Melissa Haskell, an ECE postdoctoral researcher, was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health for her work using machine learning to improve functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Many factors, including movement, can affect the quality of an fMRI, which is used to measure and study brain activity. Haskell works to compensate for these factors, increasing the overall image quality by combining classical optimization and physics techniques with machine learning. Machine learning improves efficiency, but continuing to rely on traditional MRI physics ensures greater confidence in the final results.
