Prizes awarded to Christ Church Computer Science finalists

Having long been passionate about using computer science to make a positive impact, Joshua Omolegan decided to focus his fourth-year project on the use of machine learning in healthcare. Specifically, his project concerned the application of ‘on the fly’ improvements to machine learning models for segmenting (labelling) parts of the foetal brain in 3D ultrasound scans.

As Joshua explains, differences between the data a machine learning model has been trained on and the data seen when deployed in the real world can often lead to a drop in performance – an issue that is especially pronounced in ultrasound due to various factors (for instance, since scans are acquired freehandedly, and due to differences between scanner manufacturers). Joshua’s research explored methods for improving the performance of segmentation models in such cases, even when there is a lack of labelled data to retrain the model. The hope is that such segmentation models can be made more robust, serving as more useful tools for tracking foetal brain growth and identifying potential indicators of severe neurological conditions.

Joshua was delighted to receive the Gibbs Prize in recognition of his excellent research: ‘I am extremely honoured and grateful to have received this prize from the Computer Science Department. I thank God, my tutor at Christ Church Dr Irwin Zaid, my project supervisor Professor Ana Namburete, her postdocs Dr Nicola Dinsdale, Dr Madeleine Wyburd and Dr Pak Hei Yeung, and all of the members of the OMNI research lab here at Oxford. 

‘I also thank my mother, siblings, extended family and friends for their invaluable support, and I especially thank Sean Paterson – the donor of my scholarship – for his generosity which enabled me to pursue my studies without financial concerns. My time at Oxford would not have been the same without these people, and I am eternally grateful to each and every one of them.’ 

Owen Agnel was awarded the Hoare Prize for the best performance this year in Oxford’s four-year Computer Science and Philosophy degree. The joint course has allowed him to explore several fields of study including quantum computing, applications of machine learning in healthcare, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. In the final year of the course Owen completed a research project in which he studied methods for simplifying quantum circuits. According to Owen, ‘although challenging, the project was also extremely formative.’

‘I learned a lot about the cutting edge of this field and academic research more generally.’

Responding to news of his prize, Owen said: ‘Receiving the prize was completely unexpected – frankly, I didn’t even know these prizes existed! I am incredibly honoured to be selected, but it definitely wouldn’t have happened without the support of my family, friends, and tutors (as well as my tutorial partners). I worked hard but I have also been unbelievably lucky.’

Now that they have reached the end of their studies, Joshua and Owen are embarking on careers that draw upon much of what they have learned at Oxford. Both of them are soon to take up software engineering roles in London, with Joshua joining Google’s UK head office where he previously completed two internships. The Christ Church community would like to congratulate Joshua and Owen on their tremendous scholarly success and to wish them all the very best in their future endeavours.