Finding Purpose Among Data

One of the most important people in Seth Kazarian's life was his grandmother, who routinely passed on valuable wisdom to her grandson. 

"She had a philosophy that whatever it is you do with life, do it in service of others,” Kazarian (MLDS '24) said. “I'm a late-stage career changer, so I've got to get cracking.”

Kazarian thought back to that lesson this summer as he found himself buried deep in data about patient health conditions and reports from heart tests. In that moment, he felt something he hadn't had much of early in his career.

A purpose.

Kazarian is beginning his final quarter in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Machine Learning and Data Science (MLDS) program (formerly the MSiA program). His grandmother's motivation inspired his decision to intern this summer with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he focused on two main projects.

The first dealt with examining patient data to determine what machine learning (ML) could reveal as indicators most commonly seen in those who end up being readmitted to the hospital. The goal with that project was to identify patients whose issues could be proactively addressed before readmission became necessary.

The second was a large language model (LLM) project in coordination with Northwestern’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. For this project, he worked with detailed notes from echocardiogram tests reviewed by cardiac physicians to help develop a model that could distill complicated medical jargon into more easily readable material.

The goal was to provide more digestible information for those not as well-versed in cardiac medicine, such as patients and insurers.

Both projects benefited his data science growth, Kazarian said.

“It feels really rewarding to be in a space like healthcare, more so than any other job,” he said. “There is tons of work to be done in healthcare to bring it up to a standard that is consistent with the demands of patients. It's one of our country's biggest undertakings right now.”

He is not surprised to be tackling that type of undertaking as an MLDS student. As a Chicago native, he said he was well aware of the positive reputation of both Northwestern and the MLDS program. Extended family members also attended the University.

Kazarian was particularly drawn to the diversity of student experiences within the MLDS program. He knew his perspective as a former financial analyst would be far different from someone already experienced with data science, and he was excited to see what happened when that diversity came together toward a common goal.

So far, he hasn't been disappointed.

“I came into the MLDS program knowing I wanted to do something of service,” Kazarian said. “In my previous work, I felt I was never doing a good service to anything. I find that when I'm doing work that is closely related to health, I feel really good about what I’m doing.”