Mohama Sawan

Title: Emerging AI-based Closed-loop Brain-computer Interfaces : Challenges and Trends

Abstract

Brain-computer Interfaces-based medical devices intended to improve diagnosis efficiency and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases are targets to mimic regular brain operation. Consequently, artificial intelligence-based learning techniques are the heart parts of these emerging processing and control units which are embedded in proposed neuromodulation systems. This talk will cover the implementation of wearable and implantable medical closed-loop neuromodulators based on custom system-on-chip (SoC) integrated platforms. In addition to the diagnosis, detection and treatment, these devices are set to predict healthcare changes and conditions. Focusing on bioelectronics-based platforms, the introduced closed-loop systems deal with multidimensional design challenges, including biomarkers detection and microstimulation. In these neuromodulation applications, optoelectronic methods are used to build wearable closed-loop systems for non-invasive nanoimaging, and transcranial stimulation. In addition to regular EEG, fNIRS and neural signals processing, cells and neurotransmitters manipulation and sensing are added to improve the sensing quality and demonstrate link to brain diseases. Case studies include several applications such as epilepsy, stroke, addictions, and vision.

Biography

Mohamad Sawan is Chair Professor in Westlake University, Hangzhou, China, and Emeritus Professor in Polytechnique Montreal, Canada. He is founder and director of Polystim Neurotechnologies labs (Polystim Neurotech) in Polytechique, and the Center of Excellence in Biomedical Research on Advanced Integrated-on-chips Neurotechnologies (CenBRAIN Neurotech) in Westlake University. Dr. Sawan research activities are bridging micro/nano electronics with biomedical engineering to introduce smart medical devices dedicated to improving the quality of human life. He was a Canada Research Chair leading research on Smart Medical Devices (2001-2015) and was leading the Microsystems Strategic Alliance of Quebec (ReSMiQ), Canada (1999-2018). Dr. Sawan published more than 1000 peer reviewed papers and many books and was awarded several patents. Among the numerous honors, Dr. Sawan received the Chinese National Friendship Award, The Lebanese’s President Medal of Merit, the Shanghai International Collaboration Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. Dr. Sawan is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the IEEE, and “Officer” of the National Order of Quebec.

Mahmoud Hassan

Title: Machine learning on EEG for brain disorders prediction and phenotyping

Abstract

Electroencephalography (EEG) signals provide a unique direct and noninvasive access to the electrophysiological activity of the human brain, at a millisecond resolution. The conventional EEG (and other neuroimaging studies) analytical and statistical approach focuses usually on characterizing group averages, not individual differences, assuming homogeneity between patients. To understand individual differences and promote EEG in clinical application, it is necessary to move away from group average statistics. To go beyond the statistical ‘average patient’, new frameworks combining EEG signal processing and Machine Learning (ML) are required which usually require larger datasets. In this talk, I will show the power of combining ML and EEG for assessing brain disorders. Results of disease classification (patients vs. controls), treatment prediction (outcome of treatment), regression (disease severity) and clustering (disease phenotyping) will be presented using data from large international datasets. WIe will focus on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and psychiatric disorders such as depression. The advantages and the limitations of combining ML with EEG in clinical neurophysiology and its application and usefulness in the clinical context will be discussed. I speculate that ML methods have the potential to change the way these disorders are managed clinically by helping in the diagnostic process, tracking an individual’s disease progression or informing treatment decisions, with the goal of moving towards precision medicine for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Biography

Mahmoud Hassan is a research scientist working on brain data analysis. He is founder and CEO at MINDIG https://mindig.io, (France), a start-up company specialized in Electroencephalography (EEG) signal processing in health and disease. Dr. Hassan’s team develop new methods to analyze EEG with a specific interest on the combination of machine learning with brain signals. MINDIG’s ambition is to promote EEG as a clinical tool for assessing neurological and mental disorders. Dr. Hassan’s team includes young researchers in France and Lebanon and they are partnering with researchers, clinicians and pharma industry worldwide. He is also adjunct professor at Reykjavik University, Iceland, where he teaches neural data science and neural engineering.

José Javier Serrano Olmedo

Title: Conference aim

Abstract

Along the talk will a general presentation of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and its Biomedical Technology Research Center (CTB) and Laboratory of Bioinstrumentation and Nanomedicine (LBN). The UPM, founded in the sixties, with 20,000 students and almost 3,000 professors, is one of the three main technical universities in Spain, and the first in technology transfer. Focused on research and development, it has several research institutes for the fields with the greatest technological impact, including the CTB. The CTB, very focused on neuroscience and neurotechnology, but not exclusively, has more than one hundred senior researchers, including university professors and researchers from other institutions in the consortium that supports the center, and more than one hundred and fifty doctoral students and visiting researchers, distributed in fourteen laboratories, becoming the second research institute of the UPM institute in terms of scientific production. One of those laboratories is the LBN, dedicated to the development of instrumentation for medicine and health support applications. The LBN is expanding with the recent incorporation of three young professors and after reaching second place in research quality per senior member, in the CTB ranking that resulted from the latest internal quality evaluation, is now in full expansion. Its innovation methodology is based on collaboration with hospitals, patient associations, other research groups and global industry, in order to fully apply the principle of co-creation of new solutions based on the joint discovery of unmet needs, the evaluation of potential of emerging technologies and the final design of solutions with pre-approval of final users and clients. Specifically, LBN currently focuses on technologies for nanomedicine, mainly using nanoparticles, in particular the development of technologies for new cancer therapies based on hyperthermia, the development of gravimetric biosensors (QCR) and electromedical instrumentation , in particular objective audiometric systems, and accessible and assistive technologies based on human activity recognition. , serious games, virtual and augmented reality technology (eGLANCE: http://eglance.ctb.upm.es/es/eglance-es/).

Biography

Professor José Javier Serrano Olmedo got his degree in Telecommunication Engineering in 1990 and his PhD. in Telecommunication Engineering in 1996 at the Engineering School on Telecommunication (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación, www.etsit.upm.es, at the Technical University of Madrid, www.upm.es, (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM). He has more than thirty years of experience teaching on Electronic Instrumentation, Bioinstrumentation, Biosensors, Technologies for Nanomedicine, Human Computer Interfaces, Electronic Health Records and Clinical Engineering UPM. He is the Coordinator of the UPM Doctorate Program on Biomedical Engineering (https://doctorado.lst.tfo.upm.es/). He is a fellow member and Co-PI of the Networking Center for Biomedical Research on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedine, http://www.ciber-bbn.es/, and PI of the Laboratory of Bioinstrumentation and Nanomedicine, a facility of the the Life Supporting Technologies Group, https://www.lst.tfo.upm.es/, at the Center for Biomedical Technologies at UPM (CTB-UPM), www.ctb.upm.es, . He is member of the Spanish Society of Biomedical Engineering, the Spanish Society of Clinical Engineering and of the European Society of Hyperthermic Oncology. He has published more than one hundred papers and conference contributions, released four patents, participated or headed more than fifty projects and supervised more than twenty doctoral theses.