EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training Cloud Computing for Big Data

People

Benjamin Lam

Benjamin gained a first class BSc degree in Computer Science at Newcastle University before joining the CDT in 2017. His undergraduate dissertation involved developing a platform for executing Design Space Exploration (DSE) experiments of cyber-physical systems in the Cloud. This was his first time working with Cloud and Big Data technologies. This inspired him to undertake doctoral training at the CDT. His research interests lie in artificial intelligence (machine learning), big data analytics and cloud computing.

PhD title

Data Science challenges for the future of healthcare: Predictive, Preventive, Personalised, and Participative

This PhD project is about using deep learning techniques to build predictive models. We use the UK Biobank (a bank of personal health data from over 500,000 patients) to predict disease progression.

This project has profound implications for the future of medicine. It shifts away from the traditional reactive paradigm. It moves to a model where healthcare becomes predictive, preventive, participatory and personalised. We call this P4 medicine.

The CDT at Newcastle provides a great opportunity to research this cutting-edge application in data science. We collaborate with:

  • the National Innovation Centre for Data
  • the National Innovation Centre for Ageing
  • the Institute for Genetic Medicine
  • other partners.

There is an ageing population in many parts of the world. Healthcare must adapt to this by identifying individuals at risk of disease. It must target treatments and lifestyle changes towards them.

Supervisor

Paolo Missier, Michael CattJian Shi