Hello,
I am Matthew
I believe this is my dual purpose in life: to research AI applications for medical diagnosis and to use music healing for mental health, perhaps combining both methods in a complementary manner.
I am passionate about music and the healing effects of music therapy
Through personal experience, I had gained knowledge about music therapy. For over ten years I’d been playing violin, but during the pandemic’s isolation, this activity grew more meaningful. As I expressed myself daily, my violin helped me release negative emotions and become happier. I began to view music as a therapeutic intervention, both for me and my family. In my sophomore year, my mom’s breast cancer had recurred, and I saw the evidence of music’s healing effects. Music comforted my mom as she endured the pain of her treatment, and it helped my dad and me stay strong.
I wanted my fellow schoolmates to benefit from music like I did and alleviate their emotional suffering. I recruited other student musicians and we now perform once a month in the wellness center, doing our part to lift spirits and help release negative energy and emotions. The time I spend organizing and practicing for the concerts is worth it when I see the joy and excitement on the students’ faces.
“I began to view music as a therapeutic intervention, both for me and my family. I wanted my fellow schoolmates to benefit from music like I did and alleviate their emotional suffering.”
I’d been enthralled by STEM since childhood.
I’d been enthralled by STEM—especially mathematical problems and computer programming—since childhood. So it wasn’t surprising that artificial intelligence captivated me. This deep interest led me to UCSB’s Summer Research Programs for my first experience with research work and first exposure to using machine learning algorithms in the medical field. At UCSB, I researched and coded a GAN model for recreating memories from brain signals. My subsequent paper was published in the “Journal of Student Research” and presented at the UCSB Capstone Seminar. I became obsessed with how AI could be utilized for medical diagnosis, especially for early detection and prevention of illness.
With that experience under my belt, I began my next challenge: researching machine-learning applications in the genomic field with Professor Qing Nie at the NSF-Simon Center at UCI, where I currently intern. I’m exploring how machine-learning algorithms can find biological similarities between two random spots in an incoherent sea of gene expression and spatial data from thousands of cells. This process creates an interconnected web within the human body for doctors to examine, allowing them to better diagnose patients and perhaps prevent their illnesses.
“I became obsessed with how AI could be utilized for medical diagnosis, especially for early detection and prevention of illness. ”