Available project#2 for Master thesis

I have an available 10-month project for master thesis. You will be working with me and Gennady. Please contact me if you are interested in it or you have any questions.

Research question:
The goal of this study is to identify features of facial similarity between mother and offspring. Furthermore, this study will explore if it is possible to match the facial shape between a mother and her offspring. For example, given a facial image of a mother, what is accuracy in matching the correct offspring among the study population. If the matching is possible, then try to explain the matching with genetic insights.

Data sets:
3D facial image of mother-and-child pairs from the from the Generation R Study.
SNP-based genotype data of subjects。

Datailed Tasks:

• To develop an AI-based facial matching algorithm for mother-and-child pairing
  
• To identify facial features based on the similarity between mother and offspring with the study population, and then calculate a similarity map
  
• To explore if there are sex-related patterns in the similarity map by stratifying the analysis for boys and girls.
  
• To compare the similarity map with a heritability map, which has been previously generated by our research group
  

Requirements:
Preferred background in statistics, genetics, epidemiology, computer science, biomedical engineering. Experience with machine/deep learning and image processing is a plus.