One of the ways Amway measures the effectiveness of their skin care products is by objectively evaluating and comparing facial images with computer algorithms before and after the use of their products. Students on the Amway team will build a web application to manage and process clinical scans of facial images using Amway’s existing Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform.
Abstract:
Amway is an entrepreneur-led health and wellness company with many products, including: nutrition, home, and beauty. Amway’s skin care scientists combine the right ingredients in the precise amounts, with exclusive technologies and formulations that raise the bar for effectiveness — all backed with clinical studies and rigorous safety testing. One of the ways Amway measures the effectiveness of their skin care products is by objectively evaluating and comparing facial images with computer algorithms before and after the use of their products. Throughout the years, Amway collected a significant amount of high-quality facial skin imaging data which requires advanced processing for research insights. Photographs are taken of the front, right, and left side of test subjects faces (see image below). We need the capability to automatically merge these three photos into a single compute high definition VISIA CR image.
Students on the Amway team will build a web application to manage and process clinical scans of facial images using Amway’s existing Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. A successful project will deliver a web application with a well-designed UI that provides specialty image processing, such as merging photos and auto masking elements as well as basic management of images (including import, export, simple search, link). A successful project will also deliver a code base that is updatable in the future, with good documentation.
Impact:
The beauty and cosmetic industries are highly competitive, where experience and storytelling are important. Novel insights extracted from Big Data such as facial images can create new stories and generate excitement in the marketplace, which could lead to increased sales/revenue, and give Amway an edge on skin science research in the industry. Developing a tool to accelerate this process is instrumental at Amway and building such tool using cloud computing offers future opportunities to put Amway’s proprietary F.A.C.E.S. database into action through a personalized beauty/cosmetic solution.
Image Processing Engine Development (2-3 Students)
Specific Skills: Image processing, Computer Vision and Machine Learning, Algorithm and tool development
EECS 351 or 556 recommended Students must have completed EECS 281 or equivalent. Experience with or willingness to learn Python.
Likely Majors: CS, ROB, DATA, CE, EE
Database Design (2 Students)
Specific Skills: Database design for images and attribute solid understanding of database design theory and practical knowledge, General Programming
Students must have completed EECS 281 or equivalent. Prior experience with AWS S3 is a plus.
Likely Majors: CS, DATA
Web App Development (2 Students)
Specific Skills: Basic full stack development, Develop data processing tools
Experience with or willingness to learn Python and additional computer vision skills.
Students must have completed EECS 281 or equivalent. Experience with AWS a plus.
Likely Majors: CS, Any student with appropriate experience.
Sponsor Mentors
Ziqi Wu
Ziqi Wu is a senior research scientist in the skin science – advanced imaging & measurement group in Amway Innovation & Science division. His primary research interests are skin imaging analysis for facial feature extraction, machine learning model for aging signs and skin ultrasound imaging. His role involves using bioinstrumentation for cosmetic and nutritional products efficacy testing. He holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from University of Michigan. Ziqi is passionate about skin image processing using advanced algorithms for generating novel product insights.
Patrick Burrel
Patrick Burrel is a senior software engineer in the data science group in Amway Innovation & Science division. He has a BSE degree in EECS from the Unviersity of Michigan. He is an experienced software engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the consumer goods industry. Patrick is skilled in software prototyping, R&D, development, and debugging.
Josh Schwannecke
Josh Schwannecke is a principal data scientist in the data science group in Amway Innovation & Science division. He has BSE and MSE degree in EECS from Michigan State University. Josh has a wide range of expertise in consumer electronics, focused ultrasound, and wireless power transmission. He is passionate about developing advanced machine learning algorithms for image, text and time series data analysis.
Aimee Herbel
Aimee is the manager of skin science group in Amway Innovation & Science division. She has her BS in Biology and Chemistry from Aquinas College and MS in Cosmetic Science from University of Cincinnati. She has over 10 years of experience in Skincare/Personal Care formulation and analytical chemistry.
Executive Mentor
Kathryn Armstrong
Kathryn is the Vice President of New Ventures, Sciencse, Plants, Agriculture, and Systems (NVSPAS) in Amway Innovation & Science division. She is responsible for leading acquisitions, alliances, co-innovation and development of new, adjacent, and disruptive product and service innovation supporting inorganic and organic Amway growth strategies. She is also responsible for the discovery process, including foresight, data science and analytics, innovation sourcing, acceleration/ incubation, and proof-of-concept testing, its governance and associated metrics.
Faculty Mentor
Carol Menassa
Associate Professor and John L. Tishman CM Faculty Scholar, Civil Engineering
Professor Menassa’s research focuses on understanding and modeling the interconnections between the human and the built environment. From her website: In this context, my research group focuses on two main research thrusts. In the first, we study the impact of human behaviors and actions on the built environment. For example, we use modeling and simulation to understand the impact of occupants on energy use in buildings and develop decision frameworks to sustainably retrofit existing buildings. In the second thrust, we focus on understanding the effect of the built environment on human comfort, well-being and accessibility issues. For example, we use non-intrusive methods such as low cost thermal cameras to provide personalized thermal comfort settings in single and multi-occupancy space. We also develop personalized localization and path planning methods to assist people with physical disabilities in navigating unknown building environments. My research group has expertise in energy simulation, complex adaptive systems modeling, high-level architecture and informatics, computer vision and robotics.
Citizenship Requirements:
- This project is open to all students
- International students on an F-1 visa will be required to declare part-time CPT during Winter 2023 and Fall 2023 terms.
IP/NDA: Students will sign IP/NDA document(s) that are unique to Amway.
Internship/Summer Opportunity: Students with the right to work in the US will be guaranteed an interview for a 2023 internship. The interviews will take place in February 2023.