Pallavi Tiwari

Pallavi Tiwari uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve outcomes for brain-related disorders like glioblastoma, a highly aggressive cancer with low odds of survival. She leverages these data science tools to ingest large amounts of data and correlate it to patient outcomes, which could lead to more effective, personalized approaches to cancer treatment and better quality of life for patients.

From an early age, Pallavi knew she wanted to be an engineer and help people, and biomedical engineering allowed her to accomplish both goals. As an undergraduate, she became aware of the potential for machine learning algorithms to improve health outcomes. Her graduate research focused on integrating data for prostate cancer detection. A conversation with a clinician sparked her curiosity about using algorithms to distinguish tumor occurrences from radiation effects, which is an enormous challenge in oncology.

Pallavi was attracted to the research ecosystem at UW–Madison and the opportunity to work with brilliant people not only in her field, but across campus. She has been instrumental in growing the Machine Learning for Medical Imaging initiative, which is building bridges among experts and researchers to address challenging problems in medical imaging.

“What really excites me is working with our wonderful team of students and learning from them on a daily basis, while contributing to work that could ultimately have an impact on people’s lives.”