Postgraduate research opportunities Applying Large Language Models in Clinical Context

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Key facts

  • Opens: Tuesday 25 July 2023
  • Number of places: 3
  • Duration: 36 months

Overview

Super-large language models such as ChatGPT have demonstrated surprising abilities in handling natural language, solving mathematical problems and writing programming code. Still, there is very little formal assessment of their capabilities in specialised domains, such as medical. The project will explore how certain various clinical events (such as readmitting a patient to a hospital) can be predicted based on the notes that the health professionals write in free text form.
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Eligibility

Applicants should:

  • have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2:1 Honours degree (or equivalent) or Masters degree in a relevant subject
  • have interest in artificial intelligence and its applications
  • have good presentation skills
  • have basic knowledge of modern natural language processing would be desirable

Prior experience of machine learning would be advantageous, especially in the healthcare sector.

THE Awards 2019: UK University of the Year Winner
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Project Details

This project will look at creating a proof-of-concept application or testing existing systems in-field. The supervisor can also suggest some choices. Additional challenges such as privacy and safety of the underlying technologies can be explored on the way.

While technical skills such as Maths and programming are useful, the comprehensive understanding of the technologies involved is not crucial, since the most work will be done in-field: designing, testing and assessing a specific application of a LLM. We will work both with in-context learning (ICL), fine-tuning (training) and neural architecture changes if needed. We will use Archie-West Supercomputer Center, which will provide unique opportunity to using LLMs directly, without relying on public commercial APIs.

The project will be supervised by Dr. Dmitri Roussinov, who is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. He does research in natural language processing and artificial intelligence and their applications, such as medical, security, educational, etc. The candidate will join our team within the Strathclyde iSchool, in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, and work with a team who undertake research on developing and understanding modern technology in a variety of contexts i.e. analysing patient records, automated question answering, document classification, etc.

The iSchool at Strathclyde, is one of the leading and largest iSchools in the UK, and consists of over 35 staff and researchers working on a variety of problems from machine learning, algorithm bias and explainability to information seeking, retrieval and behaviour to human computer interaction and information interaction.

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Supervisors

Dr Roussinov

Dr Dmitri Roussinov

Senior Lecturer
Computer and Information Sciences

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Professor Dong

Professor Feng Dong

Computer and Information Sciences

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Apply

To discuss PhD projects in this area and potential funding opportunities please contact Dr Dmitri Roussinov (dmitri.roussinov@strath.ac.uk).

Please send a copy of your CV, a sample of writing (a publication or thesis you have written), a sample of code (preferably in python) and explain your interest in the topic area.

Number of places: 3

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