Alumni Spotlight: Lucas Denys

By Lucas Denys, MEng ‘15
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What were you doing before you came to Cornell Tech?
I was finishing up an MEng in Bioinformatics and an MSc in Business Economics in Belgium. I did research on using machine learning techniques to improve endometrial cancer diagnosis, and on go-to-market strategies for diagnostics startups. I was also leading a non-profit organization to stimulate the foundation of innovative startups by university students.

Why did you choose to come to Cornell Tech?
This new kind of academic experience was a perfect fit for me. It allowed me to strengthen my engineering skills and business knowledge, while enabling me to build a powerful professional network in New York.

What’s the most valuable lesson you learned at Cornell Tech?
Anything is possible if you surround yourself with smart people, work hard and dream big. The classes were absolutely amazing, partly because we can choose our CS classes ourselves (there are no obligatory courses). But I mostly enjoyed the research projects. I worked on projects under the guidance of Profs. Deborah Estrin and Ramin Zabih. The faculty were able to connect me to researchers who are the absolute leaders in their fields. It was a real privilege to conduct research with them.

What’s next for you after Cornell Tech?
I am joining a predictive analytics healthcare startup in SoHo as a data scientist. I hope to start my own startup within the next 5 years, but I would first like to further grow my knowledge of the healthcare and bioinformatics industry.

What is something interesting people may be surprised to learn about you?
In my free time I like to go kitesurfing.