summer school

Machine learning summer school in healthcare and biosciences

August 6th - August 13th 2022

ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

table of contents

• Lecturers

• Schedule

  • Full schedule

• Educational outcomes measurement

• Partners

• Testimonials

Bumblekite summer school is FOUR’s annual machine learning summer school (MLSS) in biosciences and healthcare.

MLSS aims to teach both data & software engineering skills and domain-specific knowledge, as well as skills in writing, teaching, project management and strategy development — equally important communication skills which we believe are crucial to making positive contributions in this field.

We are looking for:

• last-year undergraduate students,

• graduate students (MSc, PhD),

• early career professionals with up to 5 years of experience

who are currently studying/working at the intersection of bio & computing and would love an opportunity to deepen their skills and knowledge within this exciting interdisciplinary area with the goal of becoming the decision-makers & leaders of tomorrow in the field that is rapidly reshaping the healthcare systems across the globe as we know them today.

At Bumblekite, our priority is to expose our community of participants to a diverse network of top professionals engaged at the fourfronts (word pun intended) of machine learning, healthcare, and interdisciplinary collaboration, among others. Our invited lecturers are leaders and pioneers in their respective areas of expertise and, equally importantly, they are also amazing people.

The school’s curriculum is designed to cover in depth pressing topics in machine learning, biosciences, and healthcare, while prioritizing practical applications of computing in healthcare, biomedical research and direct patient care.

Our goal is for each participant to be challenged, while receiving the personalized attention and support necessary to succeed in their professional aspirations.   

Every dataset analysed, problem solved and a policy written - every session created and delivered is done through the lens of how that particular action helps the patient achieve their goals. Patients’ stories are at the heart of the school, creating a storyline through which we will journey together in the 8 days. 

A single day at the school represents a data layer of a healthcare system that touches the patient life. We will start with a layer of data familiar to many clinical measurements that come from a visit to the hospital, emergency room, intensive care unit, a blood withdrawal, and move onto imaging, sensors, sequencing, multimodal and healthcare systems data. 

A typical day at the school will include the following session types:

• Engineering keynote lectures: leaders in the field provide an overview of their area(s) of expertise.

• Tutorials: excellence in practice: guided exposure to e.g. relevant data sets followed by practical assignments.

• Workshops: skills-building sessions designed to foster presentation of data products, data visualization, writing, project development and adjacent skills.

• Office hours: opportunities for personalized advice from our lecturers and our team on participant’s own project or paper.

• Leadership conversation series: talks, debates, and Q&A sessions with esteemed professionals who have pushed the boundaries of what is possible in their fields for a conversation with our participants and the local public.

• Introduction to and the closing of the day: time to prepare for and reflect on the day that has passed.

Social programme
With the recent emergence of the new COVID-19 variant, out of an abundance of caution, in order to minimise the number of closed spaces the participants will frequent during the MLSS week, the content planned for our social programme has been incorporated into our main MLSS schedule.

pre-MLSS technical onboarding
Our MLSS programme is preceded by a technical onboarding one led by Florian Georg, developer audience lead at Microsoft, together with Lisa Wolffhugel, partner cloud solutions architect, where the participants will set up their work environments on Azure.

The technical onboarding consists of three main elements: a 2h-long virtual session that will take place on August 3rd starting at 1.30pm CET (recording of which will be shared), self-paced learning materials & asynchronous support from Azure specialists for any outstanding questions you may have.

schedule breakdown by days:

We have designed & built the MLSS curriculum around a set of key measurable learning outcomes. What does this mean in practice?

Our Bumblekite 2022 partner was Microsoft.

We are excited to be a part of Zürich’s vibrant business community & partner with local innovators, changemakers & businesses we admire.

Bumblekite MLSS is a great learning platform for professionals and students working at the interface of AI and healthcare. It was truly an enriching experience to meet people from diverse backgrounds along with leading experts from both academia and industry in the field. Through this summer school, I have been able to expand my professional network, gain a clearer vision of my career path, and make some great friends!

- Sakshi Khaiwal, participant

The experience was incredibly enriching, and I learned a lot about the organizational and management aspects of artificial intelligence in medicine.

The highlight of the summer school for me was the emphasis on understanding the whole approach from patient data to making diagnostic tests. While technical aspects are constantly changing, the understanding of the overall approach is essential, and I feel that this summer school provided me with a solid foundation in this area.

Since the summer school, I have had the chance to stay in contact with some of the participants and speakers, and have found that we share a common interest in the subject matter. Through these interactions, I have gained a broader understanding of the potential applications of AI in healthcare and its impact on patients.

I feel that this summer school was a great investment, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about broad aspects of AI in healthcare. The summer school provided me with valuable knowledge and skills that I believe will be beneficial in my future endeavours.

- Luka Opasic, participant

It was an honor to be the keynote opening speaker for the 1st Bumblekite machine learning summer school in healthcare and biosciences. I was impressed with the speaker lineup, covering many machine learning domains (e.g., imaging, drug discovery), both from academia and industry. Moreover, we had a very engaging discussion about careers in machine learning, which emphasized the different aspects of doing machine learning in research, both challenges and opportunities in academia and industry. I highly recommend attending the summer school and becoming a part of this vibrant community.

- Mirabela Rusu, lecturer

Working with cancer epigenetics throughout my PhD has made me aware of the increasing importance of Machine Learning in the field. When I first read about the Bumblekite ‘22 summer school and considering I come from a bio background I was a bit unsure if my programming skills were sufficient, nevertheless, I decided to apply and join.

I am really glad that I did, I learned so many things from the lectures, the other participants, and especially from the leadership conversation series. This was also one of the main things that inspired me to participate in my first hackathon. 

Unexpectedly, I ended up forming and leading my hackathon team, something that was completely new to me. I felt a bit lost at first, but then I remembered that Jonas (one of the speakers in the leadership conversation series) answered “I care. About people and the output” when asked what makes him a good leader. I thought: “hey, this is something I can relate to”, so, I tried getting to know the persons in my team and what we could achieve during just one weekend. I’m quite happy with how that experience turned out and ended up thinking: Is this what leadership is about? 

I think looking back, the leadership conversation series at Bumblekite ‘22 made me realise that there are several ways to approach leadership and there definitely is one that aligns with your values.

- Anja Hartewig, participant

Initially I was a bit hesitant to attend Bumblekite '22, it was an excellent curriculum but the registration fees were a concern. I went to the summer school with no expectations but decided to give it a shot, you never know, lightning could strike. Hands down, it turned out to be one of the best investments of my life.

Thanks to Bumblekite's networking and interaction with so many experts in both academia and industry, I am currently working as an RA in NYU Abu Dhabi and I will start my PhD at NYU in September 2023. This opportunity has completely changed my life and the limits of my personal and professional goals. Plus you get to meet so many incredible people at the top of the healthcare industry.

- Julián Lechuga López, participant

Holding onto both excitement and doubt about my career development, I attended the Bumblekite summer school in the summer of 2022. As a computer science major with a focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence, I found the program to be a fabulous experience that allowed me to take my first step into the healthcare and machine learning field. The program struck a good balance between fundamental and cutting-edge knowledge. I still keep in touch with the friends I made during the summer school, and our follow-up travels and communication have been cool and fun.

In addition, I never expected to find an exciting master's thesis opportunity at Erasmus MC through one of my summer school friends. The face-to-face conversations with professors and speakers gave me valuable advice and helped confirm my decision to pursue this field. If you're looking for a chance to talk with professionals in person while studying and make friends who share your academic and career interests, Bumblekite summer school is an opportunity you don't want to miss.

- Jin Ouyang, participant