Jeffrey W. Serville

MENTOR:  Ravi Vadapalli, PhD | Director, IDSC Advanced Computing

– Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
– Department to Neurological Surgery, Miller School of Medicine
– The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis
– Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC)
– Institute for Neural Engineering (INEM)

Jeffrey is a 2^nd year PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.  His research focuses on neuromodulation and rehabilitation for movement disorders, specifically spinal cord injury.  As an IDSC Fellow, he aspires to utilize the university’s Triton supercomputer to accelerate preprocessing algorithms designed for diffusion-weighted images (including eddy-current, susceptibility, and motion distortions) and automate MRI-based segmentation of the pig brain that is used for generating anatomically-constrained-tractograms (3D reconstructed fiber pathways) to predict neural activation patterns resulting from deep brain stimulation of the mesencephalic locomotor region (midbrain/brainstem) in pigs.  The purpose of his research project is to optimize stimulation programming, as it relates to generating locomotion while minimizing unwanted side-effects, by implementing the finite-element method to solve the associated bioelectric field problem on a subject-by-subject basis.

• Overcome computational bottlenecks commonly encountered in traditional desktop or workstation environments, for, specifically, preprocessing of diffusion-weighted images (DWIs). This can take eight up to sixteen hours and it’s a huge bottleneck in the computational workflow.
• Improve DBS (deep brain simulation) outcomes by offering more realistic visualizations and realizations (i.e. surgical planning and/or consultation)
• Decrease the times it takes for potential DBS therapies to go from bench to bedside.

Kelly S. Soluri

Kelly Soluri, M.S. Candidate for Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science

MENTORS:
– Dr. Elizabeth Babcock, quantitative fisheries scientist and professor at the University of Miami with a specialty in fisheries stock assessments.
– Dr. Gang Ren, data and computer scientist and professor at the University of Miami with expertise in artificial intelligence
– Dr. Mitsunori Ogihara, Director of Workforce Development and Education at IDSC and Editor-in-Chief of the Theory of Computer Systems Journal with research interests in data mining
– Cooperative Institute for Marine And Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS)
– National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Kelly has strong interests in ecological processes in oceanic and coastal systems as well as learning novel technologies and methods to better understand how these processes function as a response to climate change or anthropogenic pressure. As a native South Floridian, she wishes to support coastal communities that deal with sea level rise, resource insecurity, and intensifying natural disasters. She is also passionate about science literacy for all and the uplifting of minority communities in STEM.

Sadegh Tale Masoule

MENTOR:  David Chapman, PhD | IDSC AI + Machine Learning

Sadegh is a second-year PhD student doing research in the advanced infrastructure materials lab in the college of engineering. His research includes measuring physiochemical properties of polymers in fluids and in cast construction materials, and then analyzing the results with different methods, one of them being machine learning that he’s currently pursuing. He hopes that with access to the IDSC’s expertise and resources, he can achieve good progress on his project.

• Learn more about different segmentation models and transfer learning
• Build a comprehensive database of micro-cracks with different samples
• Develop a pipeline to accurately segment and measure micro-cracks as an estimation for the level of damage in elements
• Publish the results

Shara Sookhoo

MENTOR:  Manohar Murthi, PhD, Associate Professor | College of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

– Dr. Nikki Traylor Knowles, Associate Professor, Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science | Secondary Faculty in Biology
– Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium