From left: Olivia Radcliffe, Colton Barr, Parvin Mousavi, Laura Connolly, Gabor Fichtinger, and Mohammad Farahmand represented the Medical Informatics Laboratory (Med-i) and the Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery (Perk) at summer conferences in Berlin and the United Kingdom.
Perk and Med-i Lab students showcase cutting-edge research on world stage
A team of graduate students from Queen’s School of Computing returned home with major awards from prestigious Biomedical research symposiums. Laura Connolly, Mohammad Farahmand, Colton Barr, Rebecca Hisey, and Olivia Radcliffe were representing the (Med-i) and the (Perk) at summer conferences in Berlin and the United Kingdom.
Olivia Radcliffe and Colton Barr kicked off the conference season by presenting their research at the Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS) conference in Berlin, Germany.
Next, the Perk and Med-I Lab teams headed to the International Conference on Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions (IPCAI), also in Berlin, wining multiple awards.
Rebecca Hisey received the Outstanding Reviewer Award for contributing high-quality, constructive, and timely reviews. The Outstanding Reviewer Award is an immensely prestigious recognition in the field.
Mohammad Farahmand presented his work “FACT: Foundation Model for Assessing Cancer Tissue Margins with Mass Spectrometry” and was selected as the Runner-up for the Siemens Healthineers Best Paper Award, honouring research with exceptional impact in the field of computer-assisted interventions.
“Dr. Mousavi really cares about her students,” Farahmand says. “If you have any questions, anytime of the day, honestly, you can reach out to her. She's always helpful. She's always there. During the conference I was a little bit worried, but she helped me rehearse for my presentation. This was my first time, so I was a little bit stressed about this, but she helped me put everything together.”
“Being at ĂŰĚŇ´«Ă˝ at Med-i Lab has been a great experience. I was expecting a lot, but it has exceeded my expectations. I think ĂŰĚŇ´«Ă˝ is a fantastic choice for anybody who wants to do real world work or do something that translates into benefits that would help people, especially in terms of medicine.”
Laura Connolly presented which proposes haptic feedback for tumor localization in breast cancer surgery. She also presented updates on during the long abstract session. SlicerROS2 is a free open-source module for seamless integration of medical image computing and robotics. Laura came home with the Best Long Presentation Award (sponsored by J&J MedTech) and Best Short Presentation Award (sponsored by ImFusion), which was determined by live voting from over 70 papers. Laura was also awarded the Student Participation Award, a prize for outstanding contributions from MSc and PhD students from underrepresented groups or geographic regions.
“My aunt passed away from cervical cancer when I was quite young,” Connolly explains when asked about her academic focus. “I think I was in grade eight. I remember Googling cancer and saying, okay, how have we not figured this out yet? So that was where my interest in medicine came from. I remember feeling like I wanted to know enough to be able to contribute.”
After the many successes at IPCAI, the teams attended the Hamlyn Symposium in Medical Robotics in London, United Kingdom.
At the symposium, Laura Connolly led international team made up by members in Mauritania, USA and Canada in the Surgical Robotics Challenge. Their Print and Poke team was awarded the Best Application title.
Colton Bar was Runner-up for Best Poster at workshop “Healing Through Collaboration: Open-Source Software in Surgical, Biomedical and AI Technologies.”
“Drs. Mousavi and Fichtinger are both widely regarded as leaders in the fields of computer-assisted interventions and medical image computing - the quality and impact of their mentorship here at Queen’s is reflected in the reception of our research on the international stage,” Barr says. “Conferences like these leave you with a renewed sense of excitement about your research field and a snapshot of the incredible work being done by the wider community, as well as a brand-new set of ideas to inspire your next project.”
The awards the team collected throughout the three conferences is a telling example of the Perk and Med-i Lab’s active engagement in their research field. "The work we do with our talented group of students at Queen’s makes significant contributions to Health AI, an emerging field at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Health research,” says Dr. Parvin Mousavi, Director of the Med-i Lab. “Our graduates are poised to have a profound and practical impact on Canadian innovation and healthcare. It was a pleasure to witness their excellence on the world stage — yet another compelling demonstration of Queen’s leadership in Health AI research.”