I would like to invite everyone to attend our annual EDIT (Emerging Diagnostic and Investigative Technologies) AI summer internship virtual conference. The conference will feature research in progress presentations and breakout sessions.

This year’s presentations will be held on August 23rd from 1-2:30 PM ET on Zoom (link below). The format of this year’s presentations is a virtual conference session. After a program overview, we will listen a few live keynote presentations from our trainees. Finally, all summer students will present their work in break out rooms. Student abstracts, poster presentations and powerpoint presentations will be available on the following website:

Overview

The Emerging Diagnostic and Investigative Technologies (EDIT) program is an integrated and collaborative resource in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine focusing on innovative diagnostic technologies for projects related to machine learning and computational diagnostic pathology, biomarker discovery, advanced ancillary testing; and genomic medicine.

The EDIT AI high school summer internship program introduces students to biomedical research, focusing on AI technologies and how these technologies can be applied in the clinical setting. Students in the EDIT AI program work as members of existing labs to develop and apply AI technologies across a range of diagnostic methods and medical specialties, from cancer detection and gigapixel image manipulation to text prediction and spatial omics. Students are selected into three program tracks: 1) skills development, 2) advanced research and 3) a supportive mentor track who had previously participated in the EDIT AI program. Students are mentored by biomedical researchers and clinicians and discuss their work with clinical collaborators in a weekly seminar series. They learn to design and pitch projects, to use and develop open-source, reproducible biomedical informatics software, and to work in a team culture that promotes broad collaboration. At the end of the summer, students present in a center-wide poster and presentation session. Mentors meet with students prior to these presentations and students are encouraged to consider how their work would impact “big picture” clinical practices rather than only focusing on computational aspects. Students are challenged to think critically about the successful design of clinically impactful technologies. Students have presented research at national conferences, participated in science fairs, co-authored academic papers, matriculated to college, and successfully applied for scholarships. Our goal is that students’ experiences in EDIT AI will continue to shape how they engage project stakeholders both during and after their time at Dartmouth.

We were very impressed by the aptitude and diverse range of interests of all summer program students. They worked alongside a team of clinicians, research scientists, undergraduate, Master’s, MD, PhD and MD-PhD students, all of whom aspire to improve public health through advancement and application of AI technologies. This summer, students worked on projects and listened to more than 30 seminar presentations from academia, medical and industry experts.

We have run this pilot program for the past 5 years. With support from the Dartmouth Cancer Center, the EDIT AI summer program for high school students has experienced remarkable growth, expanding from 6 participants in its first year to nearly 90 annual participants per year across 21 states. Last year’s presentations were very compelling and well received and we expect similar results this year. Feel free to stop by to support these young scientists. Please share this invitation with your colleagues. —Joshua Levy PhD, Louis J. Vaickus MD PhD , Matthew Hayden MD PhD