We are pleased to offer a set of exciting hands-on workshops as part of this year’s summer school. Summer school participants will work in small groups on neuroengineering-related projects under the guidance of a TA. When applying for the summer school (using this form), you will have the opportunity to provide your preference ranking for different workshops (and you can also elaborate in your application). We will take these preferences into account when assigning students to workshops.
Full workshop descriptions below.
Gordon Cheng (Cognitive Systems, TUM)
Detection of Step Walking Through EEG Signals and Insole Sensors
Joan Orpella (Neuroscience, Georgetown)
Decoding Imagined Speech from EEG data
Josef Rauschecker (Neuroscience, Georgetown)
Sensory substitution – using technology to substitute one sense for another
Mark Burns (Neuroscience, Georgetown)
Transcranial Electrical Stimulation for Enhancing Learning and Memory in Rodent Models
Mak Paranjape (Physics, Georgetown)
Hands-on nanotechnology workshop
Simon Jacob (Neurosurgery, TUM)
Single-neuron and neuronal circuit dynamics of intracortical electrical microstimulation in human association cortex
Tina Liu (Neurology, Georgetown)
Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Visual Cortex: Applications for Visual Perception and Plasticity
Workshop descriptions
Gordon Cheng (Cognitive Systems, TUM)
Title:
Detection of Step Walking Through EEG Signals and Insole Sensors
Project Description:
The project is organized into four sections, and participants are required to complete at least two of these sections.
Classification of Foot Movement and Step Walking via Insole Sensors
This section introduces pressure sensors and demonstrates how biosignals can serve as markers for future brain-computer interfaces.
Classification of Foot Movement and Step Walking via EEG Signals
In this section, participants will analyze neuro signals recorded via electroencephalography and develop a model by classifying the extracted spatiotemporal features. The outcomes from Section 1 may be used as the true labels for this analysis.
Classification of Stable and Unstable Walking via Insole Sensors
This section aims to provide valuable feedback that could be integrated into future exoskeleton projects to assist individuals with impaired mobility.
Classification of Stable and Unstable Walking via EEG Signals
Here, the focus is on differentiating brain activity during stable versus unstable walking. The results from Section 3 can be utilized as true labels.
Joan Orpella (Neuroscience, Georgetown)
Title: Decoding Imagined Speech from EEG data
Description: This hands-on workshop immerses students in the acquisition and analysis of EEG data to uncover the neural signatures of imagined speech production. Through guided experiments and advanced signal processing techniques, participants will identify key speech-related dimensions for decoding covert speech. The workshop also features a competitive challenge, where students will develop and test decoding algorithms to achieve optimal performance. This workshop provides a unique opportunity to bridge neuroscience, engineering, and machine learning in the pursuit of brain-computer interface applications.
Josef Rauschecker (Neuroscience, Georgetown)
Title: Sensory substitution – using technology to substitute one sense for another
Description: The goal of sensory substitution is to take information usually processed through one sense (e.g., visual information) and convert it so that it can be processed by another sense (e.g., the auditory system, by detecting relevant information in the visual input and converting it to sound), e.g., to aid individuals with impaired sensory processing. Students in this workshop will gain experience in programming sensory substitution algorithms and perform experiments evaluating the performance and usefulness of different approaches to sensory substitution.
Mark Burns (Neuroscience, Georgetown)
Title: Transcranial Electrical Stimulation for Enhancing Learning and Memory in Rodent Models
Description: This summer school workshop will explore transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) paradigms for enhancing synaptic plasticity, learning and memory in rodent models of disease. Participants will learn the principles of tES, observe the techniques required to place electrodes on the mouse head, and gain experience with behavioral tasks to assess learning and memory in traumatic brain injury (TBI) mice. Participants will analyze real data to determine the effect of different tES paradigms on synaptic plasticity and learning/memory after TBI. The workshop will provide a foundational understanding of tES applications for the treatment of cognitive impairments in disease states in rodents.
Mak Paranjape (Physics, Georgetown)
Title: Hands-on nanotechnology workshop
Description: Nanotechnology, such as the use of nanoparticles as drug delivery vehicles and even as injectable nanoelectrodes for brain stimulation, has emerged as a significant technique that has opened the door to a number of novel application areas. Electrospraying technology, an offshoot of electrospinning, is a means to reliably produce nanoparticles in a scalable manner. Many drugs have used electrospraying using biodegradable polymer-based carriers. This workshop will provide users with hands-on access to both a home-built system and a commercial electrospinning station, to fabricate polyethylene glycol nanoparticles. Additionally, the nanoparticles will be characterized for size using dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques as well as imaging using a field-emission scanning electron microscope ((SEM).
Simon Jacob (Neurosurgery, TUM)
Title: Single-neuron and neuronal circuit dynamics of intracortical electrical microstimulation in human association cortex
Description: In this workshop, students will work with a unique data set consisting of large-scale unit recordings from a human patient implanted with multiple microelectrode arrays in the cognitive association cortex. Intracortical electrical microstimulation (ICMS) was applied to individual channels with varying amplitude and frequency. The aim of the workshop will be to investigate the neurophysiological effects of ICMS at the cellular and circuit level. Students will explore, for example, how different neuronal cell types react to electrical stimulation and how their connectivity patterns influence how the stimulation propagates through the recorded network.
Tina Liu (Neurology, Georgetown)
Title: Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Visual Cortex: Applications for Visual Perception and Plasticity
Description: This summer school workshop will explore transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) as a noninvasive brain stimulation technique for enhancing visual plasticity by targeting the human visual cortex. Participants will learn the principles of tRNS, examine its effects on visual processing through psychophysical tasks, and gain hands-on experience in data collection and analysis. The workshop will provide a foundational understanding of tRNS applications in vision science and its potential for cognitive enhancement and neurorehabilitation in humans.