Lab News

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• Dr. He was profiled in December issue of The Institute of IEEE at People Column for his leadership in the IEEE Life Sciences Initiative to bring engineers and life scientists together through interdisciplinary collaborations. Dr. He was also featured for his pioneering research in neuroengineering including novel brain-computer interface research. Click here for the detail
• Dr. Bin He, together with lab alumnus Dr. Ardalan Aarabi, recently received the IFCN Award for Outstanding Research in Clinical Neurophysiology from the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (IFCN). The award selection was based on an original paper published in Clinical Neurophysiology, the official journal of IFCN, entitled "A rule-based seizure prediction method for focal neocortical epilepsy." The award reflects the quality of research being conducted in our lab and the significant efforts the lab has been making in localizing, predicting and modulating seizures.Click here for the paper
• Dr. He chaired IEEE Life Sciences Grand Challenges Conference at National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC during October 4-5, 2012. The Conference was organized by IEEE Life Sciences Initiative and sponsored by the Institute for Engineering in Medicine of the University of Minnesota and the National Science Foundation. This is a high profile conference with a number of distinguished invited speakers including Nobel Laureate Phil Sharp, President of National Academy of Engineering Charles Vest, and NIH / NIBIB Director Roderic Pettigrew. Click here for more information.
• Lab published a major finding on noninvasive neuroimaging of postictal slow wave, immediately following seizures, in major international neurology journal "Brain". The work was conducted in collaboration with Mayo Clinic. Out of 28 patients suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy studied, it was found that the more severe the seizure, the slower the brain rhythm; and more involvement of frontal lobe, from slow wave imaging. Lin Yang is the first author of the paper. Click here for the paper.
• Yunfeng Lu, PhD student in the lab, won the 2nd Place Award in the EMBS Student Paper Competition held in Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in San Diego on August 31, 2012. His paper is dealing with noninvasive source imaging of epilepsy. Hundreds of entries from all over the world were competing for this highly selective award this year in this major annual international conference of biomedical engineering.
• Lab neuroengineering research on decoding the brain and brain-computer interface was recently featured by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in its video series. In this work, a novel brain wave based noninvasive brain-computer interface has been developed in the lab to decode "thoughts" of human subjects and control the flight of a virtual helicopter in 3D space. Click here, for details.
• Lab showcase dynamic functional neuroimaging technology at the 10th Anniversary of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of NIH, together with 8 other laboratories. Click here for the anniversary event.
• Dr. He was recently elected to be a Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE). IAMBE Fellows are elected based on their significant contributions to the field of medical and biological engineering.
• Chris Perdoni, undergraduate student who has conducted research in the lab in the past several years, was admitted to the Medical School of the University of Minnesota.
• IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society launched an online video for biomedical engineering career development. Lab is featured in this Engineering Meets Imagination video. Click here, for details.
• Nessa Johnson, a PhD student in the lab, was awarded ARCS Fellowship (ARCS-Advancing Research for College Scientists) 2011-2012. ARCS® Foundation, Inc. is an organization of women philanthropists who are dedicated to “Advancing Science in America.” ARCS® Foundation advances science and technology by providing financial awards to academically outstanding U.S. citizens studying to complete degrees in science, engineering and medical research.Click here, for details.
• Dr. He featured by Minnesota Monthly for his work on brain-computer interface. Click here, for details.
• Lab research further advanced 3-dimensional noninvasive brain-computer interface to enable thought controlled flight of a digital helicopter. The work was published in PLoS ONE on Oct. 26, 2011 and featured by various news media including ABC News, Washington Post, Scientific American, and Economist.
• The University of Minnesota was recently awarded a major training grant of $3 million for Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship in Systems Neuroengineering. Each year up to six PhD students will be selected to this highly competitive training program, who needs to be admitted by biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and neuroscience graduate programs. Dr. Bin He is the Principal Investigator and Program Director of this IGERT training program.
• Lab participated in a collaborative research project with Profs. Sheng He and Steve Engel's group in Department of Psychology on the mechanism of binocular rivalry. Using frequency tagging EEG it is discovered that attention is needed for binocular rivalry. The joint work was published in Neuron. Click here for abstract.
• Han Yuan, a recent PhD graduate from the lab, just published a part of her dissertation in Journal of Neuroscience on a new way of investigating coupling between electrophysiological oscillations and positive/negative BOLD response during hand movement. The work demonstrates that by solving the EEG inverse problem quantitative relationship between regional electrophysiological signals and BOLD responses can be revealed which are ROI dependent.Click here for abstract.
• Lab research advanced state-of-the-art of brain-computer interface to enable EEG-based navigation of a virtual helicopter in 3-dimentional space. The work was e-published on September 27, 2010 and printed as a cover article in December 2010 at IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. Click here to read the article, and here to see the video.
• Lin Yang, a PhD candidate, was recently awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota. The Fellowship is given for demonstrated outstanding academic qualifications and research potential and will enable Lin to concentrate on her dissertation research in the coming year.
• Clara (Huishi) Zhang, a 2nd year PhD student, was awarded an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota. The Fellowship is given for demonstrated outstanding academic qualificatiFebruary 8, 2012March 12, 2012">March 12, 2012nvolving biomedical engineering, neuroscience, neurology, and imaging science.
• Rahel Ghenbot received her BS in biomedical engineering and was admitted by a number of top medical schools in the country. She will go to Washington University Medical School with full scholarship from this Fall.
• In 2010, three articles resulting from the lab were published as cover articles in core journal in biomedical engineering: Royer, Doud, Rose, He, "EEG Control of a Virtual Helicopter in 3-Dimensional Space Using Intelligent Control Strategies,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering; Yang et al, “EEG-fMRI reciprocal functional neuroimaging," Clinical Neurophysiology; Lai et al., "Equivalent Moving Dipole Localization of Cardiac Ectopic Activity in a Swine Model during Pacing," IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.
• Alexander Doud was an undergraduate student conducting BCI research in the lab in the past 4 years. He has made important original contributions to the lab BCI research, co-authored multiple journal and conference papers, selected as an NSF supported visiting fellow to the University of Rome, and is entering the 2010 class at the University of Minnesota Medical School
• Lab alumnus Dr. Yingchun Zhang was awarded NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99). The Pathway to Independence Award program provides an opportunity for outstanding new investigators to obtain two forms of support (K99 and R00) from a single NIH award. Yingchun was a Postdoctoral Associate in the lab from 2004-2007.
• Lab research has moved the technology of "mind control" into the realm of 3-D. New technology lets people's thoughts steer virtual objects in 3-D. This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a system that allows a person to continuously move objects on a screen at will through 3-D space using noninvasive brain-computer interface technology. Click to see video and aricle at UMNews.
• Lab alumnus Dr. Zhongming Liu won the Best Dissertation award from the Graduate School. This award is given to four recent Ph.D. graduates each year, and only one from engineering and physical sciences. Zhongming received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2008.
• Lab alumnus Dr. Lei Ding awarded a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER award is the highest honor bestowed on young faculty by the NSF. Lei received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2007.
• Lab releases eConnectome, a free open-source MATLAB software package for imaging brain functional connectivity from electrophysiological signals. It provides interactive graphical interfaces for EEG/ECoG preprocessing, source estimation, connectivity analysis and visualization. Visit http://econnectome.umn.edu for details.