When his advisor, Lichao Sun, first introduced the idea for BiomedGPT, graduate student Kai Zhang initially thought, That is way too ambitious. It doesn’t even seem possible. Plus, he didn't have any experience in working with medical data.
But as the project progressed, Zhang found that rather than being a deterrent, the daunting task in front of them became an appealing, motivating, and fun challenge.
"I was constantly expanding my knowledge," says Zhang. "I learned how to read medical reports, and what goes into writing them, from the medical perspective. This project has really taught me that you can’t be an artificial intelligence researcher who only cares about AI. If you’re going to build models that are useful, you have to have a certain depth of knowledge regarding the field you're building those models for."
Zhang, who is a third-year PhD student in Lehigh’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, was also swept up in Sun's enthusiasm for the promise and potential of BiomedGPT. In fact, the common bond Zhang felt with Sun is one of the things that brought him to Lehigh’s graduate program in the first place.
"I liked that the student-to-faculty ratio is so favorable at Lehigh because I think it makes for a better learning experience," says Zhang. "I was also looking for a program where it felt like the faculty were energized by their work, and Professor Sun has so much passion for his research. It makes tackling these hard problems so interesting—and rewarding."
