Profile
Alexander Coles
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About Me:
I am 27 years old and live with my partner in Leeds. I use AI for cancer research. I love rock climbing, miniature painting, reading and travelling.
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I went to a school in Derby until I was 18. I studied Physics at the University of Nottingham before starting my PhD for AI in Medicine in 2020. I have enjoyed rock climbing since I was 3 years old and have gone on many rock climbing holidays in the UK and Europe with my friends. I have been painting and playing miniature wargames since I was 8 and have enjoyed seeing my painting improve over the years.
I have been an avid climber since I was very young and I have only got more in to the sport after I met like minded people at University.
One of my recent miniatures i have painted. I enjoy having creative and sporty hobbies outside of work that help me switch off and take a break.
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My pronouns are:
He/Him
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My Work:
I am a PhD student at the University of Leeds researching the use of artificial intelligence to detect recurrences of cancer from data stored in patients’ electronic health records.
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Medical Doctors use the dates of patients’ cancer recurrences and other events (known as clinical endpoints) to measure how effective their treatments are at curing cancer. Where these events are not consistently recorded in a structured manner (structured means as a date like 09/1/2024 in a box dedicated to the recording of a date, unstructured would be like “the recurrence happened last Tuesday”), Doctors must trawl through the unstructured texts or look at other structured data to infer when recurrences occurred. This takes Doctors away from other more important jobs like looking after patients. Therefore, my job is to research whether artificial intelligence can be used to infer when these recurrences have occurred from looking at the structured data in patients electronic health records’ so that we can compare cancer treatments more effectively and ensure we are using the best treatments for patients.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up, make my partner a tea and feed the cat. I make myself a coffee and start my laptop up at 9am. I usually double check that I have not missed any emails (working from home means you get lots of communication through emails and its easy to miss them). I then set about either starting or continuing an experiment on my computer. I tend to get more work done at home. Occasionally I will go into university for a change, where I spend a lot of my time chatting to my colleagues, this is great because I get to learn from them about their work and problems but it also means I get very little work done that day.
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Starting or continuing an experiment involves me coding in the programming languages Python or R. Starting a new experiment usually involves a lot of googling, followed by manipulating any health data I have into the right format for the artificial intelligence model I want to use (we computer scientists call this pre-processing). Once I have got my model working I tend to spend the rest of the day tweaking my code and observing how this changes the results. I want to make the best model to identify cancer recurrences after all.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
In my PhD training scheme we have a group who help organise STEM outreach activities. I have taken part in many of these activities where we use equipment to help explain our research to the general public. If I were to win the prize money, it would go towards buying dedicated (working) equipment to help us explain our research at these events.
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Education:
I went to School in Chellaston which is a small suburb of the city of the Derby. I then went to the University of Nottingham to study a Masters Degree in Physics and Astronomy. I am now at the University of Leeds researching for a PhD in the Centre of Doctoral Training of Artificial Intelligence for Medical Diagnosis and Care.
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Qualifications:
2015-2019 MSci Hons Physics with Astronomy
Qualification Obtained: MSci Hons
Classification: 1 (First Class)2013:2015 A Levels: Maths A, Physics B , Biology B
2012-2013 GCSEs: 11 A*-B including French, German, History, IT. BTEC/EC2 Engineering Distinction*
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Work History:
Age 17/18 Kitchen Porter at a local Pub
Age 22/23 Aerospace Trainee at Gobel and Partner
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Current Job:
Postgraduate Researcher / PhD student.
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Employer:
University of Leeds
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My Interview
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My favourite CHRISTMAS LECTURES memory is:
I have watched many Christmas Lectures over the years. Not one specific memory springs to mind, but I tune in every year as I enjoy learning about maths and science from many fields as it is always accessible to anyone from any background which I really love.
How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Curious Creative Climber
What did you want to be after you left school?
In primary school I wanted to be an archaeologist or palaeontologist. However, I began to be more interested in maths and physics, so I pursued Physics and Astronomy at university.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I was very occasionally in trouble but most of the time I enjoyed learning in school.
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
If I was not using my maths/physics knowledge to help healthcare I would likely be in the space industry as I have a real love for astronomy and the future of space travel.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Bring Me The Horizon
What's your favourite food?
All food except Brussel sprouts!
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Infinite money, the ability to fly and good health for life.
Tell us a joke.
There were a group of protesters in front of a Physics lab. They were chanting "What do we want? Time travel. When do we want it? Irrelevant."
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My Comments
do you like any sports (1 comments)