Education

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Worcester, MA                                                                  2016-2022
  • PhD, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
• Harvey Mudd College (HMC), Claremont, CA                                                                                    2012-2016
  • B.S., Mathematical & Computational Biology (Joint Major)

 

Research Interests

Bumblebees, Agent-based Modeling, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Video Behavior Classification

My research applies computational modeling techniques to traditional biological problems. Most of my research has focused on using agent-based modeling to study long-term impacts of pesticides and diseases on bumblebee behavior. My more recent work is focused on using deep learning methods to classify videos of bumblebee behavior.

 

Research Experience

• Ryder Lab (Research Assistant), WPI                                                                                              2016-Present
  • Agent-based modeling in NetLogo to research the impact of memory impairments on bumblebee-plant dynamics.
  • Deep-learning methods to improve classification and analysis of behavioral videos of bumblebees.
• Bush Lab (Research Intern), HMC                                                                                                 Summer 2015
  • Developed algorithms to identify horizontal gene transfer events in bacterial species and implemented them in Python. Utilized Github for project management.
• McFadden Lab (Research Intern), HMC                                                                                              2014-2015
  • Conducted a study of the hybridization of soft corals using Next-Generation Sequencing (RADseq).
• Drewell Lab (Research Intern), HMC                                                                                            Summer 2013
  • Designed and implemented a general non-linear parameter estimation algorithm.
  • Programmed in C++, utilized OpenMP and XSEDE Blacklight supercomputing resources
• Butte Lab (Research Intern), Stanford Center of Biomedical Informatics                              Summer 2012
  • Determined shared etiological factors of six autoimmune diseases using meta-analysis techniques on publicly available microarray data.

 

Publications

• Modeling scale up of anthropogenic impacts from individual pollinator behavior to pollination systems (2021)
  • RJ Gegear*, K Heath*, EF Ryder,  –  Conservation Biology
• Using COVID-19 as a teaching tool in a time of remote learning: A workflow for bioinformatic approaches to identifying candidates for therapeutic and vaccine development (2020)
  • S Bryce, K Heath, L Issi, EF Ryder, RP Rao,  –  Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 48:492–498
• Experimental Test-Bed for Bumblebee-Inspired Channel Selection in an Ad-Hoc Network (2018)
  • KS. Gill,…, K. Heath, RJ. Gegear, EF. Ryder, and AM. Wyglinski. – 2018 IEEE 88th VTC Fall, 1-5
• On the Capacity Bounds for Bumblebee-Inspired Connected Vehicle Networks via Queuing Theory (2018)
  • KS. Gill, K. Heath, RJ. Gegear, EF. Ryder, and AM. Wyglinski – 2018 IEEE 87th VTC Spring, 1–6
• Memory Matters: Bumblebee Behavioral Models for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications (2018)
  • KS. Gill, B. Aygun, K. Heath, RJ. Gegear, EF. Ryder, and AM. Wyglinski – IEEE Access 6: 25437–47
• xenoGI: reconstructing the history of genomic island insertions in clades of closely related bacteria (2018)
  • EC. Bush,…, K. Heath – BMC Bioinformatics 19 (1): 32

*Co-first authors

 

Technical Skills

Programming and Analysis: Python, Pytorch, Java, R, Processing, MATLAB, NetLogo, Hadoop

Software & Tools: Clustal Omega, UCSF Chimera, Adobe InDesign

 

Awards and Honors

Circular Economy and Data Analytics Engineering Research (CEDAR) for Sustainability Center Trainee