Mandal Wins Goldwater Scholarship
Ayan Mandal (C’18), second from right, is pictured here with members of the Cognitive Recovery Lab. Mandal is the first Georgetown student in three years to be awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. (Photo courtesy Ayan Mandal)
June 12, 2017 鈥� This spring, neurobiology major Ayan Mandal (C鈥�18) was awarded the , one of the country鈥檚 most prestigious awards for students studying mathematics, engineering and the natural sciences.
Each university is allowed to nominated up to four sophomores and juniors annually for the scholarship 鈥� Patrick Mulcahey (C鈥�18) also earned an Honorable Mention this year 鈥� and around 300 students in total are chosen to receive it. Applicants are evaluated based largely on research experience and interest in pursuing a doctoral degree in the natural sciences, though grades, essays, and recommendations also factor in. Mandal is the first Georgetown student to receive the award since Sarah Waye (C鈥�15) in 2014.
Mandal, a native of Rocky Point, N.Y., arrived on the Hilltop intending to study linguistics. Though he would end up choosing another route, he still credits Computational Corpus Linguistics class as instrumental in teaching him the importance of study design when conducting seemingly 鈥渙bjective鈥� data science.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e doing data science, you have to be aware that you鈥檙e choosing how to count things,鈥� Mandal said. 鈥淲hen you say 鈥榯his is what we count as someone detecting an error,鈥� how we choose those definitions has an impact on what our results look like.鈥�
After realizing he was more interested in the neurological side of language than the study of linguistics, Mandal chose to double major in neurobiology and biological physics. A self-taught programmer, he now applies computer science concepts to medical problems in Georgetown鈥檚 . Working alongside , he primarily studies aphasia, the language deficit that often occurs as a result of stroke-induced brain damage.
鈥淲e found that damage to frontal white matter tracts will negatively predict self-monitoring 鈥� people with damage to the white matter in their frontal lobes will have trouble detecting errors in their speech,鈥� Mandal said.
The lab鈥檚 research is notable because neuroscientists have long disagreed on how people know when to correct themselves: Some thought there was a mechanism in the language center that allowed the brain to identify errors almost instantaneously after making them, while others suspected self-correction came from hearing one鈥檚 own erroneous speech.
The Cognitive Recovery Lab鈥檚 findings 鈥� specifically, that frontal lobe damage affects this process 鈥� endorse the former view. Mandal presented the lab鈥檚 findings last year at the Conference in San Diego.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty cool finding, because that鈥檚 been a hotly debated topic in the literature,鈥� Mandal said.
Mandal has also researched the brain鈥檚 white matter network on a larger scale, examining how damage to white matter affects cognition. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, he studied the different neural networks necessary for naming an object via speech or in writing.
鈥淣aming while speaking depends on a network of tracks within the left temporal lobe 鈥� that, we expected,鈥� Mandal said. 鈥淏ut we also found that the network of tracks that we depend on while naming via writing extends into the right hemisphere as well.鈥�
Mandal admits to occasionally feeling uncomfortable applying his entirely self-taught programming skills to medical research. But with practice has come confidence, and he expresses optimism about the future of machine learning in medicine 鈥� a future he thinks will turn much of the field on its head.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had all these old diagnoses and ways we think that disorders should be defined,鈥� Mandal said. 鈥淏ut I predict that a lot of this will be revamped in the coming decades. It鈥檒l be more based on data collection and classification than on what older physicians traditionally thought. So I see potential for a lot of overlap between computer science and medicine, and I hope to be someone who helps bridge that gap.鈥�
Since his freshman year, Mandal had thought he might pursue an M.D./Ph.D. in either neuroscience or biomedical engineering. But it was only over the past year that he realized it was his true calling, and the Goldwater Scholarship has helped solidify his confidence in this career path.
鈥淲henever you鈥檙e pursuing something as competitive as an M.D./Ph.D., there are going to be periods of self-doubt, where you鈥檙e asking 鈥楢m I really good enough to do this?鈥欌�� Mandal said. 鈥淭he Goldwater Scholarship has emboldened me, showing me that this is something I really am good at. I obviously think my work is valuable, but it鈥檚 good to hear that others see it the same way.鈥�
Outside of his research, Mandal is a regular contributor to The Hoya, writing a and covering topics as diverse as LSD and Aristotle鈥檚 theory of the brain.
He鈥檚 also a member of the Carroll Fellows Initiative, Georgetown鈥檚 flagship program for academically talented and ambitious undergraduates. He credits his Carroll Fellows experience with helping him narrow his academic focus to neuroscience.
鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting 鈥� it鈥檚 a topic that people have been asking questions about for 2000 years, and we鈥檙e just now starting to really understand it,鈥� Mandal said.