AI_PREMie and seamlessCARE Among the Winners at the Fourth Annual AI Awards
- UCD PhD student also among awardees
Among the winners of the fourth annual AI Awards, announced yesterday, were University College Dublin’s AI_PREMie and seamlessCARE, a UCD spin-out company supported by NovaUCD. Also among the Awardees was Eoin Delaney a PhD student at the University.
The AI Awards, in 12 Award categories, are organised by AI Ireland to celebrate Irish Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation across diverse sectors, and to support the growth and development of Data Science, Machine learning, and AI in Ireland. They seek to recognise how AI can be used to help solve some of the biggest, business, academic, environmental and health challenges facing our society today.
AI_PREMie which is focused on addressing the significant challenge of diagnosing and managing preeclamptic toxaemia (PET), won two Awards, the Best Application of AI to achieve Social Good Award and the Best Application of AI in an Academic Research Body Award.
Professor Patricia Maguire, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and lead PI, AI_PREMie, winner Best Application of AI to achieve Social Good Award and Peter Lougheed, Microsoft Ireland
PET is a serious complication affecting one in every 12 pregnancies and is one of the world’s deadliest pregnancy complications and annually causes the deaths 50,000 expectant mothers and 500,000 babies worldwide. Clinical diagnosis of PET can be incredibly challenging and complementary diagnostic tests are an urgent unmet need.
AI_PREMie uses cutting-edge biomedical, clinical and machine learning techniques to analyse a combination of biomarker signals and clinically relevant maternal haematological, demographic and clinical assessment data, to return an easily interpretable risk score within a few hours, aiding clinical evaluation in real-time.
The biomarkers which can be used to diagnose preeclampsia risk were discovered using a novel non-invasive blood-based diagnostics platform (PALADIN) developed by Professor Maguire and her team at UCD.
Through the use of AI, the system will continually learn and provide care providers with an affordable risk stratification tool to closely observe pregnancies complicated by PET, helping to prevent unnecessary adverse outcomes for mother and baby.
Professor Patricia Maguire said, “I was privileged to accept two Awards today on behalf of the wider AI_PREMie team. It’s a true honour to receive this wonderful national recognition as we continue on our collective mission to get our AI_PREMie to everyone who needs it across the world.”
Professor Patricia Maguire, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and lead PI, AI_PREMie, winner of the Best Application of AI in an Academic Research Body Award, with Ana Le Chevillier, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and research scientist, AI_PREMie and Mark Kelly, founder of AI Ireland
The AI_PREMie team, led by Professor Maguire, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, also includes Professor Mary Higgins, Professor Fionnuala Ní Áinle, Clinical Associate Professor Jennifer Donnelly and Clinical Assistant Professor Neil O'Gorman, UCD School of Medicine, Associate Professor Brian MacNamee, UCD School of Computer Science and Professor Gerardine Doyle, Director, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.
seamlessCARE, a UCD digital health spin-out, was named winner of the Best Application of AI in a Start-up Award. seamlessCARE’s products are focused on enhancing communication and support the care of people with autism, acquired brain injury, dementia, intellectual disability and a wide range of other conditions.
The company’s first product, Empathic, helps non-verbal people to communicate their emotions. It records up to 10 seconds of a non-verbal person’s vocalisation. Then it uses AI to interpret how that person is feeling. The app/API has been trained to identify up to 10 emotions, including happy, sad, excited and frustrated.
seamlessCARE was co-founded in 2021 by Dr Aviva Cohen, Ian Kennedy and Dr Çağrı Çubukçu as a spin-out from the UCD School Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
Dr Aviva Cohen, CEO and Co-founder, seamlessCARE, winner of the Best Application of AI in a Start-up Award, and Mark Kelly, founder of AI Ireland
Dr Aviva Cohen, CEO and Co-founder, seamlessCARE said, "We are thrilled to win the AI Ireland Award for Best Application of AI in a Start-up. We hope that the Empathic app and API will enhance the quality of life for non-verbal people as they independently communicate their emotions. An Open Beta version of the Empathic app is now live and is available to download through our website. It was wonderful to see so many fantastic innovations in AI at the Awards event and a huge thank you to Mark Kelly and the team.”
Eoin Delaney, currently a 4th year UCD PhD student in the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics and the VistaMilk SFI Research Centre won the Best Application of AI in a Student Project Award. He won the Award for his research on Explainable AI (XAI), specifically on how black-box AI models can be explained to developers and end-users using counterfactual explanations.
UCD PhD student Eoin Delaney, winner Best Application of AI in a Student Project Award, and Mark Kelly, founder of AI Ireland
Eoin Delaney said, “I would like to especially thank my supervisors Dr Derek Greene and Professor Mark Keane for their help and guidance with the project, and also my friends and colleagues at UCD, Insight and VistaMilk for their support along the way.”
“It’s been fantastic to witness the breadth and depth of the AI Award’s winners today,” said Mark Kelly, founder of AI Ireland.
“As the world undergoes seismic change, the sheer breadth of AI and Machine Learning, research, development and implementation across private, public and academic organisations is exciting and shows how AI can help us embrace change and avail of massive opportunities in this new reality.”
Sponsors of the AI Awards are Microsoft, Alldus International, the ADAPT Centre, CCT College Dublin, Mazars and IDA Ireland.
Further information on all Awardees is available via https://aiawards.ie/2022-ai-awards-winners-revealed/
ENDS
24 November 2022
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, UCD Research and Innovation, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.
Editors Notes
AI Ireland is a non-profit community devoted to promoting AI in Ireland. AI Ireland through the use of AI Awards aims to increase public awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) and bring academia and industry together to showcase the excellent work done on the island of Ireland. Its focus is to support the AI community by recognising the hard work and dedication of those working in the field. https://aiawards.ie/