Hackin’ it at the Hackathon

Recently, members of CGDS participated in the UAB hosted AI Against Cancer Data Science Hackathon with not just one team, but two teams. Their aim was at “solving cancer-related research, prevention, and healthcare practice problems using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science.” Both teams were formed of a diverse range of skilled individuals bringing together capabilities and experience from areas of genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, bioinformatics, machine learning, molecular biology, developmental biology, and clinical genomics.

Team Ditto, comprised of the same members that’d placed third in the 2020 UAB COVID-19 Hackathon (https://sites.uab.edu/cgds/2020/08/04/rico/): Tarun Mamidi, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics; Dr. Ryan Melvin, Data Scientist in Anesthesiology; Dr. Thi K. Tran-Nguyen, Postdoctoral Fellow in PMI; Dr. Liz Worthey formed a new collaboration with Dr. Rati Chkheidze from Neuropathology. They presented work on “AI Guided Multiomics Data Mapping on Pathology Whole Slide Images of Glioblastoma”. For more information on their project, please watch their presentation recording here.

The new team this year, entered as Team BirthSeq-AI, was comprised of: Dr. Gurpreet Kaur, Postdoctoral Fellow in CGDS; Shaurita Hutchins, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics; Brandon Wilk, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics; Kristen Coutinho, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics & Cortes Brain Aging and Physiology Lab; and mentored by Dr. Liz Worthey. Their focus on was on “Development of an AI-based Approach to Better Understand Chorangiomas by Studying Placental Heterogeneity”. For more information on their project, please watch their presentation recording here.

Team Ditto winning Second prize and Team BirthSeq-AI winning Health Equity Award

Both teams had stellar presentations and work performed in their respective areas with Team Ditto taking Second Place and Team BirthSeq-AI taking the Health Equity Award. See more at https://twitter.com/cctsnetwork/status/1430263483904532488