Empowerly

Student profile

Please submit a one page, single-spaced essay that explains why you have chosen Carnegie Mellon and your particular major(s), department(s) or program(s). This essay should include the reasons why you’ve chosen the major(s), any goals or relevant work plans and any other information you would like us to know. For freshmen applying to more than one college or program, please mention each college or program to which you are applying.

My cousin and I had been biking down the streets of Mumbai, India, when she was suddenly hit with an epileptic attack. She fell onto the road, cars rushing past, her eyes rolling to the back of her head amidst the honking and chaos of the traffic around us. She had been diagnosed with epilepsy a few years prior, but had never suffered such a severe episode. 

The memory of this incident haunted me for months after as I continued to worry about my cousin. I started researching epilepsy intensively and was surprised to find scientists using machine learning (a type of artificial intelligence) to predict seizures. If implemented, epileptic patients like my cousin would receive notifications before their attack, allowing preparation prior to a dangerous seizure. However, these algorithms were still not accurate enough to mitigate serious harm. Although the challenge was daunting, I was determined to address it head-on. Over the course of six months, I studied machine learning, experimenting for hours on end with various algorithms for seizure prediction, but often having my algorithms fail. Frustrated with my progress, I took a new approach, delving into the mathematics behind the algorithms. Finally, I achieved my goal of 96% accuracy after piecing together the conclusions of two scientific papers and won 3rd Place in Computational Biology at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

With this project, I realized this is who I want to be -- an AI researcher at the intersection of computer science and healthcare. I am continuing research on this topic, gathering extra data from Stony Brook Hospital, with great hopes of one day implementing my algorithm into a wearable medical device for people like my cousin.

Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Computational Biology at the School of Computer Science is where I can make my dream come true. I would like to major in Carnegie Mellon’s unique Computational Biology major and then go on to higher education in the field. Previously, I’ve studied machine learning and deep learning through my research, but am very interested in natural language processing and its implementation in biology. I am excited to explore these subjects in courses such as Computational Genomics and Automation of Biological Research: Machine Learning. With the Computational Biology major, I will take specialized courses as an undergraduate, so I can immediately explore my research interests in higher studies. 

Through research, I will gain valuable experience in artificial intelligence implementation that will provide the foundations of my career. Last summer, I interned at the Simons Summer Research Program at Stony Brook University’s Department of Radiology to automatically segment multiple sclerosis lesions using deep learning. At CMU, I can look forward to performing research in line with my future aspirations at laboratories such as the Brain Image Analysis Research Group or the Neurogenomics Laboratory led by Andreas Pfenning. In particular, the work of Professor Maysam Chamanzar in suppressing seizures using an ultrasound wearable device intrigues me. It has the potential to stop seizures before they even start, which combined with a seizure prediction algorithm like my own, could be a way to non-invasively mitigate harm for epileptic people like my cousin.  

Outside of academics, CMU provides ample opportunity for students to learn computational skills through extracurriculars. For the past four years, I have been the head coder of my VEX robotics team -- I hope to use this experience to be part of the software team at the CMU Robotics Club. Furthermore, as the Head Organizer of the defHacks() Seattle hackathon and the attendee of many hacker events, I know the value of hackathons in bringing together like-minded people to work on impactful projects. For example, at a past hackathon, I led a team to create an app that takes social media data to estimate flu rates in the city of Seattle. I look forward to attending Hack CMU, Carnegie Mellon’s premiere hackathon, to continue to tackle real-world biomedical challenges with my peers. 

In the future, I want to learn about the newest advancements in machine learning theory, work on solutions to pressing healthcare problems, and be at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution in biology. And I know the perfect place to start will be at Carnegie Mellon.

List the books (if any) you've read this year for pleasure. Choose one and in a sentence describe its impact on you. 

Question 2:

• Genome: The Autobiography of a Species In 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley

• The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

• Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

• The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer

• Game of Thrones by GRR Martin

The novel Thinking, Fast and Slow was hugely important in cultivating my interest in data science being used for healthcare as I became intrigued by its descriptions of how our cognitive biases influence our daily lives, prompting me to explore neuroscience through computational methods. 

A compilation of Kahneman’s cognitive research, this novel was important in cultivating my interest in computer science being used for neurology, which I explored with my ISEF project. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling

-- I was thoroughly intrigued by the book’s descriptions of forty years of psychology research about cognitive bias. 

The novel Genome was hugely important in cultivating my interest in computational biology as I became intrigued by its descriptions of how our 23 chromosomes play such a large role in our lives, prompting me to explore neuroscience through computational methods. 

Notes:

• http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/theo-73/www/papers/Pujara-MSthesis%20-%205-10-05.pdf 

• Used this paper for feature selection in my research  

• Thinking Fast and Slow