Author: emily.barraclough

Cohort 2 student Neshika attends the MARSS Conference in Toronto

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Neshika Wijewardhane had this to say about her experience:

The conference was 4 days long with over 200 participants at the University of Toronto. Participants included micro and nano robotistic, clinicians, engineers, and physicists, across all research careers, masters, and PhD students, to professors and industry partners. Each day started and ended with 3 plenary talks from leaders in the field with a series of parallel talks in the middle from the authors of the submitted papers. The general themes of the talks included swarm robotics, medical applications for micro-robots, automation and characterisation, and control by optical, thermal, and mechanical stimuli. I presented my paper entitled ‘Long-term Imaging and Spatio-temporal Control of Living Cells Using Light’ at a special session on ‘Optical Based Automated Micro-Manipulation’ about our robotic device ‘Dynamic Optical MicroEnviroment’ which can now visualise living cells and project light to facilitate closed-loop control of cells. Between sessions, there were breaks and lunch which lead to interesting conversations between new peers. As this was my first conference it was hugely beneficial in making new connections for future collaborations and building my network of micro/nano roboticists as well as opening my eyes to the vast amount of research being conducted in the field. I also had the opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Toronto and Niagara Falls.

Cohort 1 student Romana attends the Bumblekite Machine Learning Summer School in Zurich

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Romana Burgess had this to say about her experience: This week I attended the Bumblekite Machine Learning Summer School in Healthcare and Biosciences, held at ETH Zurich. The school invited participants from 42 institutions around the world, and a diverse range of speakers from both industry (e.g., Novartis, Microsoft, Genomics England) and academia (e.g., Stanford, ETH, Princeton).
Over the week, I attended many interesting sessions covering a broad range of machine learning topics and applications. For example, we looked at AI techniques for prostate cancer detection, and using fusion models for combining electronic health records and medical images. Additionally, the tutorials provided us with access to some fantastic and unique datasets, allowing us to practice new techniques throughout the week. Each evening I attended an interactive leadership conversation, where academic and industry professionals shared their personal experiences within the ML x Healthcare space. These engaging discussions included ethical considerations in AI and genomics, succeeding in a data science job application, and how to be an inspiring leader.
At the end of the week, we were asked to present on something that we had had learned. My group chose to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of aggregating patient data for use in machine learning models; we discussed loss of information and biased models, versus the importance of patient privacy.
I was fortunate enough that the school organisers gave me the award for “best application” at the end of the school. In my application, I had discussed my desire to learn more about patient care and experience within healthcare systems, and to find new connections. I did in fact build many professional and personal connections with the other applicants over the course of the week; I also spoke with some of the lovely speakers, who gave me great advice and ideas for my own work going forward.
I have always found some more complex machine learning techniques to be intimidating, and I would have been hesitant to try using them myself. However, I have come away from the summer school feeling less apprehensive of these methods, and I believe that some could be worth implementing in my work. For example, I will now consider implementing k-means clustering to identify profiles of depressed or non-depressed parents.

Cohort 2 student Immi publishes a Systematic Review in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

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Cohort 2 student Immi Biswas publishes a Systematic review entitled ‘Secular Trends in Dementia Free Cognitive Function in Older Adults’ in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Immi had the following to say about the publication:

‘The objective was to systematically evaluate the published data on generational differences in cognitive function in the older population.

Prevalence of vascular related mild cognitive impairment has increased in China. Improvements in cognition may only partially be explained by increased educational attainment across generations. This review provides evidence for generational effects in dementia-free cognitive function, predominately stability or improvements in performance, in later compared to earlier born individuals across different world regions. There is an urgent need to determine the factors driving such changes and whether they are being experienced in all world regions, particularly low- and middle-income countries where the burden of cognitive impairment is greatest and rising.’

Link to Paper: Secular Trends in Dementia Free Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Systematic Review – PubMed (nih.gov)

Cohort 3 student Tim attends the IEEE International Conference on Digital Health in Barcelona

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Tim Arueyingho had this to say about their experience:

‘The conference ran for five days and there were different stakeholders. Doctoral students, professors, and person’s working in the industry. The topics covered by the different panels include – the future of digital health, health data and services, analytics and visualization, health policy, systems and interoperability, IOT Data analytics and health data analytics. I was able to make a few new connections.

I was invited to the conference because I made an academic contribution in the form of a short paper and was required to make a presentation. I was the corresponding/major author and I invited master’s student, Korede Sanyaolu to collaborate with me. The conference paper would be published soon.

I am a digital health enthusiast and currently my PhD project is interested in exploring diverse ways in which technology is being used in collaborative healthcare management of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in informal settings in Nigeria. Life style modifications are prerequisites for the long term management of chronic diseases and I am also a fitness enthusiast. Thus, I thought it would be interesting to write a review exploring the use of technology by fitness enthusiasts in Africa. Although there is no direct relationship, the review provides a corpus of literature that would be essential in establishing the current use of tech for the purpose of exercise in Nigeria. Exercise would be an interesting part of my PhD project as it is paramount in life style modifications.’

Cohort 2 student Neshika is involved with Conference Proceedings at MARSS

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Cohort 2 student Neshika Wijewardhane publishes with ‘Proceedings of MARSS – International Conference on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scales’ a paper entitled ‘Long-term imaging and spatio-temporal control of living cells using light.’

Neshika had the following to say about the publication:

‘The ability to optically interact with cells on both an individual and collective level has applications from wound healing to cancer treatment. Building systems which can facilitate both localised light illumination and visualisation of cells can however, be challenging and costly. This work takes the DOME, an existing platform for the closed-loop optical control of microscale agents, and adapts the design to support live-cell imaging. Through modifications made to the imaging and projection systems within the DOME, a significantly higher imaging resolution is achieved as well as the ability to customise the light projection wavelengths. Changes to the fundamental design allow for long-term use in an environment of higher temperature and humidity, facilitating the long-term imaging of live cells.

The Dynamic Optical MicroEnviroment (DOME) robotic device is now able to visualise living cells to aid the control of cells using light. This allows us to implement different light patterns and regimes in a closed-loop manner to initiate different cellular dynamics such as cell migration and thus opens the possibilities for treatments in the fields of wound healing specifically but also in cancer and anti-microbial therapy.’

Link to Journal: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/9870245/proceeding 

Cohort 2 students Megan and Immi attend the SigCHI Conference in New Orleans

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Megan Morgan had this to say about her experience:

‘I went along to CHI alongside many others from the Bristol Interaction Group including Paul Marshall, John Bird, Ewan Soubutts, Pete Bennett, Ollie Hanton, Elaine Czech and Immy Biswas. The conference covered a huge variety of topics involved in human computer interaction ranging from tangible interactions, UX design, ethics of research, health and long-term care. I made a wide variety of new connections with other PhD students, I also connected with entire HCI groups in Bath, Newcastle and Dublin. HCI researchers within my specific field including Madeline Balaam and Adrienne Pichon. As well as speaking to well renowned HCI researchers about my work including Yvonne Rogers, Madeline Tremaine and Roel Vertegaal.

I wrote a paper which was accepted for a workshop called ‘Challenges, Tensions, and Opportunities in Designing Ecosystems to Support the Management of Complex Health Needs’. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet HCI researchers in my field, but also to discuss and understand more deeply how my research can assist with ecosystem creation or support. I connected with many interesting researchers and learnt about how their research can add to the building of mine and discussed and worked together over the course of a day. I know that the connections I have made at this workshop will be invaluable through the course of my career.
I also went to the conference as a student volunteer, meaning I learnt about the workings of the conference and helped with various activities such as running sessions and checking people in at reception for a total of 14 hours through the week. This was hugely impactful to me in learning more about the conference and the CHI community, it also meant through my interactions as a volunteer that I met and could help many interesting people.
I know that through the vast amount on knowledge I have received and the connections I have made that my research with be greatly improved. The conversations I had through the week inspired me , not only about the current study I am doing but also helped me think differently about the future studies I am in the midst of planning. I have also made connections that may well lead to collaborations in the future.’

Cohort 3 student Dan attends Digital Methods Winter School at the University of Amsterdam

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Dan Joinson had this to say about his experience:

‘This was a training course run by the Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), who are a research group with the purpose of designing methods and tools to use online devices and platforms for research. The training course was attending by a range of participants, including international PhD candidates, new media postgraduate students and journalists. The course involved several keynote speeches from digital methods researchers, and tutorials highlighting the use of several of the methods that the Initiative has developed. The main portion of the course was spent participating in a group project, alongside a digital methods academic. My project comprised of both PhD and Masters students, and was focused on exploring the communication of science information and misinformation around three areas of debate (monkeypox, low traffic neighbourhoods, genetically modified organisms). This involved harvesting content from both

Tik Tok and Twitter, and performing data and network analysis on the themes emerging in this content.

The course ended with a poster event, in which our project was presented to digital methods academics and other participants. The poster will also be posted on the DMI website, alongside a video presentation I produced, explaining it. We were also required to write a report providing more details on our methodology and results. There is an opportunity for me to be credited on future publications stemming from this project. Furthermore, the aim is to present this work to the relevant British Research Council organisation.

This course provided me with the opportunity to learn new digital methods skills, which will help with future analysis I perform in my PhD project. Furthermore, I developed skills in highly interdisciplinary group work.’

Cohort 2 student Immi publishes a Systematic Review in ‘Sensors’ Journal

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Cohort 2 student Immi Biswas publishes a systematic review entitled: ‘Wearable GPS and Accelerometer Technologies for Monitoring Mobility and Physical Activity in Neurodegenerative Disorders’ in the ‘Sensors’ Journal.

Link to Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/24/8261

Cohort 1 student Romana Burgess attends micro-coding workshop

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CDT Digital Health and Care Cohort 1 student Romana Burgess reports back from the “MHINT micro-coding workshop” that she recently participated in:

On Friday 2nd July, I attended a virtual workshop to discuss micro-coded videos of parent-child interactions, with the aim to foster collaborations moving forward in how to analyse these complicated datasets.

The event joined together 20 academics from multiple countries (e.g. UK, Brazil, Chile, Norway, South Africa), disciplines (e.g. epidemiologists, mathematicians, dieticians, psychologists, biologists), and career levels (e.g. professors, lecturers, post docs, PhD and MSc Students).

Many of these researchers have collected and processed their data, and are now considering how to analyse it. This is a core focus of my PhD, and so I – along with multiple other academics – presented some ideas for potential next stages. For example, how we might use a facial analysis software to automatically capture and describe facial expressions, or how we might identify sequences of behaviours from coded data.

Not only was the workshop beneficial for developing collaborative projects, but it also provided me with an opportunity to practice communicating my research to other academics. Particularly, I was able to practice explaining mathematical and computing-based concepts to those within non-STEM backgrounds.

Participants of the MHINT Micro-coding Workshop
Romana Burgess’ presentation at the MHINT Micro-coding Workshop

Cohort 1 student Harry attends Reinforcement Learning – From Theory to Practice Summer School

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CDT student Harry Emerson took part in the Alan Turing Institute Reinforcement Learning – From Theory to Practice Summer School from 1-7 June 2021.

Harry says of the event:

The summer school was a week-long introduction to the theory and implementation of reinforcement learning algorithms, organised by the Alan Turing institute. Each day commenced with a series of online lectures delivered by Dr Nathanaël Fijalkow explaining the mathematics underlying a selection of significant reinforcement learning algorithms. The topics covered were broad, allowing me to learn about a variety of machine learning and deep learning techniques, including Monte Carlo Tree Search, Deep Q Learning and Policy gradient methods. This knowledge was supplemented with daily workshops, where students were divided into structured seminar groups and asked to collaboratively work towards implementing the algorithms described in the morning lecture. This provided me with an opportunity to get feedback on my implementations from experts in the field, as well discuss my research and ideas with other students starting their own research in reinforcement learning.

I am really pleased I had the opportunity to attend the summer school, as it is highly relevant to my PhD project. In the coming years, I will focus on implementing reinforcement learning algorithms to automate the control of insulin delivery for type 1 diabetics. Applying this technique to medical data comes with a series of associated challenges around utilising small and often sparse datasets, minimising patient risk and evaluating algorithmic performance. Having a good foundational understanding of the inner workings and limitations of reinforcement learning algorithms will make me better equipped to overcome these obstacles in my project. The course also gave me the opportunity to discuss my research with individuals working in a diverse range of fields, such as environmental data science and astrophysics. Listening to the successes and difficulties they have had in overcoming the challenges in their research, also provided me with inspiration as to the direction I could go in my own project.