Mahfuzur Khokan awarded London Mathematical Society Early Career Fellowship

PhD student Mahfuzur Khokan has been awarded a London Mathematical Society Early Career Fellowship to work at the University of East Anglia with Professor Mizanur Khondoker on Developing statistical models to correct for biases in skin colour measurement machines.

Mahfuz works with his supervisor Kaustubh Adhikari in statistical genetics.

During this fellowship, he will work on a problem which, in recent years, has been noted to affect many technologies and algorithms – a gap in usefulness for diverse ethnicities, especially dark-skinned people. For example, the bias in pulse oximeters during the pandemic is thought to have increased mortality in darker-skinned patients. So, Mahfuz aims to rectify a part of this disparity by correcting the biases in such measurement machines so that the technologies can ensure equitable and similar performance across ethnicities.