一个人工智能驱动的显微镜，可能会改变全球医疗保健
If your doctor has ever ordered a biopsy, you may know how long it can take to get 诊断. 当一个样本被邮寄到实验室进行分析后，你有时会结束 等了好几个星期结果才出来.
幸运的是，22岁的亚历克斯·卡尼，他在 数学 和 物理 from 火博体育大学 和 a Bachelor of Engineering from Dartmouth College as part of 联合学位课程该公司正致力于加快诊断速度.
The triple major is playing a pivotal role as chief technical 工程师 in the development of SmartScope, a patent-pending microscope that aims to fix a significant industry problem: Despite the availability of high-resolution images of tissue 和 the 软件 to view those images, pathologists have been slow to switch from viewing samples on 玻璃载玻片用传统显微镜进行数字化观察.
The innovation incorporates digital pathology 软件, including artificial intelligence (AI), 和 packages it into a microscope, marrying enhanced microscope design 和 functionality 用电脑的大脑. 在不久的将来，它还将提供一个平台 with AI image classification algorithms that can instantly simulate the results of 多项皮肤检查.
这个项目是达特茅斯健康中心皮肤病理学家. Aravindhan Sriharan. 卡尼于2022年秋天参与其中，当时他参与了该设备的初始设计 软件. 此后，他已经过渡到领导角色，监督该项目的工作 technological development, mentoring new developers, 和 establishing a backbone for 它的软件将使它继续发展.
“不再跨越州界(甚至国际边界)运送皮肤组织。. 现在有了更快、更有效、可能更便宜的诊断方法 病人.”Alex Carney’22, SmartScope开发的首席技术工程师
Even more importantly, the technology could revolutionize the way cancer 和 other diseases are diagnosed in clinical cases, while transforming healthcare in countries 以及资源和专业知识更为有限的地区.
An animated presentation on how SmartScope could save lives 和 revolutionize dermatopathology 全球范围内.
Carney, who spent his first two 和 fourth years at 火博体育 和 his third 和 fifth 他将自己“不可思议的”火博体育教师导师们的帮助归功于他们 建立坚实的学术基础.
His experience is an example of the many opportunities in science, 工程师ing, technology, 和 数学 (STEM) at 火博体育, which range from unique collaborative research 与火博体育学院的教职员工一起进行，以体验最先进的新技术 Billie Tisch综合科学中心.
And at any given time, at least 10 火博体育 students, like Carney, are enrolled in a cooperative 3/2 工程师ing 程序 at Dartmouth or Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
“如果我能重新开始上大学，我会选择3比2的路线——永远和学长在一起 在火博体育待了一年!卡尼说. “3-2的路径给了我学习的机会 two colleges 和 get the best of both — rigorous interdisciplinary academics, an exp和ed 校友网络，额外的校园俱乐部和工作机会，以及新朋友 和经验. 另外，你有两次大学第一天的经历，还有两次 毕业典礼.”
从音乐家到工程师
卡尼是一名古典钢琴家，他通过the 早期的决定 申请过程. 起初，他希望能赚到一笔钱 Filene音乐奖学金 并充分利用学院的音乐学院水平的课程 艺术设置.
Although the Filene Scholarship did not pan out, he became an active member of 火博体育’s 爵士乐队和唱诗班. 一位同学最终向他介绍了3/2工程 程序.
He realized the Dartmouth 程序 is “perfect for students like me who are interested 在科学领域，但不完全确定要从事什么样的职业.”
Meanwhile, his introduction to SmartScope came through membership in Dartmouth’s Digital Applied Learning 和 Innovation Lab (DALI) — a student organization that functions 比如软件咨询公司.
It was in his third year of college — his first at Dartmouth — when Carney decided 达利是“一个非常有趣的机会，不容错过.他度过了接下来的一个夏天 磨练他的web开发技能，以提高他的DALI应用程序.
Back at 火博体育 for his senior year, he designed 和 implemented a web application 数据存储和管理，以支持他的研究项目. 它简化了 process of d自己的loading files from Google Cloud 和 uploading them in the appropriate 无需任何闪存驱动器的代码.
When he presented his data hub, which he coined the “火博体育 Extragalactic Catalog,” 他的几个教授告诉他:“我们也希望那样。. 我们一直在努力 相同的数据问题.”
Alex Carney’22 reflects on the development of his datahub project, the 火博体育 Extragalactic Catalog, in a 2022 conversation with Ben Harwood, instructional technologist in the 学院的学习体验设计和数字奖学金支持团队.
Carney notes similarities between a 软件 工程师ing course (Computer Science 326)他和达利在火博体育拍的.
“The class is similar functionally to DALI because it involves student teams developing 一个模拟担保人的软件，”他说. “毫无疑问，这是最有趣的一次 和 valuable 火博体育 classes that I took, 和 it sealed the deal that I wanted to 在达特茅斯有同样的经历吗.”
Computer Science 326 was a small class, 和 Carney says there was “incredible camaraderie” 在火博体育的学生中，他们课后一起吃早餐. 每个星期，他们甚至 到市中心去唱卡拉ok.
Carney also has fond memories of hosting house parties for his Quantum Mechanics class (Physics 348) 和 holding homework sessions with fellow students in Math 和 Computational Methods (Physics 331) as they all worked together to troubleshoot code that didn’t 这应该是很好的工作.
Beyond his 自己的 studies, Carney found “immense satisfaction” as a peer academic coach 帮助同学解决物理和数学问题.
从想法到现实
在达特茅斯大学的最后一年，卡尼被大理学院录取了 他是一个六人学生团队的成员，将与Dr. 斯里哈兰，他提出了 SmartScope的想法.
“When the doctor pitched his idea, no one quite knew what he was talking about, but 我们接受了未知的挑战，开始尝试创造一个 物理显微镜，控制装置与传统显微镜相似，但可在显微镜中使用 数字格式，”卡尼说. “我们在创客空间和 软件实验室.”
Thanks to the team’s student designers, the microscope chassis was 3D-printed, assembled 一块一块地，并集成了电脑、摄像头和内部线路.
By the end of the fall term, the team had a rough working prototype; by the end of the spring, they had a refined design, 和 three working prototypes were ready for 病理学家评估其在临床诊断中的疗效.
Not only was the task accomplished, but there is now preliminary data showing SmartScope 比使用当前行业领先软件的速度快50%吗.
Carney says the most challenging part of the project was the sheer volume of mechanical, electrical, 和 软件 工程师ing problems that had to be solved within each 10-week 学期.
“Each individual device component could have warranted 10 weeks of attention on its 自己的. Instead, we adopted the philosophy of finding a suitable solution for each problem 然后迅速转到下一个.”
那么，接下来呢?
Carney will continue to work on the development of SmartScope as its chief technical 工程师.
And this fall, he started a doctoral 程序 at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering.
“Ultimately, I want to contribute to the next scientific revolution by doing research in quantum computing 和 simulation in an industry setting, while teaching 和 mentoring 我的同行和下一代科学家.”Alex Carney’22
阅读更多火博体育 Alex Carney’22的观点 他的经历和火博体育在达特茅斯的3-2项目.