** NEW ** – (March 2025) –
Master’s semester project or a summer project
Combining machine learning techniques to efficiently determine the need for HCC screening among people with HIV
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common cause of morbidity and death in persons living with HIV. Because curative HCC treatment is possible upon early detection by liver ultrasound, international guidelines recommend twice-a-year liver ultrasound screening, which necessarily results in over-screening. To date, no prediction tool exists that can simultaneously prevent over-screening and accurately capture HCC cases. To solve this, we are combining machine learning techniques to develop an individualized risk assessment AI-based tool that can readily identify patients in need of routine ultrasound screening for HCC. The use of such tool could extend to other populations and diseases. The tool is being calibrated with clinical, laboratory, behavioural, genetic and sociodemographic data from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (www.shcs.com).
We are looking for a motivated student to participate in this individualised medicine project. We are looking for a student with programing skills in Python and previous experience with machine learning. Experience with R, time series analyses and pattern recognition are valuable, yet not required.
The project will be supervised by Luisa Salazar-Vizcaya from Inselpital, Mariam Ait Oumelloul and Jacques Fellay.
Expected duration: 3-4 months
If you are interested, please contact Mariam Ait Oumelloul (mariam.aitoumelloul@epfl.ch).
Master Thesis Projects
Master Thesis Projects are started once the 90 credits of master cycle are obtained.
Projects should last 17 weeks – they are worth 30 credits.
Master Thesis Projects must be done individually.
Semester Projects and Lab Immersions
LST and BIOING students may do one semester project and several lab immersion(s) during their Master studies.
Semester projects are worth 12 credits, lab immersion 8 credits.