Andrew Guo - Dissertation du lauréat, 2021

Andrew Guo

Immediately after I responded to my first medical emergency as a lifeguard at my community pool, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare. Around the same time, I began learning computer programming and soon connected my desire to heal with the scalability of software technologies. I am currently a Dean’s Honour List student studying Computer Science and minoring in Bioinformatics at the University of Waterloo, seeking to engineer advanced algorithms to improve the quality and affordability of healthcare.

I knew about the almost unlimited potential in the field of artificial intelligence, so I decided to take online courses to learn about the core technology. After mastering the fundamentals, I reached out to a professor, eager to apply these concepts in real life. I am currently working on a research project with Professor Zelek at Waterloo, studying the flow of virus particles indoors using advanced machine learning techniques.

In the future, I hope to carry the experience from this project forwards into other areas of health, by deploying deep learning algorithms to diagnose and treat chronic diseases, ultimately making healthcare accessible and personalized. My short-term goal is to gain more industry software skills in healthcare companies through my co-op program, before eventually pursuing a graduate degree in computational biology. Eventually, with these skills, I hope to create my own startup in healthcare software to create products that reduce the diagnosis time of serious illnesses. The scholarship will give me the support to reach my dream.