Unam student’s AI can detect, classify brain tumours
Douglas Mashonganyika was inspired to create the app following his personal experience of a brain tumour when he was a child.
Douglas Mashonganyika, a fourth-year student who developed an artificial intelligence (AI) application to diagnose brain tumours, says he would like to expand this system to diagnose different types of tumours in various parts of the body.However, a lack of data is currently hindering this dream.
"The biggest issue with obtaining data specifically from the medical field is privacy and ethical concerns – you can’t just go to a doctor and ask for patient data – so we have to rely on publicly available data," he explained.
Mashonganyika is a computer science student at the University of Namibia (Unam) and developed the AI app Medalgo, which is free to download, as his final project. Medalgo can detect and classify brain tumours from MRI scans.
Personal motivation
The inspiration for Medalgo came from a brain tumour that Mashonganyika had removed when he was two years and eleven months old.
"The connection between the two [his brain tumour and the idea of creating Medalgo] came from the fact that my mother sought a second opinion," Douglas explained, who had been misdiagnosed. "I created the app to serve as a second opinion. If people are misdiagnosed, they may not get the treatment they need in time," he noted.
Mashonganyika grew up in the north of Namibia and developed a love for problem-solving and a passion for mathematics during his school years at Gabriel Taapopi Secondary School.
Originally, he wanted to pursue actuarial sciences, but his parents couldn't afford it. Mashonganyika then pursued a degree in accounting but quickly realised that accounting did not spark his passion for problem-solving. "It wasn't really something I wanted to do, but it was something to do – I couldn’t just sit at home and do nothing," he said.
Mashonganyika taught himself to code online through freecodecamp.org and convinced his parents to let him switch to computer science. His parents eventually allowed him to change his course at the end of his second year in accounting. [email protected]