June 16th, 2011
Speaker : Dr. Mohamad Sawan
Title: Brain-Machine-Brain Wireless Interfaces for Intracortical Biosensing and Subsequent Treatments
Abstract: Emerging brain-machine interfaces dedicated for biosensing and treatment applications are promising alternative for learning about the intracortical organization, studying the neural activity underlying cognitive functions and pathologies, locating onset seizures, understanding neurons interactions, detecting mind-driven decisions, address complex central neural system dysfunctions by both microelectrostimulation and drug delivery Microsystems. This talk covers circuits and systems techniques used for the design and integration of biosensing and treatment microsystems. Such devices are fully implantable, interconnected to intracortical neural tissues, and include wireless links used to power up such implanted devices and bidirectionally exchange data with external base station. Global view of typical devices altogether with corresponding multidimensional challenges such as power management and high-data rate communication modules will be described. Special attention will be paid to present digital and analog circuit techniques dedicated to parallel detecting and recording of action potentials and seizures through large arrays of electrodes. In addition, microstimulation in the primary visual cortex, which is intended to recover vision for the blind through multisite large arrays of electrodes, will be summarized as case study of the intended treatments.
Short Bio: Mohamad Sawan received the Ph.D. degree in 1990 in electrical engineering, from Sherbrooke University, Canada. He joined Polytechnique Montréal in 1991, where he is currently a Professor of Microelectronics and Biomedical Engineering. His scientific interests are the design and test of mixed-signal (analog, digital, RF, MEMS and optic) circuits and Microsystems: design, integration, assembly and validations. These topics are oriented toward the biomedical and telecommunications applications. Dr. Sawan is a holder of a Canada Research Chair in Smart Medical Devices. He is founder director of the Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal, and he is leading the Microsystems Strategic Alliance of Quebec (ReSMiQ) receiving membership support from 11 Universities. He is founder / co-founder of several International conferences such as NEWCAS, BiOCAS, and ICECS, and he is Editor/ Associate Editor of several International Journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems and the Springer Mixed-signal Letters. Dr. Sawan published more than 450 papers in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings, offered more than 100 invited talks/keynotes, and he was awarded 6 patents pertaining to the field of biomedical sensors and actuators. Dr. Sawan received several prestigious awards; the most important of them are the Medal of Honor from the President of Lebanon, the Bombardier Award for technology transfer, the Barbara Turnbull Award for medical research in Canada, and the achievement Award from the American University of Science and Technology. Dr. Sawan is Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and Officer of the Quebec’s National Order.
Location:
National Semiconductor Building E Auditorium
2900 Semiconductor Dr., Santa Clara, CA 95051 Directions and NSC Map
Refreshments are provided at 6:00 PM and the talk typically begins at 6:30 PM.
Donations requested to partially cover food cost.
The talks are open to everyone, feel free to join us even if you are not an IEEE member yet.
