We are offering a compelling opportunity for a Data Science Technician role at the Universitat de Barcelona, within the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine lab: BCN-AIM. In this role, you willl spearhead the curation and preparation of medical imaging datasets aimed at advancing predictive models for treatment response in breast cancer patients. Key responsibilities include harmonizing tabular and imaging datasets, constructing image preprocessing pipelines, and standardizing datasets from various hospitals to facilitate integration with predictive models. Proficiency in machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) is highly desirable, alongside prior experience with medical imaging data, encompassing 2D, 3D, and 4D images from modalities such as X-ray, ultrasound (US), MRI, and CT. Additionally, expertise in statistical analysis, data balancing, and bias correction techniques is essential. The Data Scientist will collaborate closely with AI researchers, providing vital support in the challenging stages of data curation and preprocessing for complex imaging datasets.  

The requirements for the position are:

• Bsc degree
• Expertise in an area pertinent to the project, such as applied mathematics, statistics, machine learning, data science, image computing, computer vision, medical imaging, and/or biomedical informatics.
• Experience working with medical imaging, programming using C++/Python and knowledge of statistical testing, radiomics, Pytorch or other ML/DL libraries.
• Good team spirit and participation to the lab’s scientific life.
• Proficient English, both oral and written.
• Enthusiasm about research and medical applications of AI.
• Aptitude to work independently

The research projects:

You will join our AI for cancer imaging team, as part of ongoing projects such as EuCanImage (www.eucanimage.eu) and RadioVal (www.radioval.eu), funded by the European Commission and coordinated by our lab. In these projects, we are developing new trustworthy AI methods for image-based estimation of treatment response in breast cancer. In particular, we are interested in new AI models which, once applied in real-world practice, will be fair across population groups, generalisable across clinical sites, robust against imaging variations, explainable for clinical use, and respectful of data privacy. Hence, we are investigating a wide range of approaches, including transfer learning, bias correction, domain adaptation, generative modelling, uncertainty estimation, explainable AI and federated learning. Should you join our team, you will collaborate with several technical and clinical partners within and outside Europe (e.g. in the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Sweden, Poland, the USA, Argentina, Egypt).

The Group:

The successful candidate will join the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (www.bcn-aim.org), which is an integral part of the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. It is a young and dynamic research lab, highly active in international projects, and composed of >20 enthusiastic academics, researchers, students and research managers, with expertise in data science, machine/deep learning, biomedical informatics, biomedical ethics, and health-related applications. The research team has an established track record in coordination and participation in national, European and international projects in biomedical data science and medical AI (e.g. EuCanImage, euCanSHare, EarlyCause, LongITools, HealthyCloud, RadioVal, DataTools4Heart, Youth-GEMs, HappyMums, AIMIX, AI4HF).

The Institution:

The University of Barcelona (UB), founded in 1450, is one of the oldest universities in Spain. It comprises a student body of 84,370 and 4,548 research staff members. With 73 undergraduate programs, 273 graduate programs and 48 doctorate programs, UB is the largest university in Barcelona and Catalonia. The UB is ranked the first Spanish university according to several rankings (QS World University Rankings 2018, ARWU/Shanghai Ranking 2018). It is particularly interested in fostering international relations and, for many years, has managed an average of 150 European projects per year. Since January 2010, Universitat de Barcelona is part of the prestigious League of European Universities Research (LERU).

Gross Salary per year: 25.000 euros