Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from the EngerLab played an important role in launching the inaugural Sprint AI Training for African Medical Imaging Knowledge Translation (SPARK) program last June, in collaboration with McMedHacks and with the endorsement of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Interventions (MICCAI) Society. SPARK aims to cultivate a new generation of African AI experts in medical imaging, enabling them to train others.Ph.D. students Juan Duran, Sebastien Quetin, Hossein Jafarzadeh, and Yujing Zou have taken on the responsibility of training teams of clinicians and scientists from Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya, respectively. These four graduate students have provided virtual training sessions and travelled to each African country to conduct in-person training for their respective teams. Furthermore, postdoctoral fellows Dr. Laya Rafiee and Dr. Parsa Bagherzadeh have virtually trained teams from Cameroon and Ghana.
The EngerLab engaged with African colleagues and students in SPARK Africa initiative.