Manav Ponnekanti

About

I'm a bioinformatics research intern and incoming medical student at UCL, currently living in London. I also work part-time as a GCSE and A-Level science/maths tutor. I'm interested in the intersection of machine learning, healthcare, and neuroscience; currently I'm exploring this through the application of computer vision techniques to low-quality retinal scans, oriented towards increasing their clinical utility.

Email me at mp [at] manavp [dot] com.

Current Projects

• Building MedPython, a DAO-powered programming education community tailored to the needs of medics, healthcare workers and life sciences researchers
• Non-reference-based enhancement of degraded fundus images using neural networks @ UCL IoO / Pontikos Lab
• Learning fullstack development and Python-based ML @ RotatorDAO
• Reading the St John's College 'Great Books' reading list. Writing about it here

Academic Interests

• Philosophy of science + mind
• Psychedelic-assisted treatments of depression, anxiety, and PTSD
• Altered states of consciousness caused by stroke
• Automated and precision healthcare
• Longevity research (in particular, the treatment of age-related neurodegenerative disease)

Things I Like

• Grace by Jeff Buckley
• Art Deco skyscrapers
• Ostentatious mid-century modernism
• Tacos, particularly with Pacifico
• Poetry
• The moment the reddening sun
• Touches the jagged girdle of the mountain-slopes
• And halts for a lifetime, in the cooling air
• As the sky purples like a bruise
• And the pale peaks chase the stars
• Bulleted lists