Niranjan Balasubramanian, Research Assistant Professor (Department of Computer Science and Department of Biomedical Informatics) – My work involves using natural language processing (extracting information from unstructured texts) to improve the translational aspects of biomedical research. An example: when information from electronic pathology records is mined appropriately, we can better understand how disease progresses and what kinds of things automatic image tools should look for. We’re also working on extracting information from biomedical scientific literature. There is a gap between all the research being done and published every day, and the ability of doctors to keep up-to-date. So we’re working on ways to extract information and then use it to populate huge databases, automatically. Also we’ll soon start work on providing natural language interfaces to medical data. So, for example, a doctor could talk to their phone and say, “Tell me what this patient’s blood pressure was, two weeks back.” Regarding students, I’m looking for people interested in deep learning techniques.