Workshop Organizer: Nitish Thakor, Ph.D. (John Hopkins University)

Tuesday, August 29, 2006: 8.30 AM-4.30 PM

Speakers: TBD

Synopsis
The field of prosthesis has served the society and its members with physical impairment well. The result has been prosthetic and rehabilitative devices for upper and lower limbs as well as well established auditory and visual prosthesis.  Now, a surge of innovation is underway, with direct and implanted interfaces being developed to the human sensory and motor systems as well as to brain.  The “Innovative” Interfaces/Prostheses are often implanted, use MEMS technology and VLSI circuitry, solve the chronic implantation and biocompatibility problems, interface directly to nerves, spinal cord, and/or the brain.  This vision of this workshop is to chart the path to revolutionize prosthetics through direct interface to the nervous system.   This workshop will present the state of the art technologies to develop the neural interfaces and outstanding prosthetic applications.  The morning session will present tutorials on the neural interface devices and the afternoon session will present the state of the art of sensory/motor and cortical prosthesis.  The topics covered will be

1. Neural Interfaces

• Microelectrode arrays for neural sensing
• Very large scale interface circuits
• Power sources, power harvesting and telemetry
• Development of motor system drives and mechanisms
• Neural information processing

2. Neural Prosthesis

• Sensory Prosthesis
• Nerve Prosthetic Interface
• Spinal Cord Injury and Restoration
• Cortically Controlled Prosthesis
• Brain Machine Interaction

3. DARPA Revolutionary Prosthesis Program
Attendees of the morning and afternoon sessions will be provided with:

• Talk summaries and a synopsis of any techniques discussed in the morning and afternoon sessions.
• Lists of relevant publications for each speaker / topic.
• A list of schools and research groups conducting neural interfacing and prosthesis related research or offering related coursework.
• Information on journals, editorial boards, and funding sources for neural interfacing /prosthesis research.

A very  important supplemental part of the workshop will be networking opportunity among the participants and leaders making workshop presentations during coffee/lunch breaks and reception following the workshop.