(Vienna, 04-09-2024) Max Haberbusch received a prize of 15,000 US dollars at this year's "SPARC FAIR Codeathon". The award underlines the importance of a development by the postdoc at MedUni Vienna's Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering for biomedical research.
The event, funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the USA, brought together participants from all over the world to work on innovative biomedical and neuroscience projects. The focus of the "2024 SPARC FAIR Codeathon" was on improving the "FAIRness" (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability) of digital research resources.
Max Haberbusch from MedUni Vienna's Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and his team developed "SPARC.RL" for this purpose. This is a user-friendly toolchain that aims to make the application of reinforcement learning in the control of medical devices more accessible for biomedical research. Max Haberbusch was awarded one of the two main prizes of 15,000 US dollars for this development. "This recognition is a great acknowledgement of our work and shows the potential that reinforcement learning offers in the control of medical devices," says Max Haberbusch. "We have succeeded in making complex technologies more accessible and thus opening the door to new applications in the medical field."
About the person:
Max Haberbusch received his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the Medical University of Vienna in 2023. His research focuses on the development of innovative diagnostic methods and therapeutic approaches using biomedical engineering, particularly in the areas of neuromodulation, biosignal processing and the development of advanced control concepts for medical devices such as neuroprostheses. He combines computational modelling with ex vivo and in vivo models to advance these new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Since January 2024, he has been leading the PREVENT project funded by the City of Vienna, which aims to improve the selectivity of vagus nerve stimulation in the treatment of heart failure. In July 2024, he began a postdoctoral fellowship at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., as part of a one-year research exchange, where he is researching image-based modelling to develop new modalities for the early detection of breast cancer and the treatment of high blood pressure using microwave ablation.