Thea Brüsch
Image:
Private

Thea Brüsch

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: Thea Brüsch

Thea Brüsch is a PhD student at the Section for Cognitive Systems at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). She visited the UiT Machine Learning Group from January to June 2024.

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: Thea Brüsch

By: Petter Bjørklund, Communication Advisor at SFI Visual Intelligence

Thea Brüsch is a PhD student at the Section for Cognitive Systems at the Technical University of Denmark. She is working with biomedical time series data from different perspectives, focusing mostly on self-supervised learning as a tool for learning powerful representations from unlabelled biomedical time series. Brüsch visited Visual Intelligence in Tromsø from January to June 2024.

What's your name and current affiliation?

My name is Thea Brüsch. I am a PhD student at the Section for Cognitive Systems at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). I have been visiting the Machine Learning Group at UiT from January to June 2024.

Can you tell us about your PhD project?

During my PhD, I have been working with biomedical time series data from different perspectives. Most progress in deep learning has been made in computer vision and natural language processing with less emphasis on time series. However, time series data is important for many medical tasks, and assisted decision making could alleviate the burden from many doctors. In the beginning of my PhD, I have focused mostly on self-supervised learning as a tool for learning powerful representations from unlabelled biomedical time series. Recently, I have shifted my focus towards explainability for time series.

Why did you choose Tromsø and Visual Intelligence for your research stay?

In the spring of 2023, I was looking for a place to do my external stay. My supervisor already knew Robert Jenssen and suggested that Tromsø might be a good place. I was intrigued by the idea of living in Norway, since I have always loved the nature here. I also had a really good impression of the group based on their published work. I therefore came for a short visit in September 2023 to ensure that our interests aligned. During my visit, I met with a lot of people from the group and brainstormed ideas for projects. I wanted to shift my research focus to explainability, and it became clear that both Robert and Kristoffer had a lot of expertise in this areas and that our interests overlapped.

What has been the outcome of your research stay?

During my stay, I have had the opportunity to work with professor Robert Jenssen and associate professor Kristoffer Wickstrøm on masking based methods for explainability. This has resulted in two completed manuscripts, one with Kristoffer in the lead, and one with myself as first author, as well as a lot of ideas for extensions. I also became involved in a project with Suaiba and Magnus on visualizations using t-SNE methods. All have been very fruitful collaborations that I hope to continue building on.

How was life in Tromsø?

I came to Tromsø during the dark time in January and got to experience the northern lights. The spring was filled with a lot of skiing – both cross country and skitouring. And finally, summer time offered hiking under the midnight sun. The entire group has been extremely welcoming towards me and invited me to all sorts of social activities – something that I am extremely grateful for. I am leaving Tromsø with a lot of new friends and great collaborators. All in all, my stay has been everything that I wished for and much more!

Latest news

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: Aitor Sánchez

October 5, 2025

Aitor Sánchez is a PhD candidate at the Intelligent Systems Group of the University of the Basque Country in Spain. He visited Visual Intelligence in Tromsø from March to June 2025.

Visual Intelligence at Forskningsdagene 2025

September 28, 2025

Visual Intelligence researchers participated in this year's Forskningsdagene: an annual national research festival which aims to stimulate the general public's interest and curiosity in research.

forskning.no: Derfor trenger vi en lov for kunstig intelligens

September 26, 2025

Norge arbeider med å få på plass en egen lov for kunstig intelligens. Loven skal passe på at vi bruker KI på en trygg måte (Norwegian news article at uit.no).

Visual Intelligence Days 2025: Two packed days of scientific and social interactions!

September 25, 2025

85 researchers from the Visual Intelligence consortium convened for the Visual Intelligence Days: the annual workshop where researchers, user partners and invited guests convene to share knowledge and updates on the latest research and innovations within the centre.

uit.no: Hvordan håndtere skjevheter og beskytte personvernet i KI-alderen?

September 11, 2025

Det skal eksperter på kunstig intelligens, cybersikkerhet og juss fra UiT Norges arktiske universitet diskutere på Verdensteatret Kino den 17. september. Arrangementet er gratis og åpen for alle (Norwegian news article at uit.no)

Successful PhD defense by Nikita Shvetsov

August 27, 2025

Congratulations to Nikita Shvetsov for successfully defending his PhD thesis and achieving the PhD degree in Science at UiT The Arctic University of Norway on August 27th 2025.

uit.no: – UiT er langt fremme når det gjelder kunstig intelligens

August 25, 2025

Det sa digitaliseringsminister Karianne Tung (Ap) da hun besøkte UiT Norges arktiske universitet i Tromsø for å lære mer om utdanning og toppforskning på kunstig intelligens ved universitetet (Norwegian news article at uit.no)

Two successful PhD defenses within two days

August 22, 2025

Congratulations to Iver Martinsen and Durgesh Kumar Singh, who successfully defended their PhD theses at UiT The Arctic University of Norway on August 20th and 21st respectively.

Visual Intelligence at Arendalsuka 2025

August 14, 2025

Visual Intelligence brought together academia, industry, the institute sector, the Research Council of Norway, and Norwegian politics to discuss why and how Norwegian academia and industry should collaborate more closely to develop innovative artificial intelligence.

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: João Campagnolo

August 1, 2025

João Campagnolo is a PhD Candidate in the Neuroscience Department of the University of Copenhagen (KU). He visited SFI Visual Intelligence in Tromsø from April to May 2025.

16 EUGLOH Mobility Scholarships for NLDL Winter School 2026: Apply Now!

July 29, 2025

Students from EUGLOH partner institutions can now apply for an exclusive mobility scholarship worth 2 900 EUR for the NLDL 2026 Winter School. Application deadline October 3rd 2025

2025 Norwegian AI Society Symposium: An insightful and collaborative event

June 23, 2025

More than 50 attendees from the Norwegian AI research community gathered in Tromsø, Norway for two days of insightful presentations, interactive technical sessions, and scientific and social interactions.