Two MICCAI 2020 student travel awards go to Alaa and Islem!
Congratulations to both Alaa (Ph.D candidate at BASIRA lab and University of Sousse, Tunisia) and Islem (Ph.D candidate at BASIRA lab and University of Sousse, Tunisia) for receiving the MICCAI 2020 Student Travel Awards!
We thank the MICCAI Board for offering such awards, which promote geographic diversity and support talented minorities in low R&D countries.
Islem Mhiri (MICCAI'20 Student Travel Awardee, Tunisia)
"I am very honored and grateful to have been awarded a MICCAI Student Travel Award in Lima, Peru. This is my first international conference and MICCAI paper! I am a second year Ph.D student at the National Engineering School of Sousse in Tunisia. Like many recent PhD students in a low-income country, conference attendance is crucial but funding is scarce. I find it highly motivating to see the MICCAI society investing in students and researchers in research and development countries. With such awards you provide minority students with the ability to attend MICCAI conferences and advance our career! Since, MICCAI is the first international conference in information processing, machine learning and computational modeling in medical image computing and computer assisted interventions, it will help me expand my skills in research and enhance my knowledge in this field. I am so proud to be a part of this amazing research community. I am sure it will be an excellent conference to network with professionals who share the same interests and to catch the latest trends of artificial intelligence and healthcare. I hope I will not only benefit from MICCAI but also contribute to the growth and development of the society in the future. My sincere thanks for your support!"
Alaa Bessadok (MICCAI'20 Student Travel Awardee, Tunisia)
"I am a second-year PhD student at the University of Sousse in Tunisia and a member of the Brain And Signal Research and Analysis laboratory (BASIRA lab) directed by Dr. Islem Rekik. I am working on brain data prediction using geometric deep learning which will help early diagnose neurological disorders such as Autism and Alzheimer’s disease. So far, I have two MICCAI papers MICCAI (2019 and 2020) and two PRIME workshop papers (2019 and 2020). I am very excited to present this year in MICCAI conference my paper about designing a geometric deep learning framework for the purpose of jointly predicting multiple brain graphs from a single brain graph. I am also proud to be part of the MICCAI Society member which supports talented young researchers in low-income countries by offering them travel awards. I take pride in getting a second MICCAI travel student award this year. Mainly, attending big conferences such as MICCAI is really challenging in Tunisia due to the lack of research funding and financial support. Hence, such award highly motivated me to contribute more to developing research in the medical field and connected me with high-level researchers within the MICCAI community. However, I wish that the MICCAI Society will consider offering many more awards in the upcoming years to particularly help women in developing countries (1) overcome barriers to innovation and contribution in the medical image analysis field and (2) empower them to reach their fullest potential by advancing their expertise, which will in turn benefit the whole community."