WRF Innovation Graduate Fellows in Neuroengineering

Current UWIN Graduate Fellows

	David Caldwell is an M.D./Ph.D student in Bioengineering working with Rajesh Rao in Computer Science & Engineering and Jeffrey Ojemann in Neurological Surgery. His research focuses broadly on neural connectivity and processing. Specifically, his work aims to enhance neural connectivity through electrical cortical stimulation and characterizing the cortical response to stimulation in human patients implanted with electrocorticographic grids in preparation for epilepsy surgery. David received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan. He is a joint fellow of UWIN and the Big Data for Genomics & Neuroscience (BDGN) Training Grant, and is an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) scholar.
	Aaron D. Garcia is a Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience program advised by Bing Brunton in Biology and Elizabeth Buffalo in Physiology and Biophysics. Aaron’s research centers on identifying brain activity in the hippocampus and surrounding structures used during navigation and memory tasks. His approach involves applying empirical mode decomposition in tandem with Hilbert Spectral Analysis to local-field-potential data recorded from high-density micro-drives. Aaron received a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Boston University. He is a joint fellow of UWIN and the Computational Neuroscience Training Grant.
	Philip Mardoum is a Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience program working in the labs of Fred Rieke in Physiology and Biophysics and Rachel Wong in Biological Structure. His research focuses on sensory coding in micro-circuits of the retina, and how multiple distinct information streams can be processed in parallel within the same circuitry. He received a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago.
	Thomas Mohren is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering working with Steve Brunton in Mechanical Engineering and Tom Daniel in Biology. He is interested in how animals use mechanosensory arrays to make fast and robust control decisions. He uses computational models, sparse sensing techniques and neurophysiological approaches to study hawk moth flight control, with the aim of uncovering generalizable principles in biology that can inspire novel engineering solutions. Thomas received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He is co-funded by UWIN and the Air Force Center of Excellence on Nature-Inspired Flight Technologies and Ideas (NIFTI, and was a recipient of a 2014-2015 Fulbright scholarship.
	Vaishnavi Ranganathan is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering working with Josh Smith in the Sensor Systems Lab. Vaishnavi’s research interests include fully wireless wearable devices and implantable neural interfaces for treatment and rehabilitation in patients with spinal cord injury. Specifically, she works on wireless power transfer and power-aware computation for implantable devices to remove the need for batteries and enable autonomous operation. Vaishnavi received a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and completed her bachelor’s degree at Amrita University in India.
	Claire Rusch is a Ph.D. student in Biology working in Jeff Riffell’s lab. Her research interests focus on the how the environment shapes and is processed by the nervous system to control motor responses and behavior. Specifically, her project aims to better understand the neural circuits and processing of visual information and memory in honeybees– an attractive system for learning because of its robust behaviors and relatively simplified neuroanatomy that permits neurophysiological recording from identifiable neurons. Claire received a master’s degree in Neuroscience, Behavior and Cognition from Paul Sabatier University, France. She is co-funded by UWIN and the Air Force Center of Excellence on Nature-Inspired Flight Technologies and Ideas (NIFTI).
	Soshi Samejima is a Ph.D. student in Rehabilitation Science working with Chet Moritz in Rehabilitation Medicine and Rajiv Saigal in Neurological Surgery. Soshi’s research focuses on restoring mobility and leg/arm function for people with spinal cord injury by using electrical spinal stimulation and rehabilitation through neural interfaces and robotics. For the last 10 years, Soshi worked as a physical therapist. He received a clinical doctoral degree in physical therapy from MGH institute of Health Professions, a master’s degree in Biomedical Science and Athletic Training from Thomas Jefferson University and Texas Tech University respectively, and a bachelor’s degree in Health Science from Kanazawa University, Japan. He is co-funded by UWIN and the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.
	Raymond Sanchez is a Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience program working in the lab of Horacio de la Iglesia in Biology. Raymond is interested in the neural circuits regulating sleep and circadian rhythms, and their relationship to neurological and psychiatric diseases. The goal of his research is to develop and validate a closed-loop system for real-time manipulations of sleep and seizures in a genetic mouse model of Dravet syndrome, a severe form of childhood epilepsy accompanied by sleep disturbances. This system will serve as an open-source experimental tool for researchers interested in the interactions between sleep and disease, and inform the development of novel therapeutic devices for Dravet and other epileptic syndromes. Raymond received a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience & Cognitive Science from the University of Arizona.
	Mohammad F. Tariq is a PhD student in the Neuroscience program working in the labs of David Gire in Psychology and David Perkel in Biology and Otolaryngology. His work focuses on understanding how olfactory cues in the environment guide memory formation and decision-making. He uses electrophysiology and imaging from freely behaving animals to study the network and physiological mechanisms that allow olfactory information to make robust memories of the environment. Mohammad received his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from the Georgia State University.
	Momona Yamagami is a graduate student in Electrical Engineering working with Kat Steele in Mechanical Engineering and Sam Burden in Electrical Engineering. In her research, Momona uses a computer trajectory-tracking task to quantify and predict motor planning impairments in children with cerebral palsy. She is broadly interested in understanding how humans learn different control models to plan their movements. Momona received her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from Rice University in Houston, Texas.
	Ezgi Irmak Yücel is a graduate student in Psychology, where she is a member of the Vision and Cognition Group working with Ione Fine in Psychology and Ariel Rokem at the eScience Institute. Ezgi’s research broadly focuses on visual perception and restorative technologies for blindness. Her current project aims to validate a retinal model of restored vision developed by UWIN postdoctoral fellow Michael Beyeler. She will use psychophysical methods to accomplish this, with the eventual goal of optimizing stimulation protocols for retinal prosthetics to improve visual outcomes. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Philosophy from Bilkent University in Turkey.

Emeritus UWIN Graduate Fellows

	David Bjanes is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering working with Chet Moritz in Rehabilitation Medicine and Josh Smith in Electrical Engineering. His project tackles current issues with delivering sensory information to the brain for eventual use in closed-loop brain computer interfaces. David comes to the UW with a master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University. In addition to being named a WRF Innovation Graduate Fellow, he is a recipient of an NSF Engineering Research Center Graduate Research Award from the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.
	Yoni Browning is a Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience program working in the labs of Beth Buffalo and Adrienne Fairhall in Physiology and Biophysics. Broadly, he is interested in computation and information processing in neural systems. His research aims to understand how space is represented in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, and how these representations allow for navigation, strategy, and spatial memory. To do this, he studies behavioral, single neuron, and neural population data recorded from macaque monkeys performing navigation tasks in a virtual reality environment. Yoni received a bachelor’s degree from the Applied and Computational Math Sciences program at the University of Washington. He is a joint fellow of UWIN and the UW Computational Neuroscience Training Grant.
	Kaitlyn Casimo is a Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience program, where she is a member of Jeff Ojemann’s lab in Neurological Surgery. She studies the electrophysiology of human resting state and task based brain connectivity, working with patients undergoing epilepsy surgery. She is especially interested in changes in connectivity related to brain-computer interface use and learning. Kaitlyn received a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Pomona College, where she studied physiological responses to stress. She is a joint fellow of UWIN and the UW Computational Neuroscience Training Grant.
	Gaurav Mukherjee is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering working in Kat Steele’s Ability Lab. His research focuses on creating enhanced hand orthoses with neural control for individuals with impaired hand function. He is developing low cost, accessible, 3D-printed designs that can be used outside the lab to evaluate the effect of these neuro-orthoses on motor function and learning in everyday life. Gaurav comes to the UW with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pune, India.  In addition to being named a WRF Innovation Graduate Fellow, he has been awarded a First Start fellowship by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington.
	Ben Shuman is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering working in the Ability and Innovation Lab under Kat Steele. His work uses clinically measured muscle activations (electromyography) to calculate a lower dimensional space of weighted muscle groupings called muscle synergies. Synergies have been shown to be altered in patients with neurological impairments such as stroke. Ben’s research aims to determine whether muscle synergies can be predictive of treatment outcomes in patients with cerebral palsy and whether changes in synergies after treatment correlate to changes in walking ability. Ben previously worked in industry as a design and manufacturing engineer and holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.
	Nancy (Xin Ru) Wang is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science and Engineering program advised by Rajesh Rao in Computer Science and Bingni Brunton in Biology. She is also a member of GridLab under Jeff Ojemann from Neurosurgery and GRAIL (Graphics and AI) under Ali Farhadi from Computer Science. Her interests lie in using unsupervised methods for data-intensive discovery in the field of neural decoding. Her project automates the decoding of electrophysiological signals using multiple modalities, such as video and audio, with methods from computer vision and speech processing. Nancy came to the University of Washington from Vancouver, Canada, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia. She is a joint Washington Research Innovation Graduate Fellow in Neuroengineering and Data Science.
	Nile Wilson is a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering working with Rajesh Rao in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering and Jeffrey Ojemann in the Department of Neurological Surgery. She works with epilepsy patients, who have brain surface electrodes temporarily implanted, to better understand and improve how brain-computer interfaces adapt to changes in neural signals associated with learning a task. Specifically, her research aims to use error signatures already in the patients’ brains to automatically adjust the brain-computer interface decoding. Nile received a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia. In addition to being named a WRF Innovation Graduate Fellow, she is an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) scholar and is involved with student leadership at the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.
	James Wu is a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering working with Rajesh Rao in Computer Science and Jeff Ojemann in Neurosurgery.  His research aims to reveal the complex way by which the human brain controls hand and arm movement, in hopes of one day being able to engineer neuroprosthetic implants that can reverse upper body paralysis caused by trauma or disease. He examines human brain (electrocorticographic) and muscle (electromyographic) signals using tools from machine learning, signal processing, and control theory. James has a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the University of California San Diego. In addition to being awarded a WRF Innovation Graduate Fellowship, he is involved in student leadership at the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, and has coauthored 15 publications in the field of neuroengineering, neuroimaging, and optical engineering.