Drexel University’s College of Computing & Informatics (CCI) third-year BS in Computer Science student Abhishek (Abe) Jeyapratap won first place in the undergraduate “Brain and Behavior” category at the 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Student E-poster Competition.
His poster, titled “A Structural Connectivity-Driven Neuroimaging Biomarker for Autism Spectrum Disorder,” introduces a neuroimaging biomarker called Network Normality Score (NNS) that can identify brain abnormalities and quantify dissimilarities in the network topology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is valuable for early diagnosis.
Using structural connectomes derived from diffusion MRIs from both individuals with ASD and without ASD (controls), the neuroimaging biomarker uses graph matching to capture the topological differences between two brain networks. By calculating the NNS of an ASD individual relative to those without ASD, the research measures the severity of ASD and show the efficacy of NNS as a diagnostic biomarker for ASD. View the poster abstract here.
As part of his award, Jeyapratap received a cash award of $500, a one-year AAAS membership, a digital subscription to Science, his name and poster title printed and published in Science, and a recognition certificate. His research was also accepted at the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging Conference (April 18 to 21, 2023 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia), where he will also present.
He describes his experience in producing a research poster as an undergraduate student as a steep, but fun, learning curve. He was first introduced to the competition by his research advisor and Assistant Professor of Computer Science Yusuf Osmanlioglu, PhD during his graduate-level computational neuroscience course. Although he had never created a research poster before, Jeyapratap entered the competition by submitting a written abstract describing the poster’s concept. Once the abstract was accepted and he entered the second round, he created the poster (using a software called Inkscape) and submitted it. After proceeding to the final round, Jeyapratap formally presented his work on March 4 at the AAAS Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C.
Drexel University served as host university for the 2023 Annual Meeting (March 2-5), which featured groundbreaking multi-disciplinary research to advance knowledge and respond to the needs of humanity. Learn more about the 2023 Annual Meeting on AAAS’ website.