MBCIU Researchers Win NeuroAI 2025 Pitch Competition

Congratulations to Dr Warda Syeda, Dr Yasmin Blunck, Prof Leigh Johnston, and their multidisciplinary team for winning the NeuroAI 2025 Pitch Competition with their project, “Affinity Scores: Explainable AI for Diagnostic Verification Across the Psychosis Continuum.”

The project brings together researchers from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS) and the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT), including Dr Teresa O’Brien, Dr Olivia Metcalf, Dr Remika Mito, and Dr David Vaughan.

Building on Dr Syeda’s previous development of the Affinity Scores framework: a machine learning model that maps individual diagnostic profiles across the psychosis continuum. The team will now focus on developing a clickable prototype, co-designed with clinicians and lived-experience representatives, and evaluating its trust, usability, and feasibility in real-world clinical settings.

This initiative aims to deliver an explainable AI clinical decision-support tool that improves diagnostic accuracy and transparency in mental health care by integrating brain imaging insights into clinical workflows - bridging advanced computational methods with clinical neuroscience.

MBCIU congratulates our team and collaborators on this achievement and acknowledges the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, and Professor Lauren Ayton for their leadership in fostering interdisciplinary innovation through the NeuroAI program.