L.I.F.E. Fellows: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region

About Our College
AI Generations
Majors & Programs
Schools
- School of Computing and Analytics
- School of Media and Communication
Beyond the Classroom
Advising
Centers
- Center for Information Security
Cybersecurity Symposium

About the L.I.F.E Fellowship

Machine learning and computer modeling are changing the face of medicine. The next breakthroughs will require scientists and innovators eager to tackle hard problems around human health.

Local Initiative For Excellence (L.I.F.E.) Foundation Fellowships provide four-year scholarships and research stipends for highly-motivated undergraduates at NKU who major in the computational sciences and minor in the life sciences. L.I.F.E. fellows get the chance to work on multiple research teams during their time at NKU. The fellowship serves to jumpstart the next generation of computationally-grounded biomedical researchers who will then further their education in graduate school.

Current Fellows

Ben Coburn
Fourth Year Fellow

Major: Computer Science
Minor: Biological Sciences & Chemistry

Research Advisor:
Dr. Lauren Williamson

In this project, we study helminth infection and their effects on cognitive
development and the immune system on rats in a variety of ways, including RNA sequencing. I have been working with new types of cognitive tests to determine the effectiveness of parasites in rats. I have experimented with different software to effectively represent the results of these tests, and I have been working intensively on manuscript preparation.

Ashton Davey
Fourth Year Fellow

Major: Computer Science
Minor: Biological Sciences

Research Advisor:
Dr. Michael Guy

We study post-transcriptional tRNA modifications in yeast using molecular biology and genetic techniques. These tRNA modifications play a role in proper cell growth and are associated with diseases such intellectual disability and cancer. I have been conducting experiments to verify the activity of my candidate guide RNAs in yeast. I presented my work at the American Chemistry Society meetings in spring of 2024 in New Orleans. I will begin a Ph.D. program in biomedical informatics in Fall 2025.

Elaina Hall
Third Year Fellow

Major: Computer Science
Minor: Neuroscience

Research Advisor:
Dr. Nicholas Caporusso

We are working on developing an eye-tracking software that can use a webcam to diagnose concussions through irregularities in eye movement. I have been working with another student member of Dr. Caporusso’s research group on cleaning and analyzing the data that is being collected from the eye-tracking software. Recently, we completed the code for flagging and removing blinks from the dataset so as not to corrupt the rest of the data. Next, we will work on measuring different metrics from the data, such as saccades. I have two publications so far related to the eye-tracking project. My most recent work was multidisciplinary and focused on assessing reader engagement with medieval texts by applying eye-tracking software.

Tri Manh Do
Third Year Fellow

Major: Data Science
Minor: Biological Sciences

Research Advisor:
Dr. Seth Adjei

After working with Dr. Seth Adjei and his team on a natural language project, I am now part of a team developing an adaptive testing system we have been working on since summer 2023 that we plan to apply to NKU’s elementary programming course INF 120. This project aims to help students learn and master Python programming skills and inspect the relationship between skills and their order of acquisition to reach mastery of a subject.

Gaurab Baral
Second Year Fellow

Major: Data Science
Minor: Biological Sciences

Research Advisor:
Dr. Junxiu Zhou

I have worked on two main projects as a L.I.F.E. Fellow. My first project was the Movie Recommender System, dedicated to transforming movie-watching experience through application of innovative technologies. Employing advanced methodologies such as the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), deep learning methodologies, natural language processing (NLP), and matrix factorization, this project tailors movie recommendations to individual preferences. My current project is studying AI job trends in the current world and includes collaboration with several other NKU professors as well as an external professor.

Tyler Egloff
Second Year Fellow

Major: Computer Science
Minor: Neuroscience

Research Advisor:
Dr. Nicholas Caporusso

I am continuing to work on a project to develop a web application that records eye tracking data to diagnose concussions. I attended an international conference in Summer 2024 to present results of this project. I also have been part of a more recent project that applies eye-tracking software to assess how readers interact with medieval texts.

Mackenzie Glaser
First Year Fellow

Major: Computer Science
Minor: Neuroscience

Research Advisor:
Dr. Nicholas Caporusso

I am part of Dr. Nicholas Caporusso’s research group and am working on a human-computer interaction project focused on applying webcams and eye-tracking software to detect concussions.

Sophia Kapszukiewicz
First Year Fellow

Major: Computer Science
Minor: Neuroscience

Research Advisor:
Dr. Nicholas Caporusso

I’m working in Dr. Nicholas Caporusso’s Human-Computer Interaction lab on a project that uses webcams to detect concussions through eye-tracking software application.

L.I.F.E. Fellows

About the L.I.F.E Fellowship