The CNT and UW DO-IT co-hosted the ERC-INCLUDES Capacity Building Institute on April 4 and 5, 2019. This event enabled attendees from across the nation to share strategies to recruit, retain and engage underrepresented and underserved groups in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Feature Stories
These articles cover many different aspects of the Center for Neurotechnology and its faculty, student and staff members. For more stories, visit the Engage and Enable blog

This CNT-led and facilitated course at the University of Washington teaches students about engineering design principles, particularly the importance of empathizing with neurotechnology end users.
Prior to entering his role as the Director of Industry and Innovation at the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT), Scott Ransom spent 20 years at Medtronic working in a range of roles related to medical device development.
“There wasn’t a week where a patient or their relatives weren’t expressing gratitude for the work we were doing,” Ransom said. “It was very fulfilling to see patients benefit. I want to inspire students to use bioengineering, electrical engineering [and other disciplines] in the neurotechnology space. I can’t imagine a more fulfilling career.”

The Brain Awareness Week Open House, organized by CNT Executive and Education Director, Eric Chudler, brings neuroscience to life every year for hundreds of elementary, middle and high school students from the Greater Seattle Area.
Many K-12 students learn about the brain and nervous system in their science coursework. However, most of these students don’t ever get the opportunity to talk to a neuroscientist and learn about his or her research. Founded by the Dana Foundation and the Society for Neuroscience, Brain Awareness Week promotes these kinds of unique interactions and encourages people of all ages, including K-12 students, to learn about the field of neuroscience and its applicability to everyday life.

Derived from a course for students to create solutions to neural engineering problems, the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) Hackathon is a weekend-long event where student teams have 36 hours to create novel technology that fulfills the CNT mission: Improve health and function by engineering neural devices.
“This hackathon is a chance to [focus on] neural work with engineering principles. I think it’s fun to commit yourself to a project for a weekend and have that to focus on,” said Jackson Chin, a hackathon participant and senior in bioengineering at the University of Washington (UW).

Jessica Owen is a participant in one of the Center for Neurotechnology’s transcutaneous spinal stimulation studies, which is groundbreaking research aimed at noninvasively improving upper body function for people with spinal cord injury. Owen has discovered that gradual functional improvements she gained through her participation in the study have added up to a big difference in her quality of life, leading to increased independence.
