Minds saving minds: A collective approach to speeding up Alzheimer's research Pietro Michelucci, Director Human Computation Institute

1. Pietro Michelucci
Director
Minds saving
minds:
A collective approach to speeding up
Alzheimer's research

2. Lots of hype
today about
crowdsourcing

3. Proper compensation

4. Problem: trust crowd data?

5. Lots of hype
today about AI &
machine learning

6. Driverless cars are cool but can't handle all situtions! (already
fatalities)
Driverless car -- cool but...

7. ...can’t handle all situations yet

8. Truth is...
we can create the greatest impact TODAY by combining
crowdsourcing and AI in sensible ways
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9. Human help in tricky situations

10. Human Computation (Crowd AI)
Human
Machine

11. In 2014 I was looking
for a problem to solve
with human
computation –
a big unsolved
problem

12. Found it at
30% reduced blood flow
in Alzheimer’s
STALLS

13. Traditional lab
analysis
DECADES
Piles of data -- analytic bottleneck

14. Alignment of the stars
Capillaries in mouse brain Slices of aerogel

15. stardust@home
2006

16. Stardust → blood vessels in brain

17. Presented idea right away at
NIH National Alzheimer's Summit!

18. Eventually funded by

19. Stall Catchers today

20. Our magic number
Research
Threshold
20

21. New magic number
7

22. Crowd smarter than Scientists :b
Expert/Expert
Agreement
Expert/Crowd
Agreement

23. Crowd: Bigger, Better, Engaged

24. Badstallsbadbad - slow
DSL connection, yet he's
one of our most prolific new
supercatchers.
When his line is working
well, he catches as many
stalls as he can.
Says:
"Make hay while
the sun shines!"
Superusers!
-- Nozomi Nishimura

25. Chatbox

27. Impact: caregivers -- hope

28. Yes!
Data from:
20 animals
Total:
105909 vessels
Preliminary results:
high fat diet increases stalls?

29. Current dataset
NADPH oxygenase (NOX2)
inhibitor
Pathway involved in
reactive oxygen species &
tissue damage
NOX2 reduces stalls?
Pathway = treatment
target!

30. Next...
Engagement Efficiency
multilingual
research
dashboard
educators
social
features
gamify
MORE !!
scalability
optimization
automation

31. App! Try it -- win a T-shirt!

32. Partnership !
Crowd AI → Alzheimer’s research Gamification + outreach
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