Events Listing

Novel Wireless Bioelectromagnetic Agents: towards Whole-Brain Readouts of the Mammalian Nervous System with minimal invasiveness 

There is currently a concerted effort to develop the necessary technologies to record and stimulate neural activity across the entire volume of the mammalian brain. Recent engineering advancements have propelled electrode- and optical-based devices, achieving nanometer scale spatial resolution and impressive signal-to-noise ratio and temporal response. However, these probes usually require a tethered connection and provide access to relatively small areas in the nervous system. Developing modalities for whole-brain direct recording and stimulation of neural signals, will allow neuroscientists and neurologists to study and treat the brain network directly and as a whole, and will surely elevate brain science and medicine to new heights. I will describe the development of wireless, implantable electronic probes that are able to transduce electromagnetic fields in the brain, as well as the application of molecular agents for large volume in vivo measurements of neurotransmitter dynamics in live mammals. These strategies pave the way towards functional studies of neural activity across wide brain regions with molecular and electrophysiological specificity.

Details on the seminar and speaker bio

Join IEEE UMN today for board games, dinner provided by Sawatdee, and a chance to connect with your fellow ECE peers. We will have games, both digital and analog, and you will have the opportunity to meet and chat with chapter members about school, hobbies, and more. We look forward to working with you and helping you achieve your goals.

Using electric fields to control brain activity

Neural oscillations reflect and organize brain functions. Non-invasive Brain Stimulation methods such as Transcranial Alternating Current stimulation (TACS) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) use electric fields to control brain activity. In this talk I will present our recent research on TACS/TMS mechanisms and how to develop more effective stimulation protocols using concurrent brain measurements. I will show how non-invasive brain stimulation affects neural activity at the level of local field potentials and single-unit activity. I will demonstrate how local electric fields will affect spiking behavior and how this is affected by neuron morphology and orientation to the electric field. I will further discuss how findings from animal experiments can be translated to improve human brain stimulation protocols based on careful modeling and mapping of stimulation parameters. I will discuss how tracking brain oscillations in real-time to inform stimulation timing can improve the effectiveness of brain stimulation.

About Professor Opitz

Alexander Opitz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on developing non-invasive brain stimulation technologies. Dr. Opitz has a particular interest in the underlying biophysics and physiology of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electric stimulation (TES). He believes it is necessary to study the effect of brain stimulation across various levels of investigation to make progress. Thus, research in his lab spans from computational modeling of electric fields and their effect on neurons, to electrophysiological recordings of brain activity in animal models and humans. His lab is further developing closed-loop stimulation technologies to improve the effectiveness of TMS. Dr. Opitz organizes the annual “Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Workshop” at the University of Minnesota targeted at all researchers interested in advancing their methods tool kit in advanced brain stimulation methods.

ECE will host a winter school titled, "Quantum Phenomena to Computing Devices Winter School" at the University of Minnesota starting on January 3, and ending on January 13, 2023. This will be a 10 day crash course with introduction into electron discovery and wave particle duality, electron statistics and carrier distribution, quantum mechanics and electron wavefunctions, electron in a crystal, electron spin, coherence and entanglement, quantum capacitance, quantum transport, nanoscale transistor, spintronics and quantum computing. Morning sessions will comprise of lectures to be delivered by Prof. Tony
Low. Afternoon sessions include experimental labs and computational labs exercises and walk through. Two afternoon visits to industry will also be arranged. Student evaluations will be conducted at the end of the winter school.

Check the poster for schedule and other details

Attendance is by registration only. Registration is now open and the deadline to sign up is December 25, 2022. The winter school is for undergraduate students in their senior year. Please email Paul Palmberg Professor Tony Low to register for the winter school at tlow@umn.edu

The school is being sponsored by the NSF-funded Global Quantum Leap, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Korea Science Foundation, and Kyung Hee University. 

This semester EE1301 students learned to program in C/C++, then brainstormed, collaborated, and decided on a real-world problem to address. Finally, they designed, built, and debugged their IoT device. Come, see, and try for yourself the creative and innovative IoT devices that first-year students created. 

An Introduction To Investing In The Stock Markets

This seminar, a summarization of a five-part series, will offer a brief introduction to the reasons for personally investing in the equity markets, and to the mechanics of the investing process:  a) creating an account at a brokerage and an example of a brokerage to work with; b) understanding how investment newsletters work, an introduction to three specific newsletters with multi-decade track records, and how to select individual companies from their lists; c) the process of investing online through a brokerage; d) monitoring your portfolio online and with self-created spreadsheets; and e) an initial discussion of investing “traps and pitfalls” (“avoid being exploited!”). The one-hour discussion is intended to introduce the audience to this approach, but is not comprehensive enough to begin the process—the full series will give the attendees all of the tools that they will need to improve their financial security, patiently and safely, over a number of years.  Given sufficient audience interest, all five sessions can be presented at a later time.

About Professor Gilbert

Barry Gilbert is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Special-Purpose Processor Development Group at Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN, and an IEEE Life Fellow. He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Purdue and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from U. Minnesota and Mayo Clinic.  Since 1970 his research interests have been in the design of hardware for specialized supercomputers.  His team has designed more than 450 integrated circuits, and has contributed to the development of more than two dozen special purpose computers, from chip-sized processors to cabinet-size supercomputers.  Barry grew up in an investment-oriented family, where he absorbed information regarding the stock markets and other forms of investments. Since 1975 he has been an active investor, and has developed a safe approach to investing that has worked well, which will be described briefly.

IEEE and WIE will co-host a study night with HKN Wednesday, December 7, from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm in the ECE Learning Center and the IEEE Room. For those unfamiliar with HKN, it's an International Honor Society of Computer and Electrical Engineers, and our UMN student chapter is available for tutoring! Any ECE student of any year is welcome to come to hang out, study, or receive specific tutoring for related coursework. Some tutors will be available through discord. There will be bagels provided, so stop by for a snack! Please RSVP!

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is hosting our Senior Design Show tomorrow in cooperation with the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The show is Tuesday, December 6, from 2:30 to 5 PM in the Great Hall of Coffman Memorial Union. Please stop by as you are able during the show to support our seniors' efforts with their capstone projects. We hope to see you there!

Women in Engineering is excited to welcome Banner Engineering for an information session on Thursday, December 1 at 5:00 PM in room 3-230 Keller Hall. Hear from women engineers who work at Banner about what they do and the potential opportunities they have for UMN students! Dinner will be provided to those who attend, but you MUST RSVP! Please RSVP using the form. WIE hope to see you there!       

Huygens' Metasurfaces: Fundamentals and Applications

The interaction between an electromagnetic radiation and matter at the surface has long fascinated microwave and photonics scientists due to many interesting and useful phenomena ranging from light diffraction to surface plasmon polaritons excitations. In this talk, Dr. Kim will discuss how one can achieve extraordinary wave-manipulation capabilities beyond the ones observed in conventional materials or interfaces through so-called metasurfaces. Based on examples from his prior and ongoing research, Dr. Kim will discuss these metasurfaces from a brief historical perspective, as well as the current state-of-the-art and their potential applications in antenna and imaging applications.

About Professor Kim

Min Seok Kim received his B.A.Sc, M.A.Sc, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2011, 2013, and 2019, respectively. From 2019 – 2021, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor George V. Eleftheriades, where he was engaged in the study of tunable Huygens’ metasurfaces and their applications in antenna engineering. In 2021, he joined the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of North Dakota as an Assistant Professor. His research interests include artificial electromagnetic structures (e.g., metamaterials, metasurfaces, electromagnetic band-gap materials, frequency-selective surfaces), antennas, wireless power transmission, and photonic circuits. His current research emphasizes on the use of machine-learning techniques to rapidly synthesize artificial electromagnetic structures for arbitrary and dynamic transformation of electromagnetic waves.