Cleveland Clinic internships provide valuable experience for two Miami University students
Experience included work on quantum computer, multiple sclerosis research
Cleveland Clinic internships provide valuable experience for two Miami University students
Videography by Cameron Johnson and Zach Burnett
Two Miami University students who interned at Cleveland Clinic said the experience gave them valuable insights that will benefit them in their careers.
Grace Holmes, a senior majoring in Biomedical Engineering, worked in the Kunio Nakamura Lab, which focuses on multiple sclerosis (MS) research. She gained experience using deep learning, which she described as artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Holmes worked on a computer using Python to analyze different biomarkers within the brains of patients from a research study.
“We were able to use different biomarkers within the patients’ brains to decide whether the diagnostic criteria were correct or not,” she said. “I was able to basically train my computer to learn the different biomarkers.”
Jose Roberto Fabre Segundo, a senior majoring in Physics with a combined degree in Computer Science, added a Machine Learning minor after his summer internship at Cleveland Clinic, during which he worked on a quantum computer.
“I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to work on a quantum computer — as a college student, especially,” he said, noting that the Physics Department’s Herrmannsfeldt Fund helped cover his housing expenses in Cleveland.
Both College of Engineering and Computing students said their education at Miami prepared them well for the internships at Cleveland Clinic, a world renowned nonprofit academic medical center based in Cleveland.
In an expansion of their quantum computing partnership and with a shared goal of supporting students and training the next generation of healthcare workers, Miami and Cleveland Clinic recently unveiled the naming of the Cleveland Clinic Health Sciences and Wellness facility on Miami’s Oxford campus.
Holmes: Technology can help speed diagnosis
The Nakamura Lab’s research focuses on MS, which increases disability caused by tissue damage in the central nervous system. The lab’s main research goals are to develop software to automatically perform reliable measurements from brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs), investigate new imaging and analysis methods to assess how MS develops, and apply the new techniques in patients to improve understanding of the disease.
“My internship taught me that the technology … can help speed up the process of diagnosis for multiple sclerosis so that it can include people who weren't necessarily diagnosed with MS in the past but now can start treatment earlier to hopefully minimize their symptoms,” Holmes said.
She chose Biomedical Engineering as a major after being inspired by two aunts who work in the STEM field. “I wanted to be hands-on and in the medical industry but I knew I didn't want to be a doctor, so I ended up landing on Biomedical Engineering,” she said.
After graduation, she intends to go into an area of the Biomedical Engineering field, possibly the medical device industry or sales.
Holmes said she enjoyed presenting the work she did during her internship to Cleveland Clinic staff. “I had this giant three- by four-foot poster that kind of summarized all my research with different graphs,” she said.
Another highlight of her internship was attending the Mellen Center Update in Multiple Sclerosis, a Cleveland Clinic symposium in June that provides an update on understanding and managing MS.
“I was able to listen to different doctors and nurses and even researchers to learn more about multiple sclerosis treatment and the diagnostic criteria, which is being updated to include the central vein sign (a finding on MRIs of the brain associated with MS),” Holmes said.
Segundo: a first step toward research
When Segundo started at Miami, his goal was to major in Physics. When he realized how much coding physicists use these days, he started taking coding classes “and I fell in love with it.”
That’s why the international student from Brazil added the Computer Science major. “And then, most recently after my experience at Cleveland Clinic, I decided to add the Machine Learning minor because it's really something that is here to stay,” he said.
Segundo hopes to become a researcher someday but hasn’t decided yet if he will go to graduate school after his expected graduation from Miami in 2027.
“What I absolutely know is that I want to work on research and hopefully meaningful research,” said Segundo, who has started research with Imran Mirza, associate professor of Physics and affiliate faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.
Segundo said Miami was an obvious choice.
“That’s because when I compared the opportunities I had as an international student, being able to come to the school, to get financial aid, and everything else, and I also combine it with an excellent academic degree, it was just a no-brainer,” he said.
He summed up his experience at Miami as “one of extreme gratitude because I honestly feel like every time I needed something, people were there for me." He said his Cleveland Clinic internship gave him a wonderful opportunity working on IBM Quantum System One, located on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus.
“In Brazil, the first quantum computer just arrived a couple of years ago, and it has three qubits, and I am very glad to have had the opportunity to come to Cleveland Clinic and use a quantum computer that has 127 qubits.”
Segundo defined qubit as the equivalent of a classical bit for a quantum computer, “which is the smallest piece of information possible where you can have some information encoded. So, while a bit can be 0 or 1, yes or no, on or off, a qubit can be any number in between 0 or 1.”
Connecting with family in Brazil
Segundo said he has frequently connected with his father over FaceTime to talk about school and his internship experience.
“I was the first one among my brothers to come to college,” Segundo said. “And although my dad did go to college, (for me) to come to another country and then achieve these things is definitely something that he's proud of — although he might not understand what a qubit is.”
Segundo had a memorable internship experience.
“I had the opportunity to work with some of the top scientists in the field and in an environment that's highly demanding, and that's something that I really value,” he said.
He was involved in the Discovery Accelerator program, a partnership between Cleveland Clinic and IBM , designed to advance research in healthcare and life sciences.
All of the interns in that program had the opportunity to use IBM Quantum System One to work on a project and attempt to finish it. “Not everyone was able to, but I was,” he said.
Segundo said his project was the Synovitis Data Project, “which basically means that we had an MRI scan of the knee, and we try to find signs and close to how much water was being held at every single point in the knee. And we used a quantum computer to run artificial intelligence models to try to predict that.”
Segundo said his biggest takeaway from the internship came after he heard Dr. James Stoller, Chief of Education at Cleveland Clinic, urge them to pursue work that is worth doing.
“And healthcare research, for example, has a direct impact on people, and so that motivated me to pursue that further,” he said.
Established in 1809, Miami University is located in Oxford, Ohio, with regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown, a learning center in West Chester, and a European study center in Luxembourg. Interested in learning more about the College of Engineering and Computing? Visit the website for more information.
