Next Gen: Industry Academia Talks 3 (free event)

Hunter Schone is a neuroscientist passionate about harnessing our understanding of the human body to promote successful human-machine interactions. By studying changes in the brain (fMRI) and behavior, his work examines the link between learning to control neural interfaces and brain plasticity. The ultimate goal being to help develop the next generation of human-centered technology. Hunter’s research interests are at the crossroads of neuroscience, technology, and rehabilitation.

Presentation Title: Intraneural Stimulation to Restore Sensory, Motor, and Autonomic Neural Function

Silvestro Micera is currently Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA, Pisa, Italy) and at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland) where he is holding the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Translational NeuroEngineering. He received the University degree (Laurea) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, in 2000. From 2000 to 2009, he has been an Assistant Professor of BioRobotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. In 2007, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA with a Fulbright Scholarship. From 2008 to 2011 he was the Head of the Neuroprosthesis Control group and Group Leader at the Institute for Automation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, CH. He was the recipient of the “Early Career Achievement Award” and of the “Technical Achievement Award” of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in 2009 and 2021, respectively.

Dr. Micera’s research interests include the development of neuroprostheses based on the use of implantable neural interfaces with the central and peripheral nervous systems to restore sensory and motor function in disable persons. In particular, he is currently involved in translational experiments for hand prosthesis control in amputees, and the restoration of vestibular function, grasping and locomotion in different neurological disorders.

He is author of more than 300 WoS peer-reviewed papers and several international patents. He is currently Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering and of IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. He is also member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation, and of Journal of Neural Engineering.

Presentation Title: CTRL @ Reality Labs (RL): Non-invasive neural interfaces: the augmented future

Dan Wetmore is a neuroscientist and serial entrepreneur who has identified, developed, and launched early-stage technologies in neurotech, category-defining consumer products, nanotechnology life science research tools, and therapeutics for neurodevelopmental and sleep disorders. Dan joined CTRL-labs in 2018 before its acquisition by Facebook to develop peripheral EMG neural interfaces at global scale. His roles have spanned from business development, research scientist, and R&D strategy roles.