As an Assistant Professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Neurological Surgery with a PhD in Electrical Engineering, my research activities are focused on the development of human-use research tools and systems to explore the applications of bi-directional neural interfaces to enable or improve the treatment of neurological diseases, disorders, and injuries. This work is enabled primarily through extensive internal collaborations with clinical neurosurgeons within my department including Dr. Jeff Ojemann, with whom I work on human-use Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) to study the applications and mechanisms of in-human neural plasticity, as well as Dr. Andrew Ko, with whom I investigate methods to further develop adaptive deep brain stimulation technologies through intraoperative and chronic implantable devices research. Specifically, I specialize in translating new concepts and technologies into preliminary human feasibility studies through the application of technical systems integration engineering, experience working with the regulatory bodies responsible for gaining IRB and IDE approval, and an understanding of the medical design controls processes required to create human-use systems. Additionally, I leverage this expertise in system integration for the production of experimental research data to inform the development of data analysis tools that enable discoveries in the field of neuroscience.

This ongoing work is rooted in my experience from both my Ph.D. graduate studies in the University of Washington Electrical Engineering Department and in my work at Medtronic after the completion of my PhD. In graduate school, where I was advised by Professor Howard Chizeck, I worked extensively with the Activa PC+S and Nexus-D developing software tools by which we were able to establish technical collaborations with three clinicians (Dr. Andrew Ko at UW, Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart at Stanford, Dr. Phil Starr at UCSF) to test research systems on their patients with the investigational implants. Across these institutions, the results of my graduate work have been tested in dozens of trials with patients with both Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s Disease. Given my success in graduate school in building research tools within the neural engineering space and performing collaborative research, Medtronic hired me in 2016 as the lead developer and designer of the application programming interface (API) for the Summit RC+S System. The Summit RC+S System and API are currently in extensive use across the country in NIH-funded studies, and currently I am engaged in external collaborations with multiple Summit RC+S study sites aiding, debugging, or overseeing the development of research software for specific protocols.

Looking forward, I plan to continue working alongside neurosurgeons and neurologists to identify research opportunities which leverage my extensive background in the use and development of investigational human-use system and software development for closed-loop neuromodulation clinical studies. The challenges posing the field of neuromodulation require multi-disciplinary, coordinated effort that crosses traditionally separate domains, which is precisely the reason why I am so enthusiastic about continuing to work in this field.