Feinberg’s Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine (IAIM) is hosting the first annual Big Ten Augmented Intelligence (AI) Bowl, bringing together multi-disciplinary teams of investigators from institutions representing the Big Ten Academic Alliance to answer the question: “How can AI address health disparities?”
Participating institutions for the inaugural competition, which kicked off in February, include Northwestern University, Indiana University, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The Big Ten includes some of the best medical, engineering and computer science schools or departments in the country. We wanted to connect with talented teams that represent these disciplines to tackle one of the most pressing challenges underscored by this tumultuous year: health disparities. We’re thankful and inspired to see the great enthusiasm and support from the teams, mentors and sponsors,” Abel Kho, MD, director of IAIM and of the Center for Health and Information Partnerships.
On April 30, each team presented at the semifinals, which was held virtually, pitching their case solution to a panel of judges who evaluated project proposals based on quality, feasibility, scalability and presentation. Project proposals included using AI for risk prediction, imaging analysis, augmented decision making or mitigating bias.
Five teams have advanced to the final round of the competition: the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pennsylvania State University, Indiana University and Northwestern.
Northwestern’s project, entitled “Reducing heart failure disparities through improving guideline-directed medication therapy with data analytics and augmented intelligence,” is led by Jingzhi Yu, a student in Feinberg’s Health Sciences Integrated PhD program.
Team members include Lindsay Zimmerman, a student in the Health Sciences Integrated PhD program; Yuyang Yang, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP); Yikuan Li, a student in the Health Sciences Integrated PhD Program; Adovich Rivera, a student in the Health Sciences Integrated PhD program; and Hanyin Wang, a student in the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences (DGP).
Faculty advisors for Northwestern’s team are Yuan Luo, PhD, associate professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Health and Biomedical Informatics, chief AI officer at the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute and at IAIM; Faraz Ahmad, MD, MS, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Health and Biomedical Informatics; and Ike Okwuosa, MD, ’13 GME, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and assistant dean of Medical Education.
Teams that advanced to the final round were given mentoring sessions in May and additional resources to further develop their project proposals. These teams are also required to participate in a series of educational workshops and seminars held through September.
The final round the Big Ten AI Bowl will be held on October 22, where the remaining final five teams will present their final case solution to a new panel of judges. The winning team will be awarded $35,000 to implement their project; second place winners will receive $10,000 and third place winners will receive $5,000.
The inaugural Big Ten AI Bowl is sponsored by Vizient, expert.ai, Anthem, HCSC, IPM.ai and Nokia.