LiSDA

It’s my Research MSc Graduation day!! With a project titled “Exploring Sense of Belonging in Undergraduate Computing Students,” two years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance have finally paid off, culminating in one peer-reviewed published conference paper and two journal articles currently under review. I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude for the exceptional individuals who have supported and guided me throughout this journey. I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to my esteemed Supervisor Catherine, whose guidance, motivation, and support have been invaluable. Brett, my co-supervisor and the ultimate problem solver, your insights have been indispensable. To my Lisda teammates, your camaraderie and support have significantly enriched this experience. I look forward to continuing to learn and grow with all of you. Thank you for being an integral part of this remarkable journey.

Lan attended the 2024 14th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Technology (ICBET 2024) which is held from June 14-17, 2024 in Seoul, South Korea. ICBET conference aims to bring together researchers, engineers, academicians, and industry professionals from around the world to present their latest research findings and advancements in the field of Biomedical Engineering and Technology.

Lan presented their work co-authored by Dr. Catherine “An EEG-based Automatic Classification Model for Epilepsy with Explainable Artificial Intelligence”. Being part of the ICBET conference and engaging with fellow researchers in our field was an absolutely delightful experience!

In addition, Lan was super happy to meet her best friend in Korea! After the conference sessions, Huiling and Lan set off on exciting adventures exploring Korea together!

이번 한국 여행 정말 즐거웠습니다!

—–Lan

Lan attended the 2024 12th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ICBCB 2024) which is co-sponsored by Zhejiang University and IEEE held during March 18-21, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. ICBCB conference series is held annually to provide an interactive forum for presentation and discussion on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.

Lan presented their work co-authored by Dr. Catherine “Comprehensive Feature Analysis and Machine Learning for Cross-patient Seizure Type Classification”. Being part of the live conference and engaging with fellow researchers in our field was an absolutely delightful experience!

Lan’s talk received the Best Presentation award at ICBCB 2024. Immense thanks go out to all the co-authors for their incredible supports!

Furthermore, Lan has been invited to serve as the session chair for ICBCB 2024, which has been an exceptional experience.

Following the conference, Lan embarked on a tour of Mount Fuji, an experience that was truly remarkable, especially with the fantastic weather. In Japan, there’s a saying that seeing Mount Fuji is considered lucky due to its usual shroud of fog. This journey has been truly fascinating!

–Lan

Wishing our LiSDA stars birthdays filled with vibrancy, dynamism, and the boundless energy that mirrors our exceptional team. May the coming year be marked by soaring to new heights, conquering challenges, and collectively creating a positive impact that resonates far and wide!

Happy Birthday once again to you all! 🎉🎂🎈

Brett presented our poster “Understanding a post-COVID Drop in the Belongingness of Minoritised Men in an Undergraduate Computer Science Course” by Shamima, Andrew, Brett and Catherine at the 2023 ACM Global Computing Education Conference in Hyderabad, India last week. It was very well received, garnering interest from attendees from New Zealand, India and the United States to name a few.

Lan attended the 2023 International Conference on Biomedical and Bioinformatics Engineering, which hold during November 9-12, 2023 in Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.

Lan presented their work co-authored by Dr. Catherine and Dr. McHugh “Interictal Epileptiform Discharge Classification for the Prediction of Epilepsy Type in Children” and their work co-authored by Mercy, Dr Ommar, Prof. David and Dr. Catherine “Prediction of Epilepsy Phenotype in Intra-amygdala Kainic Acid Mouse Model of Epilepsy” . Being part of the live conference and engaging with fellow researchers in our field was an absolutely delightful experience!

Furthermore, Lan is thrilled to share that their presentation, “Interictal Epileptiform Discharge Classification for the Prediction of Epilepsy Type in Children”, received the Best Presentation award at ICBBE 2023. Immense thanks go out to all the co-authors for their incredible supports!

–Lan

Yuhan was invited to the 10th Overseas Returnees Forum on 2-4 Nov, 2023 in Changsha, Hunan, China. At the forum, she met lots of Chinese PhDs who studied overseas, and shared her experience and research with them. She also learnt about the academic and industry positions in Changsha. It was a great event and Changsha is a beautiful city!

LiSDA group got together to celebrate Yuhan’s PhD graduation. It was a super sunny day and we got great photos by the lake!

Lan attended the 2023 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, which hold at the International Convention Centre Sydney, Australia.

Lan presented her work co-authored by Dr. Catherine titled “Transfer Learning-based Seizure Detection on Multiple Channels of Paediatric EEGs”, and her work co-authored by Dr. Catherine and Dr. JC McHugh A Machine Learning Approach for Sex and Age Classification of Paediatric EEGs. Attending the in-person conference and interacting with researchers who are working in a similar area is a delightful experience!

In addition, Lan was super happy to meet her best friend in Sdyney! After the conference sessions concluded for the day, Iris and Lan embarked on a whirlwind exploration of Sydney. From the iconic Sydney Opera House to the picturesque Bondi Beach, we took in the sights and sounds of this vibrant city. As we strolled through the historic streets of The Rocks, indulged in delectable cuisine at local eateries, and shared stories under the starlit sky. It was amazing trip in Sydney!

Furthermore, Lan also saw the koala and kangaroo! They are sooooo cute!

As Lan bid farewell to Sydney, she carried back not just the knowledge gained from the conference but also a heart filled with gratitude for the experiences and connections that had enriched her journey. The trip reminded her that life is a tapestry woven from both professional accomplishments and cherished relationships, and it’s the combination of the two that makes the journey truly meaningful!

—–Lan

Congratulations to Dr. Yuhan Du on her PhD graduation!

Graduation day yesterday🎓 Watched the live-streamed ceremony with so much pride and gratitude. It’s been an incredible journey of growth, learning, and unforgettable memories. Big thanks to my supervisors, colleagues, friends and family! Excited for what the future holds! — Dr Yuhan Du

The UCD School of Computer Science celebrated the World Day of Cultures by showcasing diverse student cultures. Participants from different counties presented their unique traditions, languages, and cuisines, creating a vibrant and inclusive event. The event fostered intercultural understanding and collaboration, creating an enriching environment within the School. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and look forward to celebrating this occasion every year.

 

Congratulations Andrew!

We would like to extend our warmest welcome to you as our newest post-doctoral researcher. We are absolutely thrilled to have you on board, and we can’t wait to collaborate with you on exciting research projects. Along the way, we’re going to create some great memories and have a lot of fun. Once again, congratulations, and welcome to the LiSDA group!

Our review paper on XAI in ML-based CDSS won Applied Sciences 2021 best paper award in Section Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering! Huge congratulations to LiSDA!

Lan attended the 2023 11th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ICBCB 2023), which is co-sponsored by IEEE and Zhejiang University and held from April 21st to 23rd, in Hangzhou, China. ICBCB conference series is held annually to provide an interactive forum for presentation and discussion on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.

Lan presented her work co-authored by Dr. Catherine titled “Investigating the Need for Pediatric-Specific Machine Learning Approaches for Seizure Detection in EEG”. Attending the in-person conference and interacting with researchers who are working in a similar area is a delightful experience!

As part of our celebration of Ramadan, we celebrated the first iftar with other PhD students, our respected teachers, and staff members, as well as our close friends and family members. Everyone shared delicious and mouthwatering food while having a lot of fun.

During this event, all PhD students had the opportunity to get to know one another and to learn about the Iftar culture of other Muslim countries. We would like to thank all of you for attending this program and for making it such a memorable and successful event.

Our warmest wishes go out to everyone around the world celebrating Ramadan during this holy month.

May this month of fasting, prayer, and reflection bring you closer to your faith and grant you peace, happiness, and blessings in all areas of your life.

Ramadan Mubarak!

 

It was a wonderful experience presenting a poster at the PhD/MSc by Research Poster Event organised by the UCD School of Computer Science.  We presented and shared our recent findings to get valuable feedback from other researchers. We are grateful for the effort put forth by the organising committee to make this event possible.

Having Pizza afterwards.

 

Huge congratulations to Yuhan who successfully passed her PhD Viva on 15 December 2022! And big congratulations to Catherine having her third PhD students finished!

Yuhan’s thesis title is “Explainable Clinical Decision Support for the Prediction of Complications in Pregnancy”.

Many thanks to her external examiner, Dr Dympna O Sullivan, TU Dublin, and internal examiner, Dr Soumyabrata Dev, and to Dr David Lillis for arranging and chairing the viva.

Many thanks to Yuhan’s co-supervisor, Prof Fionnuala McAuliffe, UCD School of Medicine and National Maternity Hospital, and to Yuhan’s RSP, Dr Mark Matthews and Dr Derek Greene, for their support and guidance over the last four years.

Lan attended the 2022 IEEE Signal Processing in Medicine and Biology Symposium (IEEE SPMB 2022), the conference of IEEE SPMB held virtually on December 3, 2022.

Lan presented a poster co-authored by Dr. Catherine titled “Investigating the Need for Pediatric-Specific Automatic Seizure Detection”. Approximately 1 in every 150 children is diagnosed with epilepsy during the first ten years of life. These children experience seizures, which disrupt their lives and directly harm the developing brain. Electroencephalography (EEG) is the main tool used clinically to diagnose seizures and epilepsy. However, the interpretation of EEGs requires time-consuming expert analysis. Automated detection systems are a powerful tool that can help address the issue by reducing expert annotation time.

Research on the automatic detection of seizures in pediatric EEG has been limited. Most seizure detection methods have been developed and tested using larger numbers of adult EEGs. However, research has shown that brain events in EEG change with ageing. Therefore, models trained on EEGs from adults may not be suitable for children. To test this hypothesis, we trained a seizure detection model on adult EEG and tested it on adult and pediatric EEG recordings. We find that a seizure detection model trained on adult EEGs is not suitable for children. Therefore, there is a need to develop a pediatric-specific method.

Today we celebrated Yuhan’s Birthday and met Mercy for the very first time. It was a nice day to celebrate.

On behalf of the team, we would like to wish you again a very “Happy Birthday”, Yuhan. You are the coolest member of our team. Thanks for being so helpful all the time.

Welcome to our unique, collaborative, dynamic and energetic team, Mercy.  You are a great addition to the team. Hope we will have fun together.

 

The “Cancer Awareness Workshop in Bangladeshi Community”  was hosted by Precision Oncology Ireland as part of UCD Science week on 19th November. It was worth attending this workshop.  They highlighted the importance of the patient voice in Cancer Research.  They are aiming for inclusive Cancer Research, including minority groups.  As a member of a minority group, it will be a milestone for our community.

Today is Dr. Anna Markella Antoniadi’s last day in UCD. Huge thanks to Anna for being a remarkable member of the LiSDA research group! We have been lucky to have you as a PhD student and a post-doctoral researcher for the past five years. You are highly appreciated for being a wonderful researcher, colleague and friend! LiSDA will remember you with fond memories, and we wish you the best of luck for your new career in industry!

 

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/20

Delighted that our paper titled “The Role of XAI in Advice-Taking from a Clinical Decision Support System: A Comparative User Study of Feature Contribution-Based and Example-Based Explanations” has been published on Applied Sciences.

This paper presents interesting findings from our user study with healthcare practitioners to investigate the role of XAI in a CDSS. It revealed what type of explanations healthcare practitioners need and would like to see, and how explanations affect their decision-making. Check it out at: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/20/10323

— Yuhan

Huge congratulations to Dr. Claudia Mazo for her well-deserved success. Best wishes for your new role as Assistant Professor at DCU.  You are an inspiration to us and we are proud of you.

Congratulations to Mercy for getting a School of Computer Science PhD Scholarship and starting her Ph.D.!!!  You are very welcome to our team — we are looking forward to working with you. 

Delighted our paper ‘Deep-spindle: An automated sleep spindle detection system for analysis of infant sleep spindles‘ has been published in Computers in Biology and Medicine.

The Deep-spindle webserver is also available online.

We (Brett Becker and Catherine Mooney) are just back from the 21st European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB), held in Sitges, Barcelona on 12-21 September 2022 (https://eccb2022.org/).

We presented a poster “Investigating Student Sense of Belonging in Biology and Computer Science” co-authored by Shamima Nasrin Runa and Anna Markella Antoniadi.

Our results showed that 75% of the women in Computer Science and 29% of the women in Biology who completed the survey identified as a minority, but for different reasons (Computer Science; Biology): gender (61%; 29%), sexual identity (17%; 29%), race/nationality (44%; 33%), disability (6%;14%), and socio-economic status (11%; 10%). These results provide insight that may help improve the SoB of our undergraduate students and ensure that we create inclusive learning environments for all students.

My very first participation in UKICER-2022 conference.

I am delighted to present our poster in this conference. I couldn’t thank you enough for being my inspirational supervisor Dr. Catherine Mooney and co-supervisor Dr. Brett A. Becker.

Highly appreciate to be a member of the LiSDA group.

 

 

Congratulations to Vanitas Sonego (they/them) for starting as a Research Assistant at University College Dublin on July 11th!

The 27th annual ACM conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE) took place in UCD this year. LiSDA members were involved in the organising committee and conference volunteers who made this hybrid version of ITiCSE a huge success! The great talks of the conference were complemented by the extremely fun reception at the Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin) , excursion at Powerscourt house/gardens, and banquet at Taylor’s Three Rock. A memorable experience!

Group meeting and cake. For all the celebrations that were overdue!

Such an interesting and illuminating experience, taking part in the IDEATE IRELAND 2022 Competition! We are proud to have been among the 10 finalists- a group of brilliant entrepreneurs- and to finally win third place. Congratulations to the entire MetHealth team, and especially, to Dr Fiona McGillicuddy, the leader of the MetHealth project, for the amazing work and pitch!
-Dr Anna Markella Antoniadi

The entire LiSDA group, celebrating the special day of Dr Anna and Dr Lan’s graduation! Congratulations on your huge achievement!

Congratulations to Dr Wei for her position as a Postdoctoral Fellow at NeuroInsight Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND at the University College Dublin!

The first “Future You” Summer School post-COVID-19 was concluded today. We really enjoyed the 3 days of workshops with these amazing problem-solvers and we all had a blast!
–Anna Markella Antoniadi (LiSDA) and Ioannis Karvelas

The UCD Future You Summer School is an opportunity for school pupils to experience college life through interactive academic workshops and a variety of social and sports activities alongside other 5th year school pupils who aspire to study at university (more information here).

Although the campus is emptier at this time of the year, as there are no lectures, it was great to see so many people gathering in the O’Brien Centre to celebrate Pride Month!

Read about LiSDA in the latest School of Computer Science Newsletter — CS News (page 6):
[pdf-embedder url=”https://lisda.ucd.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/UCDCSNews_2022.pdf”]

The Women+ in STEM society in UCD invited post-doc Anna Antoniadi to give a talk about Computer Science in their final outreach session of the year with TY students. It was a great experience, and, according to the student’s feedback, they really enjoyed the programme, including the workshops but also the talks at the end! LiSDA members are frequently taking part in outreach activities to encourage girls to pursue a career in Computer Science or STEM in general and we are looking forward to the next opportunity!

International Women’s Day, Tuesday 8th March 2022 is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women – while also marking a call to action for accelerating gender equality.
In the field of Computer Science, people often have a stereotyped image of what a computer scientist looks like, the type of work they do and interests they have. We invite everyone to #BreakTheBias.

Celebration day for LiSDA today as Anna Markella Antoniadi and Lan Wei submitted their PhD thesis copies to the Student Desk! Congratulations to both Dr Lan and Dr Anna for a huge achievement and best wishes for the future from the entire LiSDA group!