It’s not often that two worlds collide here on campus. Electrical engineering junior Arnav Mehta started out enjoying artificial intelligence as a hobby and looking for a club in which to apply his skills. Biology junior Akshith Akula, on the other hand, was interested in medicine and the clubs centered around it. A serendipitous twist of fate, however, led the two to put their heads — and areas of expertise — together into something brand-new. Enter AIMD.
“We were applying to clubs as officers and we realized that it’s easier to make a club,” Mehta said. “We decided to make one that bridges AI and medicine.”
We were applying to clubs as officers and we realized that it’s easier to make a club. We decided to make one that bridges AI and medicine.
— Arnav Mehta, cofounder of AIMD
Established fall 2023, AIMD gives Comets the space and support to pursue projects that solve problems in current medicine by using artificial intelligence. The club’s central event is Presentation Night, a capstone-style competition that usually occurs at the tail end of each semester. Members form a team months in advance, and each team creates a project to present in front of a panel of industry professionals; the winning team earns a cash prize of $100.
“Our presentations are simple and student-friendly: usually 5-7 slides explaining the problem, the motivation behind it, the method and what the student learned,” Mehta said. “To give an example, one student explained their ECG signal-cleaning project, showing before-and-after graphs and walking through how their model improved accuracy.”
The club has expanded dramatically under Mehta and the other officers’ leadership. Since their founding two years ago, it has doubled its member count from 30 members to 60. And as more members keep rolling in, AIMD has concocted new, creative events for them to sink their teeth into, like their new initiative AIMD Apply.
“This is for people who have already done AIMD projects and it’s a rigorous step up from what they’re used to,” Mehta said. “We started something new where they work with actual companies and industries that they’ve worked with all semester.”
While Presentation Night is a cornerstone of AIMD, Mehta and the other officers have been focusing on AIMD’s image. AIMD has been expanding into community outreach programs with bake sale fundraisers to raise money in lieu of corporate sponsors, as well as volunteering events. Beyond just scraping funds together, though, Mehta said he learned many unexpected but valuable lessons about what it means to be a leader.
“Having a team made me realize leadership is less about telling people what to do and more about creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas,” Mehta said. “I learned that people work better when they have ownership over their tasks.”
Having a team made me realize leadership is less about telling people what to do and more about creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas.
— Arnav Mehta
However, as major of a task as being co-founder and director of engineering is for Mehta, there is a surprisingly large amount of collaboration from regular members that is seldom seen in other student organizations.
“Anyone can propose project ideas, help with research or join builds,” Mehta said. “This makes the club stronger because it brings in new skills and perspectives we wouldn’t have on our own.”
In addition to strengthening the relationships between budding engineering students and experienced engineers, AIMD has been experimenting with a new competition called the Case Competition. While Presentation Night has generally been attended by and geared toward engineering students, the Case Competition is planned to be explicitly applicable for all majors.
“This is just for everybody who wants a little bit of competition,” Mehta said. “They don’t need that much of a technical background.”
And even though Mehta has his mind set on electrical engineering for the future, the club represents something extremely evocative and practical, especially for the members looking to grow their experience in projects that will help them in their futures.
For more information about AIMD, students are encouraged to follow the club on Instagram.
“What I look for in an ideal team is someone who has great communication skills, someone who wants to go above and beyond, someone who is willing to learn, someone who is reliable to lead on,” Mehta said. “There always has to be that one person. Everyone should be willing to bounce off each other’s ideas.”