Madison Rose, Computer Science
Rose explores intersection of computer science and health sciences
Madison Rose
For East Carolina University alumna Madison Rose, her signature honors project provided a pathway to her graduate studies.
A current Master of Science in data science candidate, Rose first connected with Dr. Nic Herndon, an assistant professor in computer science, during one of her undergraduate classes.
“When trying to decide on an Honors College project, I reached out to three faculty members who I enjoyed having classes with in the past and thought would make good faculty mentors,” she said. “I asked about their current projects, and I spent time observing some of their lab meetings. Out of all the projects that I heard about, this project that Dr. Herndon was working on interested me the most.”
Rose worked with Herndon to use machine learning to predict breast cancer recurrence scores given whole slide biopsy images.
“I’ve always been interested in the intersection of computer science with other fields,” she said.
Throughout the process, Herndon helped Rose stay focused on weekly goals and sent her materials that she might find helpful such as journal articles, YouTube videos, textbooks and conferences.
“Working with my mentor has really influenced my academic growth, and after completing my signature honors project, I feel my research skills have greatly improved,” she said. “I believe the process truly prepared me for graduate school and helped me understand how research works.”
In addition to opening doors in graduate school, Rose had the opportunity to be interviewed for local TV station WCTI as a student in Herndon’s lab.
“WCTI requested an interview with Dr. Herndon about AI due to the concern at the time about ChatGPT,” she said. “They also wanted to get some student perspectives, so Dr. Herndon offered the opportunity to be part of the interview to our lab.”
Rose has turned her signature honors project into her graduate thesis and has progressed to the next step of the project with Herndon as her thesis advisor.