The Tycoon Success Magazine has come up with an inspirational story of a visionary leader passionate about making a substantial impact in AI for healthcare – Prof. Saeed Amal, the renowned education leader and Assistant Research Professor at Northeastern.
His innovative approach, depth of knowledge, and excellent expertise have caught our attention and made us feature on the cover. In academics, Prof. Amal received his Bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Technion, where he was awarded the dean’s honor for outstanding academic achievement. His drive to spearhead creative research that might improve people’s lives led him to seek a Master’s and Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Haifa.
To learn more about his journey and leadership approach, we had a conversation with Prof. Saeed Amal. Here are the insights:
A Brief Overview of Northeastern University
Founded in 1898 with an innovative concept: education is about connecting with the world to solve issues and lead change. Based on cooperative education, this specific approach has resulted in an academic culture that pervades both undergraduate and graduate courses.
Northeastern University presently has over 35 specialized research and teaching institutes. It is renowned for its leadership in global experiential learning, urban engagement, and multidisciplinary research that addresses global and societal challenges. They enable undergraduate students to build their own academic journey by offering more than 90 majors and concentrations and possibilities for experiential learning in 92 countries.
Northeastern educates students in new fields and offers course delivery flexibility, allowing them to attend classes on campus, online, or hybrid, providing an educational experience tailored to their needs.
The Beginning: Saeed’s Inspiring Journey
Prof. Amal began his entrepreneurial adventure by launching Focal Pursuit, a startup based on his thesis study. The firm planned to use Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing to detect scams and malicious activities between corporations, mainly to prevent Ponzi schemes like Maidoffs.
During his Ph.D. in 2013, Prof. Amal focused on automatically producing entity profiles and representations for attaining equity on the World Wide Web and ensuring inclusivity without biases. As part of this study, he created a tool for a relational social recommendation that included a variety of AI approaches such as Generative AI, information extraction, machine learning, and deep learning. Based on their profiles, the program collected relational facts about individuals of interest from the web and produced an associative entity-relation social network.
He had a strong desire to contribute substantially to AI for healthcare in 2014, which led him to be appointed Vice President of R&D at a cardiology medical data firm. The business created artificial intelligence-based methods for diagnosing Sudden Cardiac Arrest and a Portable Miniature defibrillator for treating patients. Prof. Amal received a postdoctoral fellowship in 2021 from the School of Medicine at Stanford University. During this fellowship, he created extremely accurate AI-based algorithms using Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning, making significant advances in science and healthcare. These techniques were designed to find peripheral artery disease (PAD), a widespread and frequently undiagnosed cardiovascular condition. His research includes evaluating genetic information, polygenic risk scores (PRS), and Electronic Health Record (EHR) data.
In 2022, based on his outstanding achievements during his Postdoctoral fellowship, the magnificent man was appointed as an Assistant Research Professor at the bioengineering department in the College of Engineering at Northeastern University and a member of the Roux Institute, whose focus is research and entrepreneurship. With 22 researchers, Amal’s lab, The Amal Lab for Precision Medicine, focuses on transferring AI and generational AI research from the research lab to the medical clinics. Its primary research approach is as follows:
The use of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Pathology for Cancer diagnosis, grading, and patient care.
The application of artificial intelligence, generative AI, and multimodal data, such as electronic health records, medical imaging, and genetics, to improve the management of cardiovascular disease, including the recommendation of individualized treatments.
Overcoming The Hurdles along the way
Prof. Amal feels one of the major challenges was the sudden shift from in-person to online due to the coronavirus outbreak. This forced the change of all interaction methods between faculty and students, across students, and any in-person experience.
The pandemic led to myriad changes for students, faculty, and staff across Northeastern’s global network of campuses. The community masked up, socialized from a distance, learned in-person and remotely, and kept adapting and moving forward in many inspiring ways.
Numerous adjustments were made by students, teachers, and staff at Northeastern’s international network of campuses as a result of the epidemic. Society adopted disguises, engaged in remote socializing and learning, and continued to adapt and advance in various motivating ways. The numerous ways COVID-19 impacted global ties will be remembered in 2020.
Today, the university is bustling with life.
From the Visionary’s Desk
As a passionate professor dedicated to innovative scientific research, Prof. Amal aspires to leave a lasting legacy as a forward-thinking, inventive individual who motivates and guides future scientists and students in advancing the field of Artificial Intelligence for Precision Medicine. Furthermore, He intends to be known as a scientist and educator who develops and utilizes Generative AI and Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize medical research and healthcare procedures. He anticipates a time when his research will make diagnosis and treatment remarkably accurate and quick, dramatically improving the lives of millions of patients. This will happen through successfully applying these technologies to real-world circumstances.
Amal aspires to be recognized as a nurturing instructor who fosters inventiveness, curiosity, perseverance, cooperation, unity, diligence, and equity, hoping to leave a lasting impression!
A Brief Overview of Future Goals: Personal and Professional
Over the next five years, the leading man has a clear vision of his novel AI research in Precision Medicine, making a significant impact in medical clinics on a large scale, thereby revolutionizing healthcare and greatly enhancing patients’ lives. He aims to see this research implemented widely and effectively, saving and improving countless lives.
Prof. Amal believes the prospect of treating cancer would be made possible by using his ground-breaking Deep Neural network approaches to genetic data for cancer treatment. Additionally, his research will generate specialized suggestions for treatments and cures that cater primarily to people with cardiovascular ailments by employing his ground-breaking advancement in Generative AI.
The inspirational man also sees his personal growth and development along his journey inside the research institutions and institutes he is connected to. He expects to take on new challenges as he continues to delve further into his study, pushing the limits of what is currently understood and studied in AI and Precision Medicine.
“Through this growth, I aspire to become a recognized authority and a thought leader in the field of AI for Precision Medicine, providing significant insights and innovations that will influence the future of healthcare,” revealed Prof. Saeed.