By David Yagudayev, Science and Technology Editor
Judah Berman (YC ‘26) is a third year student at Yeshiva University majoring in biochemistry and minoring in psychology and business. He went to Katz Yeshiva High School for high school and attended Yeshivat Orayta during his gap year in Israel. He is currently doing research in Dr. Martin Prince’s radiology lab at Weill Cornell Medical College on the Upper East side.
What do you study in Dr. Prince’s lab?
It’s a computational lab, and we are essentially trying to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) to do the work that radiologists do.
How did you get involved in this research?
I was looking for summer research programs in the city this past summer. I applied to several programs I found online and was accepted to one at Weill Cornell, where I worked this past summer. I enjoyed the work and thought it was interesting, so I decided to continue into the school year.
What did you hope to gain from this research experience?
I hoped to get some computational experience, and this has helped me do so. I’ve also gained a greater appreciation for the ways that technology will impact medicine in the next 20 years.
What role do you play in this lab?
Most of the hard core programming is handled by masters and PhD-level computer scientists, but there are a lot of smaller analyses that can be run with the data we generate. We anatomically label MRI scans, which allows us to compute organ values and such, then run longitudinal analyses to help diagnose patients struggling with different diseases.
Is there anything you encountered that was especially difficult during the research?
I had limited programming experience going in, so I found that to be quite difficult. Programming an AI to be able to read MRI scans or CT scans takes loads of coding using primarily deep learning algorithms, something which I was ill-prepared for but gained some measure of comfort in.
What did you find most interesting about your research?
I think the potential for its widespread application in the medical world is what is so interesting to me. There is so much data being loaded into these computers, and the sorts of analyses that they can pull off is astounding. For example, for a patient with polycystic kidney disease, being able to compose a 3D image of the patient’s stomach cavity from MRI scans and compute the amount of cysts they have, as well as their current size and growth rate.
Lastly, do you have any advice for students interested in lab positions?
The main thing is not to be afraid to ask or apply. Go out and ask your professors if you can join their labs or reach out to researchers at hospitals to see if you can join their labs. If you don’t take the initiative, you won’t get anywhere.
Photo Caption: Judah with fellow researchers
Photo Credit: Judah Berman