An internship in Switzerland to understand liver cancer survival

Peace Bakare spent his internship last summer at the Laboratory for Intelligent Global Health and Humanitarian Response Technologies (LiGHT) Lab in Lausanne, Switzerland. He used machine learning to determine survival rates in patients who have undergone surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma—the most common type of liver cancer. Bakare is completing his master of Information Technology degree at Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU-Africa).

“The work is exciting,” he said, and he is continuing his work as a volunteer with the project. Bakare was among the 1.3 percent of applicants chosen for the 2025 Summer@EPFL internship through École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

The LiGHT Lab is an international research group based jointly at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Harvard, with satellite presence at Ashoka University in India and the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Rwanda.

While working at the LiGHT Lab under the direction of Mary-Anne Hartley, assistant professor at Yale University, Bakare applied machine learning methods to prognosticate survival in patients who had undergone surgical resection for hepatocellular carcinoma.

“It’s a very common cancer, and the most dangerous form of it,” he said. “The safest way to find a cure for this cancer is through surgery, and unfortunately, after a while, some patients who undergo surgery have a recurrence of cancer. The surgeons want to understand more about recurrences.”

The ongoing project involves collecting preoperative, postoperative, and surgical data so doctors and researchers can identify the predictors for recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma.

To study the issue, Bakare used machine learning to provide a detailed analysis of 114 data points from 2,780 patients collected from nine international healthcare centers (including in Switzerland, Japan, and the United States). Bakare shared his findings with his supervisor, surgeons, and researchers, responding to questions and adjusting his work based on their recommendations.

Outside of his research work, Bakare engaged in activities such as visiting the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, and Thonon, France.  He also spent a day at Glion-Caux during Switzerland’s annual alpine cattle festival. In addition, he learned how to swim during an outing to a lake following a conference in Geneva, from a senior member of the LiGHT Lab. The interns also went boating and go-kart racing.

Bakare says that he is privileged to have fellowship support at CMU-Africa from the Upanzi Network and Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute, where he works 10 hours a week.

“A class I took on Data, Inference, and Applied Machine Learning (DIAML), and the research work HumekaFL: Automated Detection of Neonatal Asphyxia using Federated Learning [that] I did at CMU-Africa were instrumental for me in getting my internship,” Bakare said.

At CMU-Africa, Bakare volunteers as the secretary for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Club and has a startup called SafeSpeak, designed to help address mental health issues in Africa.

The SafeSpeak team applied for Carnegie Mellon’s McGinnis Venture Competition and was invited to compete for $25,000 in funding at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship this year. CMU-Africa’s Industry Innovation Hub has committed to funding the startup after he completes his degree.

He is applying to doctoral programs where he wants to pursue his interest in prioritizing privacy and security in healthcare, while using AI to help solve problems. He also plans to continue his work with SafeSpeak.

Bakare, who is married with a young daughter, credits his family and his faith for his success.  “I am grateful to the leadership of Carnegie Mellon University and to the Government of Rwanda for their unwavering support and the provision of high-quality education in Africa. It is priceless!”