Abdallah Lamane, from France, member of the Harvard-MIT Circle of Excellence

Abdellah Lamane, a final year student at the Ecole Centrale Supérieure de l’Electricité, and his parents can be proud today. The child prodigy has been accepted by Harvard and MIT to obtain a PhD in Medical Engineering Health Sciences and Technology. This journey has been widely publicized in France in recent months.

In fact, the young man from Chantelou-les-Vignes is one of the few French students to have taken this prestigious course. On top of that, he is also the first Moroccan to have obtained this doctorate. “This appearance in the media is a new experience for me. But I know that we have a responsibility to represent those who have the same life journey as us, as a Frenchman who grew up in very modest circumstances and is also a Moroccan citizen. It is a duty that I take to heart and that I fulfil every day with great pleasure,” Abdullah Lamane tells us.

Born in the Paris region, the son of a maintenance worker who came to France in the 1980s, Abdallah Lamane’s life trajectory was not destined for such academic success as a student. Although children from ordinary families are underrepresented in fields of excellence, he is a living, inspiring example that such success is indeed possible, thanks to the support and kindness of his family cocoon, which closely supervises his studies. Today, he is also involved in student associations and networking activities, pointing the way for peers who can find a career in engineering.

The taste of hard work

Abdallah Lamane was known early on as an exceptional student, both in mathematics and other subjects. Through his parents’ education, he early on established hard work and personal investment as the cornerstones of success. “Academic success was a big pillar of my entire education. My parents taught me to harness the power of inequality or negative prejudice against me. They always made school the foundation of my education, and I am very grateful to them today,” he told us.

In Chanteloux-les-Vignes, other similar life paths also inspired him. “I have the opportunity today to bear witness, to inspire the younger generation and to uphold the values ​​of work and success,” he told us. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree, Abdullah chose engineering as his major and took preparatory courses for the main engineering schools. He was admitted to the Janson de Sailly High School in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, one of the most selective. This was a first for both the young student and his parents.

In his final year, Abdullah received a research grant and traveled to the United States. He first interned for six months at Stanford University and then for another six months at Harvard University, both equally prestigious institutions. It was there that he decided to pursue a PhD at an excellent school with an acceptance rate of only 4%.

Advances in Predictive Cancer Detection

It was there that Abdallah Lamane got to know thesis programs, including one of the oldest, most selective and prestigious programs in biomedical engineering: Health, Science and Technology, a joint program between Harvard and MIT. “We are in a selective logic at an international level, where knowledge has no borders and no limits. What the program directors are interested in is what skills and talents the candidates possess,” he described, congratulating himself on becoming part of this privileged circle in this academic field. “I will be keen to carry the colors of the national flag,” he enthused.

The goal of the PhD program is to use artificial intelligence and AI learning processes to analyze medical imaging and scanners to detect cancerous tumors. Already used in mammography and breast cancer screening. For Abdallah Lamane, the idea is to deepen the understanding of this technology so that tumors can be detected earlier, whereas manual models are time-consuming and more error-prone.

“One of the goals of my thesis is to focus on certain types of cancer and develop models that will help radiologists not miss tumors, speed up detection and be able to spend more time treating patients,” explains Ph.D. student. One of Abdullah Ramaneh’s other goals remains to create his own company, still in the field of oncology and artificial intelligence.

His vision is for algorithms developed during his fellowship or based on work done during his Ph.D. He is confident about his future and remains confident in the environment of Boston, which he considers to be “the forefront of global technology” and “fertile ground for building this project.”