Course on Machine Learning in Biomedical Engineering to Be Introduced at the University

09:17, April 22, 2022

This will be possible with a grant from the Vladimir Potanin Foundation

The winners of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation's grant competition for Master's degree lecturers have been announced. Among the finalists are six faculty members of Ural Federal University who offered innovative training programs.

One of the projects that received a development grant is a new Master's program by Andrey Smirnov, Associate Professor at the Department of Experimental Physics at the Ural Federal University Institute of Physics and Technology. The new course is devoted to current methods for processing and analyzing biomedical information, including methods of machine learning and deep learning. The program includes issues of filtering, segmentation, analysis, classification of medical signals and images, as well as the construction of recommendation systems based on machine learning algorithms. Students will be able to learn skills in Matlab and Python programming. The course is based on lectures, practical classes, and laboratory work, as well as the use of online resources (the Kaggle.com competition site).

"During more than 10 years of teaching and research activities, I have always taught students relevant disciplines, modern methods of processing biomedical information. I have taken many Russian and foreign online courses in order to provide students with the most relevant techniques. Now, in the era of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, there is a demand from students for knowledge in machine learning and computer vision, and from businesses for specialists in big data processing and analysis in digital medicine. Therefore, having experience in creating and reading courses for bachelors, masters and specialists, I wanted to create a course that takes into account the many needs of both students and enterprises," notes Andrey Smirnov.

According to Smirnov, over the past two years, he has already implemented various tools in both Bachelor's courses "Biomedical Signal and Data Processing Methods" and Masters's courses "Digital Processing of Medical Signals," as well as in research activities with students.

"I ended up applying to the Master's Teacher Grant Competition for the development of a new course three years in a row, continually improving my applications as well as my hard and soft skills. It was not until the third time that I was lucky enough to find myself on the list of winners. There is a lot of work ahead to develop the new course and implement it in the educational process," added Andrey Smirnov.

Mikhail Erpalov, Associate Professor at the Department of Metal Working, Institute of New Materials and Technologies, also received a grant for the development of his project. In the near future the university will have a new Master's program in Pipe Production as well.

"I graduated from the Department of Metal Working in my time with a specialization in pipe production. We had a clear division into rolling mills, pipe makers, blacksmiths and those who studied the technology of processing non-ferrous metals and alloys. We were thoroughly prepared for work in a particular field of production. Today, however, due to various reasons, it has become practically impossible to train in certain fields. At the same time, we observe the demand from industrial enterprises, in particular, pipe plants of TMK group, Cybersteel, Uraltrubprom, for highly qualified engineering personnel who are able to solve tasks of a particular enterprise, including the use of modern research and modeling tools," says Mikhail Erpalov.

After analyzing the situation in the group of like-minded people it was decided to open a separate Master's program in the direction of pipe production with a new curriculum, developed jointly with representatives of production.

"The task of the project is complicated - it is planned to provide training not only for its Bachelor's graduates, but also for the current employees of the enterprises, including those with no profile education. However, we are sure that the creation of a highly specialized Master's program with a focus on in-depth study of special disciplines is the right development vector," Erpalov concluded.

Grants were also awarded to projects by Leonid Plotnikov, Associate Professor at the Department of Turbines and Engines; Maria Ilyushkina, Head of the Language Support of International Relations and Foreign Trade Master's Program; Ivan Gurin, Associate Professor at Institute of New Materials and Technologies; and Sergey Sokolov, Lecturer at the Department of Russian History.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office
info.international@urfu.ru, +7 (343) 375-45-19