Dr. Saritha Unnikrishnan is a lecturer in the Department of Computing and Electronics, IT Sligo. She is working as a Principal Investigator in the PEM and MISHE Strategic Research Centres. She joined IT Sligo in 2015 as a PhD researcher in Computer Vision and Machine Learning with a focus on pharmaceutical manufacturing applications. Dr. Unnikrishnan’s research work has been carried out in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (Ireland & UK) Ltd. She also has several years of experience in the software industry working with various multinational companies. 

Dr. Unnikrishnan has been nominated as a National Delegate and Management Committee member of the EU funded COST Action 18206 (https://glimr.eu/) and is involved in the Working Group which focusses on co-ordinating the identification and quantification of advanced MRI biomarkers for the application in the field of glioma. (Glioma is the most common and aggressive brain tumour that arises throughout the central nervous system.)

She has presented her research at various conferences including the Future Intelligent Manufacturing session in the 4th International Conference on Universal Village, 2018 at MIT, Boston, USA. She won the best oral presentation awards at Microscopy Society of Ireland Annual Symposium, 2018 and IT Sligo postgrad conference, 2017. She also won the best poster award in the IT Sligo postgrad conference, 2018.

Her current research interests are mainly around AI-driven technologies and applications in in manufacturing automation and health innovation. These include digital automation using real-time image analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI), XAI taxonomies, Generative models and Ensemble learning, Medical image classification using AI as opposed to manual screening to reduce overloads and to achieve less subjective and faster results, Investigation of medical image biomarkers for tumor characterisation using radiomics.