Back row, L to R: R. Matthew Wham, Xiaopeng Zhao, Joseph McBride. Front row, L to R: Henian Xia, Erica Hawkins, Adam Sullivan
A team led by NIMBioS senior collaborator and Univ. of Tennessee (UT) assistant professor Xiaopeng Zhao won second place in the Physionet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2010: Mind the Gap international competition. This year’s challenge called for participants to develop robust methods for filling in gaps in multiparameter physiologic data. These techniques have many potential applications ranging from sleep studies to surgery to sports medicine to intensive care. Fifty-three teams competed this year. A UT team from the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering designed a technique combining neuron network models with a nonlinear feedback mechanism, which can achieve up to 89% of accuracy in data reconstruction. The team received a $500 cash award. The team included three graduate students: Joseph McBride, Adam Sullivan and Henian Xia (who is a NIMBioS Graduate Research Assistant) as well as two undergraduate students: Erica Hawkins and Robert Wham. The team was assisted by J. Wesley Hines, associate professor of nuclear engineering; Kivanc Ekici, assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering; and Gerald Ragghianti of UT’s Newton High Performance Computing Program.