IEEE Brain: Future Directions in Consumer Neurotechnology …

To add energy to this exciting and growing industry, this workshop is designed to bring together the various groups that are working towards bringing neurotechnology to a much broader consumer audience. Participants will include top scientists developing the next generation of brain imaging and stimulation devices, leading startups translating this research directly to consumers, VCs investing in these companies, and technology companies addressing neurotechnology at scale. This forum will give speakers a chance to showcase their work to this broad audience and catalyze collaborations between presenters, attendees, and experts from around the world.

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Dion Khodagholy, Columbia University

Niall Holmes, University of Nottingham

Ryan Field, Kernel

Ivan J. Tashev, Microsoft

Laura Cabrera, Penn State University; Nicole Martinez, Stanford University

Julia Brown, MindX

Conor Russomanno, Open BCI

Jason Worchel, Neurogeneces

Iain McIntyre, Humm

Meredith Perry and David Wang, Elemind

Jeff Eggers, Risk and Return

Juan-Pablo Mas, Action Potential Venture Capital

Patrick Malone, Northpond Ventures

Henry Mahncke, Posit Science

Rachel Wurzman, JHU/APL

Dr. Ramses Alcaide

Dr. Alcaide is a neuroscientist, inventor and the CEO and founder of Neurable. As a researcher at the University of Michigan Direct Brain Interface Laboratory, he has worked extensively to develop brain-computer interface technology for people with amputations, severe cerebral palsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Previously he was the CEO of Pharo LLC, where he managed numerous high-impact health projects, such as a rehabilitation technology for stroke patients.

Alcaides honors include the National Science Foundation Fellowship, McNair and Ford Foundation Fellowship. Alcaide is a two-time Neuroscience Innovators Award winner, a Rackham Merit Fellow and recognized as Medtech 35 Under 35 and a Zell Lurie Top 20 Entrepreneur.

Ramses has a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington.

Ramses was named a 2021 Next 1000 member by Forbes magazine as a top 1000 entrepreneur in the world.

Dr. Erdrin Azemi

Erdrin Azemi leads the Biosignal Intelligence Group within Apples AI and Machine Learning organization. Prior to Apple she was a consultant, co-founder, and a visiting research professor. Erdrin received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh with interdisciplinary training from Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. Her thesis focused on neural engineering and biocompatibility of brain computer interfaces. She holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Her work has been awarded with patents and several publications in peer reviewed journals.

Julia Brown

Julia Brown has extensive experience bringing innovative, early-stage technologies to market in the US through her roles in multiple startups. Julia is currently the CEO and founder of MindX, a deep-tech company creating next-generation brain-computer interface technologies, which she launched out of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in 2018. Julia has a background in computational biology, engineering, and human-centered design.

Prior to starting MindX, Julia co-founded EpiWatch Inc., a digital health spin-out from Johns Hopkins that developed a seizure detection and chronic condition management platform for wearable and mobile devices. Julia created the technology underlying the EpiWatch software in collaboration with Apple Inc., a partnership that ultimately led to the formation of a joint venture responsible for the continued development and support of the product. Earlier in her career, Julia helped to create and then manage the Johns Hopkins Medicines Technology Innovation Center, where she oversaw a team of engineers, entrepreneurs, and clinical champions to create novel digital solutions that improve patient care.

Dr. Laura Cabrera

Dr. Cabrera is an Associate Professor of Neuroethics at the Center for Neural Engineering, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State University. She is the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neuroethics, and a Research Associate at the Rock Ethics Institute. Dr. Cabrera is an honorific member of the Mexican Neuroethics Society, chair of the IEEE Brain Neuroethics Subcommittee, and member of the International Neuroethics Society (INS) Emergent Issues TaskForce. Dr. Cabreras interests focus on the ethical and societal implications of neurotechnologies used for treatment as well as for non-medical purposes.

Dr. Todd Coleman

Todd P. Coleman received B.S. degrees in electrical engineering (summa cum laude), as well as computer engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Michigan. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from MIT in electrical engineering and did postdoctoral studies at MIT in neuroscience. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Dr. Colemans research is very multi-disciplinary, using tools from applied probability, physiology, and bioelectronics. His research spans from developing fundamental information theory and machine learning techniques to developing technologies to monitor and modulate physiology of the nervous systems in the brain and visceral organs. He has been selected as a National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Lecturer, as a TEDMED speaker, and as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Dr. Joseph Culver

Dr. Joseph P. Culver, Ph.D. is the Sherwood Moore Professor of Radiology, at Washington University in St. Louis USA. Prof. Culvers group has developed a series of improvements to high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT). The improved image quality of HD-DOT systems has enabled optical angular and eccentricity mappings of the human visual cortex and mapping of a collection of language tasks. While isolated functional tasks are powerful tools for validation, many brain mapping applications require more naturalistic approaches to evaluating brain networks. To address these needs Prof. Culvers group developed a seminal task-less approach to mapping functional connectivity (FC). More recently his group has been exploring designs for wearable HD-DOT, and the use of naturalistic movies to both encode and decode brain function.

Jeff Eggers

Jeff Eggers is the Managing Partner of Risk and Return, an early-stage venture fund accelerating human performance solutions for high-risk public servants. Jeff is also co-author of the U.S. best-selling book Leaders: Myth and Reality and formerly served as the Executive Director of the McChrystal Group Leadership Institute, where he led research and client training on human and organizational performance. Previously in public service, Jeff served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and also served over 20 years in the U.S. Navy. He holds an M.A. from Oxford University and a B.S. from the United States Naval Academy.

Dr. Ryan Field

Ryan is the Chief Technology Officer for Kernel and has led the development of the Kernel Flow TD-fNIRS product since 2018. He holds B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from North Carolina State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.

Dr. Jack Gallant

Jack Gallant is Chancellors Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, and he is affiliated with several other departments and graduate programs at UCB (EECS, Bioengineering, Neuroscience, Biophysics, Vision Science). He received his Ph.D. from Yale University, and he did post-doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology and Washington University Medical School. He is known for his neurophysiology work on the representation of natural scenes, the function of area V4 and its modulation by attention; and for the development of the voxel-wise modeling approach in human fMRI and its application to vision, attention and language perception.

His current research program focuses on computational modeling and mapping of human brain activity under a wide variety of naturalistic conditions. Further information about ongoing work, links to talks and papers and links to an online interactive brain viewer can be found at the lab web page: gallantlab.org

Niall Holmes

Niall Holmes is a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham and Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor to Cerca Magnetics Limited. His research is focused on using quantum technologies to enable wearable Magnetoencephalography (or MEG), a functional neuroimaging technique which measures magnetic fields generated by neuronal currents. By combining quantum magnetic field sensors and novel magnetic shielding to screen interfering sources, he and his colleagues were able to perform the first MEG recordings which allowed significant participant movements. This has opened up a wealth of possibilities including scanning children, patients with movement disorders and incorporating technologies such as Virtual Reality headsets to provide an immersive environment.

Dr. Judy Illes

Dr. Judy Illes is Professor of Neurology and UBC Distinguished University Scholar. She is Director of Neuroethics Canada, and faculty in the Centre for Brain Health and at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. She received her PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences, and in Neuropsychology at Stanford University, and became one of the pioneers of the field of neuroethics formally established in early 2000.

Dr. Illes research, teaching and outreach initiatives are devoted to ethical, legal, social and policy challenges at the intersection of the brain sciences and biomedical ethics, with a special focus on neurotechnology.

She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2012 and appointed to the Order of Canada in December 2017. Her latest books, a series on Developments in Neuroethics and Bioethics, feature neuroethical issues in pain, global mental health, do-it-yourself brain devices and sensors, and neurolaw.

Dr. David Jangraw

David Jangraw is an Assistant Professor in the University of Vermonts Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Department with experience in signal processing and machine learning. He completed his BS at Princeton, his PhD at Columbia, and his postdoctoral work at the National Institute of Mental Health. Jangraw currently directs the Glass Brain Lab, whose focus is naturalistic neuroengineering: the use of new technology to study the human brain in realistic situations. By understanding the brain in real life, we can pave the way for devices that detect problematic brain states in real-time and provide support, a sort of pacemaker for the brain.

Dr. Dion Khodagholy

Dion Khodagholy is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University. He received his Masters degree from the University of Birmingham (UK) in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. This was followed by a second Masters degree in Microelectronics at the Ecole des Mines. He attained his Ph.D. degree in Microelectronics at the Department of Bioelectronics (BEL) of the Ecole des Mines (France). He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in systems neuroscience at New York University, Langone Medical Center.His research aims to use unique properties of materials for the purpose of designing and developing novel electronic devices that allow efficient interaction with biological substrates, specifically neural networks and the brain. This process involves design, characterization, and fabrication of high-performance biocompatible electronics to acquire and analyze neural data. The ultimate goal is to translate such advances in electronics, materials and neuroscience into more effective diagnostics and treatments for neuropsychiatric diseases.

Dr. Amy Kruse

Dr. Amy Kruse is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab where she leads their life sciences investments. As a neuroscientist and biologist, she discovers emerging new companies and leads in-depth due diligence into potential investments across areas including neuroscience, human augmentation, synthetic biology, longevity/regeneration and agriculture. She also supports portfolio companies in evaluating and overcoming scientific and implementation challenges, with a specific emphasis on deploying complex technology into real-world environments. She serves on the boards of portfolio companies, Paradromics, Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, and Attune Neurosciences.

Prior to Prime Movers Lab, she was formerly the Chief Scientific Officer at Optios, an applied neuroscience company. Amy also served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Cubic Global Defense overseeing innovation and the R&D portfolio across the entire defense enterprise. Early in her career, she served as a government civilian program manager at DARPA where she created and oversaw the Agencys first performance-oriented neuroscience programs, with a combined budget of over $300M. She earned a BS in Cell and Structural Biology and a PhD in Neuroscience from University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where she was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship.

Dr. Henry Mahncke

Dr. Henry Mahncke joined Posit Science at its inception as Vice President of Research & Outcomes, where he led the first large-scale clinical trials of a publicly available cognitive training program. He now serves as CEO of Posit Science, where his focus is ensuring that the breakthrough science of brain plasticity can help every brain on the planet. Previously, he worked as consultant at McKinsey focused on health care and video games, and then as a science and technology advisor to the British government. Dr. Mahncke earned his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Patrick Malone

Patrick Malone is a physician-scientist turned VC. At Northpond Ventures, a science-driven venture capital firm with over $2B in committed capital, Patrick invests in and supports portfolio companies at the intersection of tech, life sciences, and healthcare. Previously, Patrick completed his MD and PhD in neuroscience at Georgetown University, where his thesis work focused on computational cognitive neuroscience and ML applications in neuroimaging. Prior to graduate school, Patrick was a research fellow at NIH where he investigated MRI biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease, and completed a B.S. with honors in neuroscience and behavioral biology from Emory University.

Dr. Nicole Martinez

Nicole Martinez-Martin is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Ethics, in the Department of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Stanford University. She has graduate degrees in social science research and law, and her research interests include neuroethics and the ethics of digital mental health and medical applications of AI.

Juan-Pablo Mas

Juan-Pablo is a partner at Action Potential Venture Capital in Santa Cruz, CA. He represents APVC on the Boards of Cala Health, Exo Imaging, Neuspera Medical, Presidio Medical, Saluda Medical, SetPoint Medical, and previously CVRx (NASDAQ: CVRX). He is also on the boards of Gradient Denervation Technologies, and was previously an investor at Lightstone Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures, where he served as a Board observer at Ardian (acq. by Medtronic), Twelve (acq. by Medtronic), Nuvaira, Cabochon Aesthetics (acq. by Ulthera/Merz), and Miramar Labs (acq. by Sientra).

Prior to investing, Juan-Pablo led efforts in R&D and Strategy in Medtronics CardioVascular Division. He was named Medtronic Inventor of The Year. Subsequently, he was on the Global Brand Strategy team at Eli Lilly within the Cardiovascular business.

Juan-Pablo earned an MBA and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He serves on the Oversight Committee for Stanfords Neuroscience Institute (Wu Tsai), the Advisory Board for UCSFs Rosenman Institute, and is a founding Board Member of LatinxVC which is dedicated to increasing the representation and advancement of Latino and Latina VCs across industry verticals. Juan-Pablo previously served eight years on the Board of InnerCity Weightlifting, a non-profit reducing youth violence and incarceration rates by fostering social inclusion and economic mobility. He played Division I mens lacrosse at the University of Massachusetts, and is originally from Puerto Rico.

Meredith Perry

Meredith Perry is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elemind, a company developing bleeding-edge noninvasive neuromodulation technology. Prior to Elemind, Meredith founded uBeam, a company that develops long range wireless power systems. Meredith invented uBeams technology as an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania, which won the Penn Invention competition. She holds numerous patents related to both Elemind and uBeams technologies.

While at Penn, Meredith served as a student ambassador for NASA, where she worked on technology to detect life on Mars, experimented in zero gravity, and researched and published papers in astrobiology and medicine. She graduated in 2011 with a degree in paleobiology.

Meredith has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, Vanity Fairs The New Establishment, Fortunes Most Powerful Women, and Fast Companys Most Creative People. She is also the recipient of Elle Magazines Genius Award. Meredith resides in Los Angeles.

Conor Russomanno

Conor Russomanno is an entrepreneur, creative technologist, and lecturer, specializing in the development of advanced human-computer interfaces. He is the co-founder and CEO of OpenBCI, a company dedicated to open source innovation of brain-computer interface technologies. Conor is also a teacher, having taught graduate level courses at Parsons School of Design and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

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