Groundbreaking Discovery in Medicine

Groundbreaking Discovery in Medical Science Emirhan Kurtuluş, achieving major success on a global scale, has developed artificial intelligence to assist doctors in brain surgery. With this work, Kurtuluş won first place worldwide in a competition held in the United States and was also accepted to Stanford University. The high school student, whose invention is opening new ground in the medical field, stated that he will return to Turkey after completing his education. Emirhan Kurtuluş, who studied at İhlas Koleji for primary and secondary school and transferred to Cağaloğlu Anadolu Lisesi after completing eighth grade, has achieved major success on a global scale. Currently a 12th grade student at Cağaloğlu Anadolu Lisesi, Emirhan Kurtuluş has developed an artificial intelligence system that processes MR images and transfers them to a 3D system, guiding brain surgeons on how to operate on patients through work spanning approximately 3 years. Additionally, Kurtuluş has enabled surgeons to see damaged brain tissue using augmented reality glasses and to conduct pre-operative practice. With his work, he won first place worldwide in the field of biomedical engineering at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair held in the United States. Kurtuluş also won a full scholarship to Stanford University and received an invitation to the Nobel Prize ceremony to be held in December. Kurtuluş presented his work today at İhlas Koleji.

"I invested over 3,500 hours of effort in this project"

Speaking about his educational process, Emirhan Kurtuluş said, "I studied at İhlas Koleji until the end of secondary school. The project I worked on is fundamentally related to an artificial intelligence system. We take a patient's data, which generally becomes MR images. The work involves taking MR images and planning a brain surgery that will cause minimum damage to the patient, then presenting it to the doctor. After taking the patient's data, my system tells the doctor that if you operate on the patient the way I suggest, the patient will leave this operating table with minimum damage. This project came to mind around the middle of 10th grade. Until the end of secondary school, I wanted to be a doctor. Later, when I became acquainted with engineering, I realized that this is what I really want to do in life. Then I wanted to utilize both of these skills. By combining these two, I thought to myself that there are many studies related to artificial intelligence in the literature. But these particularly assist doctors in only one part of multi-stage tasks like surgical planning. I thought, why shouldn't I develop a system that solves all of this at once. I started this project around the middle of 10th grade. I worked on this project for approximately 2.5 to 3 years. In total, I invested over 3,500 hours of effort in this project. My family has been very supportive throughout the process, but the biggest supporter within my family was my grandfather. Since childhood, he has wanted me to engage in science and has motivated me. As a child, I preferred watching documentaries to cartoons. Stanford University was the university I most wanted to attend, and I was accepted there. I plan to complete my undergraduate education and beyond there. After that, I plan to return to my country and serve my homeland," he said.