Issam El Naqa
El Naqa Lab Students and Trainees
Jesutofunmi Ayo
Fajemisin, MSc
Graduate Research Student
Jesutofunmi is a Medical Physics PhD student at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. She earned a BSc in Physics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and an MSc in Theoretical and Applied Physics from the African University of Science and Technology in Nigeria. She will be working in the Department of Machine Learning at Moffitt Cancer Center, under the supervision of Dr. El Naqa. Her research goal is to create and validate a toolkit of artificial intelligence-based techniques that can effectively leverage the wealth of data generated by an MRI-LINAC to provide a robust solution for personalized and adaptive radiotherapy.
Yasmin Saeed
Research Student Trainee
Yasmin Saeed is a pre-medicine student at the University of South Florida in her junior year. Yasmin is currently majoring in Biomedical Sciences, as well as, minoring in Addiction Studies and Nutrition. Yasmin is skilled in the customer service industry as a result of working in retail and healthcare institutions. As an elected leader, she has actively mentored younger members of her youth group in delivering local community outreach programs while supporting day to day operations in record management and research coordination. Yasmin will be working with Eduardo Carranza.
Mackenzie Anderson
Research Student Trainee
Mackenzie is a recent graduate of the University of South Florida Honors College, where she pursued a degree in Chemistry with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. Mackenzie is currently taking a gap year while applying to dental school and gaining hands-on dental experience through working at a pediatric dental practice here in Tampa. Seeking to broaden the realm of her clinical experience beyond the field of dentistry and gain a better understanding of the methodology of medical research, Mackenzie is excited to join Dr. El Naqa team under the guidance of Dr. Jacqueline Andreozzi. She plans to utilize her engineering background and her detail-oriented and punctual nature to be an asset to the Machine Learning Lab. Mackenzie is passionate about Moffitt’s commitment to improving health outcomes, and she hopes to contribute to this mission as a part of the team. As a dentist, Mackenzie aspires to utilize both her clinical and research experience as well as her work with volunteer dental clinics here in Tampa Bay, to provide caring, compassionate, and holistic dental care.
Duong Tung Mai
Research Student Trainee
Duong Mai is a Computer Science student at the University of South Florida. With his interests in the intersection of Computer Vision and Cancer Treatment Therapy, he is passionate about learning about the potential and challenges this research field holds. Throughout his upcoming research experience at Moffitt, he wishes to not only build upon his knowledge in programming and develop fundamentals in analyzing patient data but also absorb the essence of etiquette in a world-class professional working environment. In addition, he is committed to contributing to the lab’s ongoing research projects and gaining experience from them.
Jordan Rai
Research Student Trainee
Jordan Rai is a Master's student in Bioinformatics at Northeastern University. In her studies, she is currently learning about tools and software that can manipulate various forms of biological data, and she has a strong interest in data science/machine learning. She earned her Bachelors in Information Sciences and Technology from Pennsylvania State University in 2019. She then worked as a software engineer for JPMorgan Chase & Co. for two years, where she worked as a backend Java developer in the community and corporate banking sectors. Much of her work focused on developing RESTful APIs for web applications, utilizing a microservice-based architecture, and private cloud deployment. From her experience at Moffitt, she hopes to develop a stronger understanding in cancer biology and have a hands-on experience using real-world datasets.
Whitney Louis
Research Student Trainee
Whitney is a junior pre-medical Biomedical Engineering student at the University of South Florida. She has joined the Machine Learning Department as a Student Research Trainee. Whitney has a strong interest in the intersection between medicine and engineering, which is what led her to pursue this degree. She believes that both preventative and curative healthcare are important, so she is very excited to be part of this team! In terms of professional goals, she has a strong passion for women and children’s health and hopes to become an OBGYN in the future. For fun, Whitney enjoys reading, dancing, and singing. She also hopes to get back into playing saxophone and learning how to crotchet during winter break.
Madison Orr
Research Student Trainee
Madison is a junior at University of South Florida studying Biology and pursuing minors in Psychology and Biomedical Physics. Madison volunteers as an Emergency Medical Technician for USF where she has learned about patient care from the clinical side of medicine. She was inspired to explore the diagnostic side of medicine after working as a Lab Assistant for USF’s Biology department. She is eager to gain more experience as a Student Trainee with the Machine Learning Department and apply that to a future education of a PhD in Cancer Biology. Outside of her studies, Madison enjoys spending time with family, reading, volunteering in community events, and participating in intramural sports.
Sammy Nafii
Undergraduate Research Trainee
Sammy is a second-year student at the University of South Florida majoring in Biomedical Sciences. He has a huge passion for cars and motorsports and enjoys playing video games in his limited free time. Sammy is under the mentorship of Muhammad Alli and Glebys González.
Gauri Purandare
Graduate Research Trainee
Gauri is a recent graduate of the University of South Florida where she earned a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering specializing in Machine Learning and AI. Gauri has previously worked with machine learning models and data visualizations during her time as a Research Assistant in her home country. She is excited to join the Moffitt Cancer Center and work under the guidance of Dr. El Naqa. Through this research-oriented role, she aspires to contribute her part to the ongoing research as well as gain valuable experience during this process.
Jude Delikat
Graduate Research Trainee
Jude Delikat is a junior pursuing premed at USF Honors College. He is fascinated by the developments of machine learning in healthcare and hopes to learn the skills to contribute to this field throughout his career.