Lewis Hotchkiss, Neuroimaging Research Officer with Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) Data Portal, shares with us his inspirational journey into research.
What did you do before joining DPUK?
Before working at DPUK Data Portal, I completed my computer science degree at Swansea University. My dissertation focused on optimising policies to reduce the economic and health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. During my time at university, I was given many opportunities to explore my research interests, and I was able to work on a neuroimaging project that looked at modelling healthy ageing.
What sparked your interest in a research career?
My research internship with the Oxford Protein Informatics Group at the University of Oxford introduced me to how Artificial Intelligence can be applied to health research. As part of this, I developed novel machine-learning techniques to find potential drugs for COVID-19. Seeing the huge potential AI has to discover drugs and diagnose diseases, amongst many other areas, sparked my interest in using the skills I developed in computer science and applying them to health research.
If any, what challenges have you faced in your journey into research?
I have been rather fortunate in my research journey to have encountered few challenges so far. Population Data Science at Swansea University has been a great environment which has enabled me to explore my research interests and get involved in different opportunities. Gaining research experience alongside my studies allowed me to develop myself and gain the skills necessary to progress into my research career.
What type of research have you worked on?
My research over the years has primarily focused on the application of AI techniques to challenges in the health domain, whether that’s diagnosing diseases, finding novel treatments, or modelling pandemics. Most recently, I have been conducting research into the stratification of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) to discover distinct disease progressions using unsupervised machine learning techniques. This has the potential to help understand the different causes and trajectories of depression and what factors may contribute to going on to develop dementia.
What areas of research interest you?
My current research interests lie within the field of neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders and how neuroimaging data can be utilised in AI models for the early detection and prevention of these diseases. The future is AI, which has enormous potential to aid us in understanding diseases and will help revolutionise the health data domain.
What advice would you give to someone looking at a career in research?
My advice would be to explore what research area really gets you interested. One of the great benefits of health data research is that you can get started by analysing data with just your computer using analysis packages like Python or R. You don’t need a fancy lab or expensive equipment to get started; you can gain experience yourself to help you understand what your research interests are and to help develop your skills.
Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) Data Portal is one of the 12 Centres of Excellence based in Population Data Science at Swansea University. Find out more about their work on their website.