Creating a population study to track lead exposure and educational outcomes in Baltimore. Developing novel automated methods for breast cancer detection in low- and middle-income countries. Uncovering lost text in a rare 16th-century book edited by Erasmus. Using virtual reality to allow people to “enter” and explore a human brain in order to experience the brain as impacted by depressive disorder.
These are among 30 multidisciplinary endeavors that have been selected to receive support this year from Johns Hopkins University’s Discovery Awards program. Each project team is made up of members from at least two JHU entities who aim to solve a complex problem and expand the horizons of knowledge.
Altogether, the winning project teams-chosen from 190 proposals-include 108 individuals representing 11 Johns Hopkins entities. Notably, the partnerships engage the University Libraries and Museums for the first time in the program’s four award cycles. They are joined this year by all 10 university divisions.
“This year’s proposals attested to the intellectual creativity and collaborative spirit of our university,” says Ronald J. Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University. “With these awards, faculty will have the freedom to pursue new avenues for discovery with colleagues across our community, and to take up the most pressing questions we face as a society.”
Three Malone faculty members, Gregory Hager, Mandell Bellmore Professor of Computer Science and director of the Malone Center, Muyinatu Bell,assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Emad Boctor, assistant professor of radiology and radiological science, are on teams that have received 2018 Discovery Awards.
Their winning projects are:
Automated Breast Cancer Screening on Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (3D Mammography) Using Deep Learning Systems – Susan Harvey (Medicine) & Gregory Hager (Engineering)
Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Gynecological Surgeries – Muyinatu Bell (Engineering) & Karen Wang (Medicine)
Ultrasound Imaging of Voltage Membrane Abnormality: A Potential Prostate Cancer Detection Technology – Emad Boctor (Medicine), Zaver Bhujwalla (Medicine), Maged Harraz (Medicine), Ralph Etienne-Cummings (Engineering) & Martin Pomper (Medicine)