Profile
Sreejita Ghosh
Curriculum Vitae
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Education:
Primary and Middle school: Calcutta Girls' High School (Kolkata, India) High School: Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Salt Lake (Kolkata, India) Bachelors: Vellore institute of Technology (Vellore, India) Masters: University of Groningen, The Netherlands
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Qualifications:
My school and Bachelor years were in India. My GCSE equivalent was an exam called ICSE. My cumulative percentage was 94.4 (with English language and literature, mathematics, computer applications, chemistry, physics, biology, history, geography, and my 2nd native language Bengali). The high school leaving exam I had to take was called AISSCE and I had got a cumulative of 89% (with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, English and Bengali) . B.Tech in Biomedical Engineering (India). MSc. in Biomedical Engineering (Specialization: Diagnostic imaging and instrumentation / Clinical Physics) (The Netherlands) PhD (ongoing): Intelligent Systems group, Bernoulli Institute, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
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Work History:
Internship at Philips Research Eindhoven, during Masters. Teaching assistant for 'Modelling and Simulation' during Masters. Teaching assistant for courses called 'Introduction to Data Science' and 'Computational Intelligence to Neural networks', during my PhD.
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Current Job:
PhD student in Data Science/ Machine learning, in the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. I mostly work with doctors. One of them is from University of Birmingham and her patients are kids. I specially mentioned her here because she and I are fellow Whovians and share 3 supervisors (one of them is Prof. Neville Longbottom himself).
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Employer
One of the primary reasons I have been able to survive the “bad days” and weeks of academia is because of my supervisor and my promoter. They are brilliant minds but most importantly they are both wonderful human beings. My academic family consist of these wonderfully imperfect people and again, some of the best human beings I have met so far.
My work family at the University of Groningen is the Intelligent Systems family. We try to make computers more intelligent so that we can be lazy 😛
In summary I’d like to add that these sweet human beings are the reason that I enjoy research even when the results don’t support the research question I am trying to find an answer to, or the task I am asked to do seems too difficult. Family is one that nurtures us: these people who are in the same state as I am, especially my fellow PhD students (confused about future, sad at times because of research, lost in life), we make every day less confusing, less sad, and more fun for each other. I could not have asked for a better academic family.
I also have another academic family, in University of Birmingham and one of my supervisor there is Prof. Neville Longbottom disguised as a Muggle Mathematician/Computer Scientist. There is also my doctor friend/co-researcher, fellow Whovian Liz, and ofcourse another of our common supervisors, a strict but kind prof. McGonagall.
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About Me
Talkative introvert. I enjoy doodling, photography, and jiutjitsu.
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Read more
I am a Data Science PhD student in University of Groningen. I do jiujitsu. I am both a cat and a dog person, though currently I have can’t have any pets. I love travelling. When I am stressed with work I go on solo travels, swap stories with fellow travellers. I try to freeze fond memories with photography.
I am addicted to Aladin’s “It’s a whole new world” and recently during one of my research presentations I ended up singing it mid-way through my presentation. I am a WHOvian, a bit of a Potterhead, Hitchhikers’, Westworld fan (“What is the nature of your reality?”) , and want to believe that I am a ninja like Naruto (Dattebayo!).
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How I Use Maths In My Job:
I use Calculus and Linear Algebra to find hidden patterns in hormone profiles in our bodies and other types of datasets. I make mathematical models using these areas of maths, and fine tune the models using Statistical physics, and then use Geometry to make pretty figures which help visualise how accurate my mathematical models are. I use Probability and Statistics to check the performance of my mathematical models numerically.
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My Work
I use Calculus, Linear Algebra, and statistical physics to make mathematical models which can find hidden patterns in medical datasets to identify different health conditions
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My team and I have developed a ‘machine learning’ program which can identify rare diseases of the adrenal gland (a cap-like gland on top of each kidney), and help doctors find out faster which part of the adrenal gland is not working. The faster the doctors are able to find the problem the faster they are able to treat it.
Machine learning is where we teach a computer to recognise patterns in big data sets. In this case, the computer learns about perfect examples (‘prototypes’) of different adrenal diseases, from data about patients’ heart rate, blood pressure, ECG profile, and urine and blood test results. We can then show the computer some of these data from a new patient, and the computer can tell us which disease this patient might have.
Sometimes while dealing with rare diseases, doctors often do not know which hormones in the patient’s body are causing their symptoms. The program my team and I have developed can also give more information about which hormones are more and which hormones are less responsible for the disease. This can help the doctors to understand the adrenal disorders better.
We use computer science, maths and physics to help build up the model and make sure that it is as accurate as possible.
And here is a gif which shows how I use Geometry to make results of grouping by my model to appear on a spinning sphere (which I have named Sphere of Doom). The stars show the prototypes which are, as I mentioned before, the ‘perfect examples’. The alpha-numeric codes are the names of the hormone disorders which my program can find and gain knowledge about.
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My Typical Day
Wake up-brush-tea-get ready for work-bike to work-work-go to dojo or diving lesson or groceries-return home-dinner and netflix-sleep
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After waking up, brushing and getting the first cup of tea, I talk to my family in India. Then I get ready to go to my office where I spend the day trying to find out patterns (prototypes) from numbers generated by big medical machines. I use maths and physics to teach the computer to learn to spot these patterns when a new measurement comes from the big medical machines. Late evenings some days I go to my dojo for jiujitsu. Other days I just return home to cook food (I cook just twice a week, I am a very lazy person).
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The CHRISTMAS LECTURE related to my work:
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My Interview
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My favourite CHRISTMAS LECTURES memory is:
Tbh I got to know about the Christmas lectures during my PhD while working with my British collaborators. I have been watching the last lectures and like every episode I watched so far.
How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Eccentric, introvert, dark-humoured
What or who inspired you to follow your career?
My dad and my curiosity are the 'Who' and 'What' and my mom made it possible
What's your favourite use for maths in everyday life?
Geometry and Probability
What did you think about Maths when you were in school?
Back in India, if I did not get more than 95 out of 100 till secondary school then the family was ashamed of me :D. But I liked Maths since once I got the hang of it, it took least effort.
What did you want to be after you left school?
I wanted to become Biomedical Engineer, and develop new technologies in healthcare which could help doctors do their jobs faster
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I was a quiet and shy kid. As a result I was often bullied by the popular kids.
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
RadioDJ or a school teacher in some boarding school in Himalayas :)
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Queen, The Beatles, Poets of the Fall, Simon & Garfunkel
What's your favourite food?
Potato with poppy seeds (we call it aloo posto in my native language) prepared by my Nan. Also chicken rezala which I make.
What is the most fun thing you've done?
All my solo travels are fun. Especially sharing stories with fellow travellers I know I'll never meet again.
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