A Nanjinger who suffers from cerebral palsy has recently been awarded his doctorate from a university abroad, whilst at the same time developing AI-assisted, remote-diagnosis software which can detect COVID with an accuracy of 97 percent.
Earlier this month, 31-year-old Lu Siyuan completed the defence of his doctoral thesis at the University of Leicester in the UK. He was finally ready to return home to Nanjing. Lu’s specialty? Machine learning, artificial intelligence and computer-aided diagnosis technology.
Lu was born a child with severe cerebral palsy in Yancheng City of our very own Jiangsu Province. As the BBC reported on Tuesday, Lu recalled his younger years by saying, “My father told me from childhood that I was different from others. If I wanted to live, I had to study hard. I had no other choice. Learning was the only way out”.
Luckily for him, Lu was one of the 20 percent of cerebral palsy sufferers who experience a normal intellectual development. Physically though, as a child, Lu experienced muscle spasms in his limbs, deformities in his legs, a bent spine, was unable to walk or open his hands, and had difficulty in raising his head.
He had two operations on his legs. But after the anesthetic wore off, Lu refused painkillers, wary of any possible side effects on his brain and mindful that his intellect was the only way to survive. Lu is convinced the following 3 days and nights were the “most painful memory” of his life.
With his goal to do scientific research, Lu needed to pass the “gaokao” (University Entrance Examination). Failing on the first attempt, on account of his slow writing speed, but with a supreme score in English, Lu was given the opportunity to resit. Subsequently, he was admitted to Nanjing Normal University to study computing.
During his 2-year master’s degree, Lu achieved outstanding results and published six papers, in the process becoming known as the academic “bully” of the class.
Later, he was convinced by his professor to continue his doctoral studies at the University of Leicester. But Lu was extremely afraid that he would not survive in Britain; in his 28 years he had never lived alone, with his parents always around.
But he persevered, and his results are potentially world changing. Together with his mentor, Zhang Yudong, Lu has developed artificial-intelligence software to diagnose COVID. Suitable for remote diagnosis, it is believed the quick-delivery test has an accuracy of over 97 percent.
The two of them discussed whether to apply for a patent. But Zhang said, “He [Lu] felt that such a tool should be free for everyone to use and that it could help more people”.
