A Multi-Disciplinary Discussion of Brain-Machine Interfaces
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Date: 04-08-2011
Start Time:
10:30am
End Time: 12:00pm
Speaker: Todd Coleman
Location: Interschool Lab, CEPSR 750
ABSTRACT:
In this talk, we will discuss the topic of brain-machine interfaces, which comprise
a coupling between the brain and an external device. First, we discuss a systems-engineering
viewpoint on designing the protocol of interaction between the human and the external device
from the lens of team decision theory and feedback information theory. We demonstrate how this
application led to interesting new theoretical problems and solutions, that can be instantiated in a
BMI for a text communication prosthesis as well as traversal of smooth paths in two dimensions.
Next, we discuss some recent research in understanding how information is represented and
processed in the ensemble neurophysiological recordings in motor areas of a monkey through
the causal interaction between neural signals. Lastly, we discuss new neuro-technology
developments that use stretchable electronics to sense neural signals non-invasively without the
use of conductive gel.
BIO:
Todd P. Coleman received the B.S. degrees in electrical engineering (summa cum
laude), as well as computer engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, in 2000, along with the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, in 2002, and 2005. During the 2005-
2006 academic year, he was a postdoctoral scholar at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital
in computational neuroscience. Since the fall of 2006, he has been on the faculty in the ECE
Department and Neuroscience Program at UIUC. His research interests include information
theory, operations research, and computational neuroscience. Dr. Coleman, a National Science
Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship recipient, was awarded the University of Michigan
College of Engineering’s Hugh Rumler Senior Class Prize in 1999 and was awarded the MIT
EECS Department’s Morris J. Levin Award for Best Masterworks Oral Thesis Presentation in
2002. In Fall 2008, he was a co-recipient of the University of Illinois College of Engineering’s
Grainger Award in Emerging Technologies for development of a novel, practical timing-based
technology. Beginning Fall 2009, Coleman has served as a co-Principal Investigator on a 5-year
NSF IGERT interdisciplinary training grant for graduate students, titled "Neuro-engineering:
A Unified Educational Program for Systems Engineering and Neuroscience" in conjunction
with Tennessee State, and UT San Antonio. Coleman also has been serving on the DARPA
ISAT study group for a 3-year term, beginning Fall 2009. Beginning June 2010, he will serve
as Diversity Coordinator for a new 5-year NSF Science and Technology Center pertaining
to "Emerging Frontiers of the Science of Information", in conjunction with Purdue, Princeton,
Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Bryn Mawr, and Howard. Recently, he has been selected for a Fellow
appointment with the University of Illinois Center for Advanced Study (CAS) for the 2010-2011
academic year.