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Two interns who have recently graduated from the Research Experience for Peruvian Undergraduates (REPU) have described how their experience of working alongside RDM researchers has opened doors to new opportunities.

Daniel Ibáñez and Ana Lucia Manrique

REPU is a non-profit initiative that offers talented Peruvian undergraduate students research internships at prestigious institutions around the world. The programme aims to bridge the gap between local education and global scientific research, equipping students with skills in biology, chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, ecology and computer science.

DPhil student Ricardo Gonzales in RDM’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, has remained involved with the running of the programme since completing his own REPU internship at Yale University in 2017. In 2020 he established the Computer Science branch (REPUcs) of the programme to provide similar opportunities for other students.

‘The experience was pivotal in shaping my research career and opened up many new opportunities,’ said Ricardo.

‘Since the first cohort in 2021, REPUcs has trained 23 students across 15 academic institutions in the UK, USA, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Our alumni have also contributed to 11 papers in areas such as medical imaging, natural language processing, computational social sciences, wearables and wireless communication.’

After completing the programme, many REPUcs interns continue their academic journey through graduate studies, become actively involved in the start-up ecosystem, or advance their careers as specialists in the computer science industry.

Daniel Ibáñez and Ana Lucia Manrique spent their internships in the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR) in RDM during the last two years.

Daniel spent five months in the Piechnik Group applying artificial intelligence techniques to cardiovascular MRI with the goal of making the process safer and streamlining automated image segmentation. His work resulted in a paper being published in the journal Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine.

Daniel commented: ‘It has been an incredibly enriching experience, especially with the constant collaboration with experts in cardiovascular medicine. Although I had previously conducted research part-time while working in industry, being fully immersed in a dedicated research environment provided immense learning opportunities, especially in project planning and effective experiment execution.’

Daniel is currently back working in industry as a data scientist applying his learning, and continues to keep himself updated with the rapid developments in AI. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in the coming years.

Ana Lucia spent four months with OCMR exploring and applying deep learning models to help clinicians interpret cardiac MRI scans more quickly and accurately by defining standardised myocardial territories. The initial findings of this work were presented at the International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2024) in Greece, which Ana Lucia says was an incredible academic achievement for her.

‘This experience was truly life changing. I am deeply grateful to REPU and OCMR for giving me this opportunity,’ said Ana Lucia.

‘It was an invaluable experience that allowed me to collaborate with a multidisciplinary team, significantly enhance my programming skills under the guidance of my mentors, and apply AI models to real-world medical imaging challenges.’ 

Ana Lucia is continuing to explore how AI and VR can improve healthcare through more internships and is applying to do her Masters and dive deeper into the field.