AI for Precision Medicine: FAU's Data Engineering Hackathon Showcases Innovation

Artificial Intelligence and Data Science are expected to have a transformative impact on healthcare and medicine. The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University is home to world-class faculty and exceptionally talented students with the expertise to tackle the emerging challenges of precision medicine. From Friday, February 28, to Saturday, March 1, the department hosted a data engineering hackathon focused on precision medicine, using the  All of Us dataset - a rich and diverse repository of patient genetic, lifestyle, and health records - as a testbed. The event invited students to innovate and address critical challenges in precision medicine. Special guest speaker Chris Lunt, Chief Technology Officer of the All of Us Research Program, delivered an inspiring welcome address to the hackathon participants and answered questions about the platform’s future.

Participants explored data, trained models, and designed innovative tools and interfaces to advance precision medicine. They tackled challenges such as sample heterogeneity, data biases and imbalances, and fairness in predictive models to support individualized healthcare solutions. Teams developed software prototypes and presented preliminary results based on their research and stakeholder interviews.  

The event was supported by industry partners such as Memorial Healthcare System, Aventusoft, ModMed, and Battery Ventures. It featured 13 teams of 55 students competing for top honors. To prepare, students participated in skill-development workshops ahead of the hackathon, where they received an introduction to the foundations of precision medicine, guidance on using the platform, insights from two past hackathon-winning teams, direction on relevant projects to pursue, and coaching on team management from expert Howard Anderson, an acclaimed entrepreneur and educator. Three teams walked away with prizes totaling $10,000.

The winning teams were:

First place

• Project: MEDAI: Multi-agent AI for Multi-modal Biomarker Based Disease Risk Prediction
• Students: Jaya Kumar Gontine, David Schallipp, Sophie Pharand-Dias, Arvind Shiv Tej Reddy Gongati  

Second  place

• Project: Ollie AI: Data-driven Support Tool for Proactive Recurrent Pleural Effusion Risk Assessment
• Students: Wayne Cole, Johnny Forde, Andre WIlliams, and Kimoy Williams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third place

• Project: Revolutionizing Maternal Health in 3D: Advanced Posture and Body Monitoring for Safer Pregnancies
• Students: Vivek Ganesh Sonar, Sai Prasad Muppala, Manasa Patil, Jashwanth Dasari