Chethan Pandarinath, PhD

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When: Friday, March 31st, 2023, 10am-11am EST

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Title:  Uncovering neural population dynamics: applications to basic science and brain-machine interfaces

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Abstract: Large-scale recordings of neural activity have created new opportunities to study network-level dynamics in the brain in unprecedented detail. However, the sheer volume of data and its dynamical complexity are major barriers to uncovering these dynamics, interpreting them, and harnessing them for therapeutic applications. Our group has developed new machine learning methods to uncover dynamics from recordings of neural population activity on millisecond timescales. I will demonstrate how these methods can be applied to data from diverse brain areas and behavioral tasks, without regard to behavior. I will also discuss how these approaches can be harnessed to improve brain-machine interfaces for people with paralysis.

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Bio:  Dr. Pandarinath is an assistant professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech and the Department of Neurosurgery at Emory, where he directs the Systems Neural Engineering Lab. His group’s research uses electrical engineering principles and AI toward studying the nervous system and designing assistive devices for people with neurological disorders or injuries.

 

Dr. Pandarinath received undergraduate degrees in Computer Engineering, Physics, and Science Technology and Society from North Carolina State University. During his PhD in EE at Cornell, his research focused on the early visual system and creating novel retinal prosthetic approaches to restore vision. His postdoc at Stanford with Jaimie Henderson and Krishna Shenoy, as a part of the BrainGate team, focused on improving the performance of brain-machine interfaces to restore function to people with paralysis. He is a 2019 Sloan Fellow and K12 Scholar in the NIH-NICHD Rehabilitation Engineering Career Development Program. He is also a recipient of the 2021 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. His work has been funded by the Neilsen Foundation, NSF, DARPA, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Simons Foundation, and NIH.