School of Mathematics & Statistics

Information about postgraduate research opportunities and how to apply can be found on the Postgraduate Research Study page. Below is a selection of projects that could be undertaken with our group.

Medical image segmentation and uncertainty quantification (PhD)

Supervisors: Surajit Ray
Relevant research groups: Machine Learning and AI, Imaging, Image Processing and Image Analysis

This project focuses on the application of medical imaging and uncertainty quantification for the detection of tumours. The project aims to provide clinicians with accurate, non-invasive methods for detecting and classifying the presence of malignant and benign tumours. It seeks to combine advanced medical imaging technologies such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the latest artificial intelligence algorithms. These methods will automate the detection process and may be used for determining malignancy with a high degree of accuracy. Uncertainty quantification (UQ) techniques will help generate a more precise prediction for tumour malignancy by providing a characterisation of the degree of uncertainty associated with the diagnosis. The combination of medical imaging and UQ will significantly decrease the requirement for performing invasive medical procedures such as biopsies. This will improve the accuracy of the tumour detection process and reduce the duration of diagnosis. The project will also benefit from the development of novel image processing algorithms (e.g. deep learning) and machine learning models. These algorithms and models will help improve the accuracy of the tumour detection process and assist clinicians in making the best treatment decisions.

Generating deep fake left ventricles: a step towards personalised heart treatments (PhD)

Supervisors: Andrew Elliott, Vinny Davies, Hao Gao
Relevant research groups: Machine Learning and AI, Emulation and Uncertainty Quantification, Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Health Applications, Imaging, Image Processing and Image Analysis

Personalised medicine is an exciting avenue in the field of cardiac healthcare where an understanding of patient-specific mechanisms can lead to improved treatments (Gao et al., 2017). The use of mathematical models to link the underlying properties of the heart with cardiac imaging offers the possibility of obtaining important parameters of heart function non-invasively (Gao et al., 2015). Unfortunately, current estimation methods rely on complex mathematical forward simulations, resulting in a solution taking hours, a time frame not suitable for real-time treatment decisions. To increase the applicability of these methods, statistical emulation methods have been proposed as an efficient way of estimating the parameters (Davies et al., 2019; Noè et al., 2019). In this approach, simulations of the mathematical model are run in advance and then machine learning based methods are used to estimate the relationship between the cardiac imaging and the parameters of interest. These methods are, however, limited by our ability to understand the how cardiac geometry varies across patients which is in term limited by the amount of data available (Romaszko et al., 2019). In this project we will look at AI based methods for generating fake cardiac geometries which can be used to increase the amount of data (Qiao et al., 2023). We will explore different types of AI generation, including Generative Adversarial Networks or Variational Autoencoders, to understand how we can generate better 3D and 4D models of the fake left ventricles and create an improved emulation strategy that can make use of them.

Regular seminars relevant to the group are held as part of the Statistics seminar series. The seminars cover various aspects across the AI3 initiative and usually span multiple groups. You can find more information on the Statistics seminar series page, where you can also subscribe to the seminar series calendar.