Hi! 👋
My name is Sean
I'm a PhD student in Natural Language Processing (NLP) at Durham University specialising in AI for public health research.
I'm a PhD student in Natural Language Processing (NLP) at Durham University specialising in AI for public health research.
Expert in transformer models, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, topic modelling, explainability, and multi-modal architectures using PyTorch and Huggingface. Specialised in low-resource training and domain adaptation.
Proficient in Python, R, SQL . Experienced in scalable pipeline design for low-resource environments, analyzing datasets of 10M+ records, Git-based version control, and advanced statistical modeling.
Adept at creating clear, informative, and publication-quality visualisations using Matplotlib, Seaborn, ggplot2, and Plotly. Skilled in website creation for serving models and presenting visualisations in an interactive manner.
Experienced in teaching NLP to master's-level students, adapting methods for varied skill levels. Mentoring a master’s students on an epidemiology-based project. Pursuing an Associate Fellowship in Higher Education to refine my teaching practice.
Experienced in delivering technical presentations to limited prior knowledge audiences. Capable of tailoring complex concepts to both expert and lay audiences, ensuring clarity and engagement. Won best talk awards.
Published in peer-reviewed journals, skilled at structuring clear and concise papers, emphasising reproducibility and scientific rigor. Experience in writing ethics proposals.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funding to explore Natural Language Processing and deep learning methods to analyse over 10 million first opinion veterinary electronic health records (EHRs) from across the UK to understand critical public health matters. Key achievements include:
Impact: My research bridges computational innovation and public health applications,
advocates for open science principles and setting new standards for veterinary data and model
sharing
Thesis: Natural Language Processing for Early Detection and Mitigation of Critical
Public
Health
Threats
University of Kent
Proficient in applying interdisciplinary knowledge across biology and healthcare to analyse and address health-related challenges. Experience in laboratory methods in Genetics, Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Immunology
Thesis: Antimicrobial usage in hospitalised SARS-CoV-2 patients and the impact on the Gut Microbiome
| Title | Authors | Venue | Date | Link | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premature mortality analysis of 52,000 deceased cats and dogs exposes socioeconomic disparities. | Farrell, S., Anderson, K., Noble, P.-J.M. and Al Moubayed, N. | Scientific Reports | 20/09/2024 | Link | Download |
| Explainable text-tabular models for predicting mortality risk in companion animals. | Farrell, S.*, Burton, J.*, Noble, P.-J.M. and Al Moubayed, N. | Scientific Reports | 20/06/2024 | Link | Download |
| PetBERT: automated ICD-11 syndromic disease coding for outbreak detection in first opinion veterinary electronic health records. | Farrell, S., Appleton, C., Noble, P.-J.M. and Al Moubayed, N. | Scientific Reports | 21/10/2023 | Link | Download |
| A multinational survey of companion animal veterinary clinicians: How can antimicrobial stewardship guidelines be optimised for the target stakeholder? | Farrell, S., Bagcigil, A.F., Chaintoutis, S.C., Firth, C., Aydin, F.G., Hare, C., Maaland, M., Mateus, A., Vale, A.P., Windahl, U., Damborg, P., Timofte, D., Singleton, D.A. and Allerton, F. | The Veterinary Journal | 23/09/2023 | Link | Download |
| Seasonality and other risk factors for fleas infestations in domestic dogs and cats. | Farrell, S., McGarry, J., Noble, P.-J.M., Pinchbeck, G.J., Cantwell, S., Radford, A.D. and Singleton, D.A. | Medical and Veterinary Entomology | 09/01/2023 | Link | Download |
| Seasonality and risk factors for myxomatosis in pet rabbits in Great Britain. | Farrell, S., Noble, P.-J.M., Pinchbeck, G.L., Brant, B., Caravaggi, A., Singleton, D.A. and Radford, A.D. | Preventive Veterinary Medicine | 08/02/2020 | Link | Download |
| Title | Authors | Venue | Date | Link | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text mining for disease surveillance in veterinary clinical data: part two, training computers to identify features in clinical text. | Davies, H., Nenadic, G., Alfattni, G., Arguello Casteleiro, M., Al Moubayed, N., Farrell, S., Radford, A.D. and Noble, P.-J.M.. | Frontiers in Veterinary Science | 22/08/2024 | Link | Download |
| Text mining for disease surveillance in veterinary clinical data: part two, training computers to identify features in clinical text. | Davies, H., Nenadic, G., Alfattni, G., Arguello Casteleiro, M., Al Moubayed, N., Farrell, S., Radford, A.D. and Noble, P.-J.M.. | Frontiers in Veterinary Science | 23/01/2024 | Link | Download |
| Evaluating ChatGPT text mining of clinical records for companion animal obesity monitoring. | Fins, I.S., Davies, H., Farrell, S., Torres, J.R., Pinchbeck, G., Radford, A.D. and Noble, P.-J.M. | The Veterinary Record | 06/12/2023 | Link | Download |
| SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies in dogs and cats in the United Kingdom. | Smith, S.L., Anderson, E.R., Cansado-Utrilla, C., Prince, T., Farrell, S., Brant, B., Smyth, S., Noble, P.-J.M., Pinchbeck, G.L., Marshall, N., Roberts, L., Hughes, G.L., Radford, A.D. and Patterson, E.I. | Current Research in Virological Science | 04/08/2021 | Link | Download |
| Title | Authors | Venue | Date | Link | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PetEVAL: A veterinary free text electronic health records benchmark for the anonymisation and identification of disease patterns. | Farrell, S., Radford, A.D., Noble, P.-J.M. & Al Moubayed, N. | In Review | - | - | Download |
| Automated Disease Classification of Veterinary Clinical Narratives for Antimicrobial Stewardship Guideline Monitoring. | Farrell, S., Singleton, D.A., Radford, A.D., Pinchbeck G., Noble, P.-J.M. & Al Moubayed, N. | In Review | - | - | Download |
| Comprehensive representation of health-related phenotypes in one million dogs using topic modelling of electronic health records. | Noble, P.-J.M., Farrell, S., Al Moubayed, N. & Radford, A.D., | In Review | - | - | Download |
*Equal Contribution
| Title | Venue | Location | Date | Type | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syndromic Disease Surveillance and Multi-label Classifiers for Antimicrobial Usage Assessment | Association for Veterinary Informatics Talbot Veterinary Informatics Symposium | Virginia-Tech University, USA | 1/06/2024 | Oral | Download |
| PetBERT: Applications in Veterinary Syndromic Disease Surveillance | Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Veterinary Medicine | Cornell University, USA | 1/06/2024 | Oral | Download |
| Where are all the antimicrobials being used? LLM’s for monitoring adherence to antimicrobial stewardship guidelines in veterinary practices | HealTAC Annual Conference | Lancaster University, UK | 1/06/2024 | Poster | Download |
| Disease Outbreak Detection Using Large Language Models | Annual BBSRC NLD DTP Conference | Durham University, UK | 1/06/2024 | Oral | Download |
| Survey Results on what do clinicians want from their antimicrobial stewardship guidelines | European Network for the Optimisation of Veterinary Antimicrobial Therapy (ENOVAT) Meeting | University of Copenhagen, Netherlands | 1/06/2024 | Oral | Download |
| Syndromic Disease Classification of Veterinary EHR Notes for Disease Outbreak Detection | HealTAC Annual Conference | University of Manchester, UK | 1/06/2024 | Poster | Download |
| Predictive Power of Large Language Models in Determining Mortality Risks in Companion Animals | Annual BBSRC NLD DTP Conference | Durham University, UK | 1/06/2024 | Oral | Download |
| Syndromic Surveillance for Understanding Antimicrobial Usage in the veterinary community | Medical Research Foundation National PhD Conference | University of Bristol, UK | 1/06/2024 | Poster | Download |
| Current Status of multinational survey of companion animal veterinary clinicians: How can antimicrobial stewardship guidelines be optimised for the target stakeholder? | European Network for the Optimisation of Veterinary Antimicrobial Therapy (ENOVAT) Meeting | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece | 1/06/2024 | Oral | Download |
Impact: My work is being integrated into an app serving over 1 million NHS patients, enhancing its capability to provide personalised, reliable healthcare guidance.
Impact: Published findings in the Journal of Medical and Veterinary Entomology
Impact: Published findings in the Journal of Preventive Veterinary Medicine