Zoran Nenadic
Zoran Nenadic
Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of California, Irvine
Speech Title: 
Brain-Computer Interfaces for Neuroprosthetics and Neurorehabilitation
Abstract: 
Neurological conditions such as spinal cord injury (SCI) or stroke may leave the affected individual with paralysis of lower and/or upper extremities. This not only significantly degrades the quality of life of this patient population, but also leads to a number of medical co-morbidities. In the US alone, these two conditions incur more than $80 billion/year of primary and secondary health care costs. There are no treatments that can restore the lost motor function after SCI or stroke, and current physiotherapy approaches provide only a limited degree of recovery. Therefore, novel methods to improve the quality of life for these individuals and reduce the public health burden are desperately needed. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which enable direct brain control of external devices without producing any motor output, may constitute one such novel approach. In this presentation, I will explore several novel BCI systems capable of controlling external devices such as virtual reality environments, functional electrical stimulators, robotic prostheses. The potential benefits of these devices in the field of neuroprosthetics and neurorehabilitation will be discussed.
Bio: 

Zoran Nenadic received his Diploma degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, and his M.S. and D.Sc. degrees in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University. He was subsequently a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at California Institute of Technology. He has been at UCI since 2005, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research interests are in the areas of neuroengineering, biomedical signal processing, pattern recognition, biomedical devices and sensors, and biological neural networks. He has authored/co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in these areas.

Prof. Nenadic is the recipient of 2011 NSF CAREER Award, and was a best paper finalist at the 2007 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, and a former member of the Mathematical Association of America and the Society for Neuroscience.

Research Interests: 
Adaptive biomedical signal processing, control algorithms for biomedical devices, brain-machine interfaces, modeling and analysis of biological neural networks

November 20-21, 2013