UCD Discovery announces AI Healthcare Network Seed Funding Winners

We are very excited to announce the winners of the inaugural AI Healthcare Network Seed funding. Seed funding was awarded to 5 winning networks of interdisciplinary collaborators led by a core lead in UCD, aiming to develop approaches and applications to support implementation of responsible AI to address urgent, timely problems.

Prof. Patricia Maguire was delighted to meet some of the winners at UCD Research at a networking lunch during the visit of Discovery Visiting Global Professor Akram Alshawabkeh, Vice Provost Northeastern University, to UCD.  “Seed funding is so important to early career researchers and to driving forward pilot projects. We hope the winning networks will be able to leverage this seed funding to advance their research and to apply for further funding.”

Pictured: Dr. Kevin Doherty, Prof. Patricia Maguire, UCD Institute for Discovery Director, Ms. Edel Thomas, Dr. Rachel Toomey, Dr. Arjumand Younus and Ms. Tara Byrne, UCD Institute for Discovery Manager.

The seed funding winners are:

An AI System for Assessing the Mechanical Functionality of the Abdominal Muscles in Healthy Subjects and Patients with Abdominal Hernias from Dynamic MRI.

(opens in a new window)Niamh Belton (UCD), (opens in a new window)Dr. Kathleen M. Curran (UCD),  (opens in a new window)Dr. Aonghus Lawlor (UCD) with (opens in a new window)Dr. David Bendahan (Aix Marseille University), (opens in a new window)Dr. Thierry Bege (Aix Marseille University), Dr. (opens in a new window)Catherine Masson (Aix Marseille University), (opens in a new window)Victoria Joppin, (Aix Marseille University)

This project aims to leverage the recent advances in AI to accelerate and advance the study of the abdominal wall with the aim of identifying risk factors for hernia recurrence and ultimately reducing the recurrence rate.

Inclusive Design for AI Healthcare Innovation Network 

(opens in a new window)Dr. Kevin Doherty (UCD), (opens in a new window)Dr. Rob Brennan (UCD), (opens in a new window)Dr. Emma Creighton (NCAD), (opens in a new window)Enda O’Dowd (NCAD), (opens in a new window)Dermot Burke (HSE Spark Innovation Programme), (opens in a new window)Dr. Marie E. Ward (St. James’s Hospital), (opens in a new window)Jiaqi Zhang (Innovation Academy) & William Davis (Innovation Academy)

This network of leading figures in Irish health innovation will seek to make a real difference for our academic communities, clinical professionals, and the general public by bridging the domains of medicine, computer science and design to realise both increasingly inclusive cultures and responsible practices of AI Healthcare innovation.

Transforming the Imaging of Multiple Sclerosis with Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Brendan Kelly (UCD) , (opens in a new window)Dr. Aonghus Lawlor (UCD), (opens in a new window)Dr. Ronan Killeen (UCD), (opens in a new window)Mr Prateek Mathur (UCD) with (opens in a new window)Ms Aoife Kirwan (MS Ireland), (opens in a new window)Ms Alison Cotter, (MS Ireland).

Our project aims to build on our existing work with Siamese U Transformers for change detection on MRI in Multiple Sclerosis. We will use this seed funding to help deliver a randomised controlled trial to prospectively evaluate our model and enable us to give faster and more accurate diagnoses for people with MS.

CT Interprofessional Network for Artificial Intelligence Reconstruction (CT-IN-AIR)

(opens in a new window)Dr. Rachel Toomey (UCD), (opens in a new window)Edel Thomas (UCD), (opens in a new window)Dr. Seán Cournane (UCD), (opens in a new window)Dr. Irene Hernandez Giron (UCD), (opens in a new window)Mr. Ronan Coleman (St. James’ Hospital)

The project aims to collect data on the impact of AI reconstruction tools in clinical imaging and act as a platform for establishing a national interdisciplinary network of radiographers, medical physicists and radiologists.

An Analysis of Public Trust for GenAI in Mental Health Care: How Do We Optimize Interfaces?

(opens in a new window)Dr. Arjumand Younus (UCD), (opens in a new window)Dr. Amanda Fitzgerald (UCD), (opens in a new window)Yuhan Du (UCD), Chengqiang Wang (UCD)

The chief objective within our proposed study/project is to pursue a preliminary investigation into which aspects of mental health chatbots are perceived as useful together with whether or not users are able to identify potential harms of such applications.

Congratulations to all the winners of the seed funding - watch this space!