January 2025 Newsletter

A CNT Monthly Newsletter

January 2025

HONORS AND AWARDS

Vikash Kumar (2016 CNT and UW Computer Science and Engineering alumnus) delivered the 2024 Conference on Robot Learning Early Career Keynote (Munich, Germany) and received the Young Alumni Achiever’s Award from the Indian Institute of Technology.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Abstract map of the world with a network of connections between cities.

COSYNE 2025 (March 27-30, 2025; Montreal, Canada)
Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2025 Annual Meeting (March 29-April 1, 2025; Boston, MA)
International British Neuroscience Association, Festival of Neuroscience (April 27-30, 2025; Liverpool, UK)
Central Nervous System Injury and Repair, Spinal Cord Injury and Regeneration: Bridging Molecular Insights and Therapeutic Innovation, Gordon Research Conference (July 6-11, 2025; Lucca [Barga], Italy)
2025 Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain (August 24-September 7, 2025; Friday Harbor, WA)

CNT IN THE NEWS

The CNT is now accepting applications for the “Best Student Paper Award for Neurotechnology Advancement.” This award, sponsored by the Fernando Family Fund (“Memory of our Moms”), promotes a technical paper that has made identifiable contributions in the areas of neurotechnology or human-machine interaction. UW, SDSU and MIT students can apply now.

Photo of Chet Moritz (left) standing next to Rich Henderson (right).

Congratulations to Rich Henderson (right) who successfully defended his dissertation titled “Spinal stimulation for upper and lower extremity motor recovery after spinal cord injury.” Rich worked in the lab of CNT co-director Chet Moritz ( left).

The Society for the Neural Control of Movement Annual meeting presentation by the 2024 Distinguished Career Award Winner Eberhard Fetz is now available.

Two people sitting in chairs listening to a lecture.

The Brain Health Learning Network, a project between CNT executive director/education director Eric Chudler and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the UW and funded by the Dana Foundation, developed a lecture series for older adults interested in the brain and brain health.

Screenshot of Raj Rao and Paul Middlebrooks speaking on the Brain Inspired podcast.

CNT co-director Rajesh Rao discusses predictive brains and brain-computer interfaces with host Paul Middlebrooks on the Brain Inspired podcast.

Back of the neck of a person with transcutaneous electrodes attached.

ONWARD’s ARC-EX transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation system has received US FDA market authorization. Research on the ARC-EX was advanced in the lab of CNT co-director Chet Moritz. Chet also spoke with Good Morning America about the device.

A University of Washington baseball cap and paper brain model on a tabletop.

High school students can now apply to attend the CNT summer 2025 Young Scholars-REACH program. During this one-week program, students will receive an introduction to neuroscience and neural engineering, neuroethics, and the latest developments in brain-computer interfaces.

NEW CNT PUBLICATIONS

Kerezoudis, P., Jensen, M.A., Huang, H., Ojemann, J.G., Klassen, B.T., Ince, N.F., Hermes, D. and Miller, K.J. Spatial and spectral changes in cortical surface potentials during pinching versusthumb and index finger flexion. Neurosci Lett. 2024 Nov 26;845:138062. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2024.138062.
Robinson, J.T., Norman, S.L., Angle, M.R., Constandinou, T.G., Denison, T., Donoghue, J.P., Field, R.M., Forsland, A., Kouider, S. del R. Millán, J., Michaels, J.A., Orsborn, A.L., Pandarinath, C., Pruszynski, J.A., Rozell, C.J., Shah, N.P., Shanechi, M.M., Shoaran, M., Sheth, S.A., Stavisky, S.D., Trautmann, E., Vachicouras, N. and Xie, C. An application-based taxonomy for brain–computer interfaces. Nat. Biomed. Eng. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-024-01326-z.