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Monica Carley |
Brain Mapping
Monica Carley
September 2003
MITRE's Monica Carley is fascinated by neuroinformatics—defined
as “combining neuroscience and informatics research to develop
and apply advanced tools and approaches essential for a major advancement
in understanding the structure and function of the brain.”*
For the past two years she has been working on a collaborative effort
between MITRE and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to design,
develop, and evaluate an information infrastructure to more fully
use the vast amount of human brain mapping data collected from MRI
(magnetic resonance imaging) and PET (positron emission tomography)
tests.
Carley, a lead signal processing engineer, is the principal investigator
for the MITRE sponsored neuroinformatics project begun by Jordan
Feidler, while colleague Ken Smith is the principal investigator
for the NIH grant portion of the work. The goal of the project is
twofold: to organize the data in a way that makes it widely accessible
and to develop techniques and tools for exploring and retrieving
neuroimagery from databases.
While the NIH portion of the project has focused primarily on the
development of an MRI database, Carley's research has focused on
developing advanced feature-based querying tools. MITRE's expertise
in database management and signal and image processing has been
an excellent resource for developing new approaches to extract information
from MRI data. "Our efforts in this area center around content-based
retrieval, data mining, and data quality," she says. "The goal is
to provide users with tools that can more efficiently search their
databases and enable virtual hypothesis testing."
Previously, Carley worked on a number of MITRE projects involving
signal processing for passive and active sonar, as well as projects
in the areas of image compression, target recognition, and requirements
for a speaker identification system. "What drew me to the neuroinformatics
project was the opportunity to have a positive impact on medical
research," she says. "While I didn't have a background in neuroscience,
I've found that working with neuroimagery has been a great way to
use my sensor and image processing background.
"I've really enjoyed the opportunity to learn about neuroscience
from our collaborators," she adds. "Imaging technology has pushed
the research in brain mapping because it allows researchers to see
inside the working brain and more easily correlate function and
structure. It's fascinating research.
"We expect that significant portions of our neuroinformatics research
will be leveraged by other MITRE sponsors, including the Department
of Defense and Treasury Department," she continues.
Carley came to MITRE in 1997 after completing her Ph.D. in Electrical
Engineering at the University of Virginia. "It was the type of work
and the caliber of the technical staff that originally drew me to
MITRE," she says. "From my perspective, it was one of the few places
outside of academia that placed enough emphasis on research, while
having a positive near-term impact on its sponsors."
* Beltrane and Koslow, 1999
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