheries and this year's UArctic (University of the Arctic) Congress on the Faroe Islands.

Centre Director Robert Jenssen in Japan to discuss Norwegian-Japanese AI collaborations‍

May 26, 2026

Professor and AI expert Robert Jenssen is attending the Japan-Norway AI Innovation Forum and Japan-Norway Research Symposium, two high-level meetings with Norwegian and Japanese government leaders, business actors and researchers.

Call for Papers and Abstracts: NLDL 2027

April 22, 2026

The Call for Papers and Abstracts for the Northern Lights Deep Learning (NLDL) Conference 2027 is officially announced – with submission deadlines on August 7th and Mid-September 2026 respectively.

Trends in Visual Intelligence 2026

April 17, 2026

The field of Visual Intelligence is continuously transforming. Chief Research Scientist Arnt-Børre Salberg dives deeper into the current trends in the field of visual intelligence as of early 2026.

Centre-developed seismic foundation model is now open source!

April 6, 2026

The NCS model, a seismic foundation model trained on data from the Norwegian data repository for subsurface data, is now available as an open-source model, allowing anyone to download, utilize, and further develop the model.

Visual Intelligence Annual Report 2025

March 31, 2026

The Visual Intelligence Annual Report 2025, highlighting the centre's progress, activities, achieved innovations, staff, funding, and publications for 2025, is now available to read on our websites.

Visual Intelligence strengthens ties with Pioneer Centre for AI in EHR-related research

March 26, 2026

Visual Intelligence researchers contributed to the Pioneer Centre for AI workshop on Electronic Health Records research. The aim was to strengthen ties between the two centres on EHR-related research.