I am a third year PhD student at West Virginia University where I am advised by Dr. Prashnna Gyawali. My work is currently supported by the Bridges in Digital Health NSF-NRT Fellowship. I additionally have had the honor of receiving the Gary & Lisa Christopher Fellowship in the Statler College. Prior to graduate school, I completed my Bachelors degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics at West Virginia University. Feel free to contact me at jthrasher0100@gmail.com
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Featured Publications
27th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) 2024
Abstract: Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) represents one of the most pressing challenges in the field of neurodegenerative disorders, with its progression analysis being crucial for understanding disease dynamics and developing targeted interventions. Recent advancements in deep learning and various representation learning strategies, including self-supervised learning (SSL), have shown significant promise in enhancing medical image analysis, providing innovative ways to extract meaningful patterns from complex data. Notably, the computer vision literature has demonstrated that incorporating supervisory signals into SSL can further augment model performance by guiding the learning process with additional relevant information. However, the application of such supervisory signals in the context of disease progression analysis remains largely unexplored. This gap is particularly pronounced given the inherent challenges of incorporating both event and time-to-event information into the learning paradigm. Addressing this, we propose a novel framework, Time and Event-aware SSL (TE-SSL), which integrates time-to-event and event data as supervisory signals to refine the learning process. Our comparative analysis with existing SSL-based methods in the downstream task of survival analysis shows superior performance across standard metrics.
2nd Workshop on Data Engineering in Medical Imaging (DEMI) in MICCAI 2024
Abstract: Eye diseases are common in older Americans and can lead to decreased vision and blindness. Recent advancements in imaging technologies allow clinicians to capture high-quality images of the retinal blood vessels via Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA), which contain vital information for diagnosing these diseases and expediting preventative measures. OCTA provides detailed vascular imaging as compared to the solely structural information obtained by common OCT imaging. Although there have been considerable studies on OCT imaging, there have been limited to no studies exploring the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) approaches for predictive modeling with OCTA images. In this paper, we explore the use of deep learning to identify eye disease in OCTA images. However, due to the lack of labeled data, the straightforward application of deep learning doesn't necessarily yield good generalization. To this end, we utilize active learning to select the most valuable subset of data to train our model. We demonstrate that active learning subset selection greatly outperforms other strategies, such as inverse frequency class weighting, random undersampling, and oversampling, by up to 49% in F1 evaluation.
All Publications
AI-based Alzheimer's Screening with OCTA
[Abstract] Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 2025
Prashnna Gyawali, Jacob Thrasher, Jacob Suffridge, Marc Haut, Camila Vieria Ligo Teixeira, Victor Finomore, Tony Realini, Annahita Amireskandari
📎 abstract
Enhancing Retinal Disease Classification from OCTA Images via Active Learning Techniques
Data Engineering in Medical Imaging Workshop (DEMI) at MICCAI 2024
Jacob Thrasher, Annahita Amireskandari, Prashnna Gyawali
📎 arXiv preprint 🖥️ code
TE-SSL: Time and Event-Aware Self Supervised Learning for Alzheimer's Dementia Progression Analysis
The Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention Society (MICCAI) 2024
Jacob Thrasher, Alina Devkota, Ahmad Tafti, Binod Bhattarai, Prashnna Gyawali
📎 arXiv preprint 🖥️ code
Segmentation of Maya hieroglyphs through fine-tuned foundation models
International Conference on Machine Learning Applications (ICMLA) 2024
FNU Shivam, Megan Leight, Mary Kate Kelly, Claire Davis, Kelsey Clodfeltler, Jacob Thrasher, Yanumula Reddy, Prashnna Gyawali
📎 arXiv preprint
Exploring Speech Pattern Disorders in Autism using Machine Learning
[Under review] Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 2024
Chuanbo Hu, Jacob Thrasher, Wenqi Li, Mindi Ruan, Xiangxu Yu, Lynn K Paul, Shuo Wang, Xin Li
📎 arXiv preprint
Multimodal Federated Learning in Healthcare: a review
[Under review] Journal of Healthcare Informatics Research
Jacob Thrasher, Alina Devkota, Prasiddha Siwakotai, Rohit Chivukula, Pranav Poudel, Chuanbo Hu, Binod Bhattarai, Prashnna Gyawali
📎 arXiv preprint
Explainable Survival Analysis for Dementia Prediction
[Extended Abstract] IEEE-EMBS Biomedical and Health Informatics 2023
Jacob Thrasher, Prashnna Gyawali
Awards and Honors
Bridges in Digital Health NSF-NRT Fellowship Recipient | 2024
Gary & Lisa Christopher Fellowship Recipient | 2024
Best Poster | Toward Robust and Reliable Survival Models for Disease Progression Analysis | WVU AI Symposium | 2025
2nd Place | TE-SSL: Time and Event-aware Self Supervised Learning for Alzheimer's Dementia Progression Analysis | Lane Department Graduate Research Symposium | 2024
Volunteer and Outreach
Lecturer | A Gentle Introduction to Large Language Models | WVU SURE Generative AI Workshop | 2025
Judge | Intro to Programming | WV FBLA State Leadership Conference | 2025
Statler Ambassador | WVU Stalter College of Engineering and Mineral Resources | 2023-2025
Primary Organizer | Women in Computing Day | WVU Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources | 2024
Workshop Host | Hour of Code: Getting Started with Deep Learning | Grafton High School | 2023, 2024
Presenter | 4H Hour of Code | Jackson's Mill WV | 2023, 2024
Primary Organizer | AI in a Day | University High School | 2022
Founder | Artificial Intelligence Club @ WVU | 2021
Organizer | Extra Life charity event | Game Dveelopers Club @ WVU | 2021
Primary Organizer | Girl Scouts Game Development Bade Workshop | Game Developers Club | 2019