profile picture

Brianna M

- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at University of California San Diego (UCSD)

Expertise

Neuroscience, Machine Learning, Artificial Neural Networks, Neural Modeling, Philosophy of Neuroscience

Bio

Hello! My name is Bri Marsh, I am a third year Ph.D. student studying Computational Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. I currently work on machine learning methods for automated seizure detection and computational models of how to prevent seizures following traumatic brain injury. I have previously used artificial neural networks to model the monkey visual system, and to decode intent to speak from human EEG recordings. Outside of work, I love trying new restaurants and having beach picnics with my mini husky Kai! I also love yoga, meditation, and a hot cup of tea with a good book.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Machine Vision: Modeling the Visual System

We will start with a basic computational model of a single neuron, and progress to large networks of increasing complexity. At the end, we will have a model of the visual system capable of identifying hand-written numbers as well or better than humans can!

Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease with Machine Learning

This project applies machine learning to a practical problem - early diagnosis of degenerative brain diseases. We will use publicly available brain scan images of individuals who are health, have mild cognitive impairment, or suffer from Alzheimer's disease. We can feed these images into a convolutional neural network, or extract features from the images to use with a different machine learning technique, with a goal of identifying subjects who may progress to Alzheimer's disease. This will serve as a great introduction to the uses of machine learning in health care!

Coding skills

Python, MatLab, C++, R

Languages I know

Spanish (Intermediate)

Teaching experience

Teaching (2 years): Instructor for graduate level course Mathematical Foundations of Computational Neuroscience. Tutoring (4 years): Undergraduate Calculus, Undergraduate Differential Equations, High School English Second Language Students (All Subjects). Scientific Outreach (6 years): Teach neuroscience lessons / activities with Elementary through Community College students.

Credentials

Work experience

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2018 - 2018)
Summer Research Fellow
The University of California at Berkeley (2017 - 2017)
Summer Research Fellow (Amgen Scholar)
The University of Vermont (2016 - 2016)
Summer Research Fellow

Education

University of Kansas
BS Bachelor of Science (2019)
Behavioral Neuroscience
University of California, San Diego
MS Master of Science (2021)
Computational NeuroscienceNeuroscience
University of California San Diego (UCSD)
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Computational Neuroscience

Interested in working with expert mentors like Brianna?

Apply now