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08 March 2023

BMEIS doctoral fellow takes AI fetal screening research to Parliament

Research shortlisted for the STEM for Britain competition, 2023

Thomas Day outside Parliament

Thomas Day, an NIHR doctoral fellow at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, has attended Parliament to present his research focused on artificial intelligence to improve the detection of congenital heart disease in unborn babies.

Thomas’s research poster was shortlisted from hundreds of applicants to appear as part of the annual STEM for Britain competition in front of a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges.

Not all babies with health problems are diagnosed before birth. My research explores how Artificial Intelligence can improve fetal screening and lead to better survival and long-term development for babies affected with serious congenital heart disease.

Thomas Day, Doctoral Fellow, School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences

Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said:

“This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.

“These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”

STEM for Britain is run by The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Biology, The Physiological Society, the Nutrition Society and the Council for the Mathematical Sciences, with sponsorship from Dyson Ltd, Clay Mathematics Institute, United Kingdom Research and Innovation, Warwick Manufacturing Group, AWE, British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, the Society of Chemical Industry, Institute of Biomedical Science, the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, and the Biochemical Society.

The competition is open to early stage or early career researchers, which includes university research students, postgraduates, research assistants, postdocs, research fellows, newly-appointed lecturers, part-time and mature students, returners, those people embarking on a second career, and their equivalent in national, public sector and industrial laboratories, and appropriate final year undergraduate and MSc students, all of whom are engaged in scientific, engineering, technological or medical research.