The PRECISE-Hackathon is a collaborative one-week event designed to support the aims of the PRECISE symposium in transforming cancer diagnostics across Africa. The hackathon fosters a collaborative environment for developing innovative local solutions in cancer care. By building local capacity for precision cancer care, this hackathon aims to bring together students, experts, innovators, and stakeholders to create diagnostic imaging technologies and cancer care interventions based on artificial intelligence. Through innovation, collaboration, and capacity-building, this event will seed efforts towards advancing precision cancer care across the continent.
Objectives
1. Grow a network of highly qualified computational imaging personnel across Africa who can design, implement, and evaluate AI methods for cancer diagnostics.
2. Establish a collaborative culture of developing local cancer care innovations across Africa.
3. Contribute to the open science efforts of the global imaging and cancer research communities.
4. Provide an opportunity for African AI and medical imaging experts to further their training by participating in Grand Challenges.
Eligibility
The PRECISE-Hackathon will have 10 in-person participants and 20 online participants who meet the following criteria:
1. Must be registered and intend to attend the PRECISE conference.
2. Are a resident in radiology or oncology, or a student in medical physics, radiography, engineering, health informatics, or computer science at an African institution.
3. Have intermediate to advanced programming experience.
4. Commit to completing all program team activities on time (1 Week; 7 hours/day).
5. A self-motivated team player.
Hackathon Format
The PRECISE-Hackathon is hybrid, combining virtual and in-person seminars and AI methods development and validation. Participants will be trained on breast cancer lesion detection on medical images including ultrasound, CT and MRI, and provided with ultrasound images to develop methods for breast tumor segmentation. The participants will be enrolled into teams where they will work together to develop their method.
Each team will be provided with the breast ultrasound training and validation data, a series of pre-existing models and access to computational resources a week before the hackathon. During the hackathon, each team's model performance will be evaluated using a separate validation dataset that has not been seen by any teams or participants. The teams will present their model, outline its deficiencies and propose approaches to improve its performance. A panel of judges composed of experts in medical imaging, cancer care, and AI will evaluate each team's model and presentation.
Prizes
Ten individuals who demonstrated interest, motivation, leadership and determination will be shortlisted for the University of Pennsylvania Master’s of Science in Engineering in Data Science Scholarship.
How to Apply:
Complete the PRECISE conference registration form before the submission deadline and declare your interest in participating in the hackathon. You will receive an email confirming that your registration form has been received after you submit it. Those selected will be invited to participate in the one-week event.
Selection Announcement: September 4th, 2024
Hackathon starts: September 16th, 2024
Hackathon result presentation: September 21st, 2024
Refer to the registration section of the PRECISE conference for more details and deadlines.
