C2ST Speakeasy: “Machine Learning and Medical Imaging” with Dr. Miles Wernick

December 15, 2015

Geek Bar Beta
1941 West North Avenue, Chicago, IL, USA

Program Series:
Technology and Engineering

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“Machine learning”—a form of artificial intelligence—has received increasing attention in the news media, owing to its increasingly widespread impact on our everyday lives. Today, machine learning allows computers to understand speech, recommend movies, and beat the best human player at Jeopardy.  Prof. Miles Wernick will explain the basic ideas behind this important technology, and will describe how he has used machine learning in various medical applications.

Dr. Wernick’s work has focused on medical imaging, the means by which medical diagnoses are made through technologies such as MRI, CT, and PET scanning.  Dr. Wernick will explain the principles of the PET scan, a real-life application of antimatter (the particles that powered the USS Enterprise from Star Trek), and will describe how a company that he co-founded is using PET scans to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders associated with aging.  He will also talk about various other applications of machine learning in medical imaging, including a search engine for mammograms, and tools finding and diagnosing disease in a variety of situations.

Event Details

C2ST Speakeasy is held on the first and third Tuesdays of every month. Attendance is free, but registration is strongly encouraged. To register, click HERE or on the “Get Tickets” button below. Seating is first come, first serve, and registration does not guarantee a seat.

People under 21 are welcome at Geek Bar until 9:00pm. (See Geek Bar’s age policy)

Food and beverages are available for purchase. (See menu)

Speaker

Dr. Miles N. Wernick

Dr. Miles N. Wernick is the Motorola Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director of the Medical Imaging Research Center, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). He is also co-founder, Vice President, and Chief Technology Officer of ADM Diagnostics, LLC, a company focused on diagnostics and drug characterization. He received the B.A. in Physics from Northwestern University in 1993, and the Ph.D. in Optics from the University of Rochester in 1990. From 1990-1994 he was with the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago, and joined IIT in 1994. Dr. Wernick was recently elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE) in recognition of “outstanding research, educational, and commercial accomplishments in medical imaging, image processing and analysis.” Dr. Wernick is the founding Director of IIT’s Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC), a team residing in IIT’s University Technology Park. Research conducted by the MIRC at IIT has been cited by other researchers over 16,000 times in their academic publications, and the group has conducted nearly $30 million in sponsored research projects addressing a variety of problems in medicine.