The Intersection of AI and Neurotechnology with Dr. Maryam Shanechi

The inaugural "Christine Mona Khademi lecture" with Dr. Maryam Shanechi organized on May 16, 2024.A major challenge in engineering and neuroscience is to model, decode, and control the activity of large populations of neurons that underlie our brain’s dysfunctions. Dr. Maryam Shanechi presents her work at the interface of AI, control theory, and neuroscience to develop closed-loop brain-machine interfaces that can address this challenge. These neurotechnologies can help restore lost motor and emotional function in millions of patients with disabling neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders such as major depression.Maryam Shanechi is Dean’s Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). She is also Founding Director of the newly established USC Center for Neurotechnology. She received her B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto, her S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and her postdoctoral training in Neural Engineering and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and UC Berkeley. She conducts research at the intersection of engineering, computation, and neuroscience to develop closed-loop neurotechnology through decoding and control of neural dynamics. She is the recipient of several awards including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, NSF CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, ASEE’s Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, MIT Technology Review’s Top 35 Innovators Under 35, Popular Science Brilliant 10, Science News SN10, One Mind Rising Star Award, and a DoD Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Award. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and was named a 2023 Blavatnik National Awards Finalist.About the Christine Mona Khademi Lecture: The "Christine Mona Khademi Lecture" has been made possible through a generous gift from Monib Khademi, MBA '90, to the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University. In memory of Christine, B.S. '12, the lecture seeks to support and highlight the work of women in particular who are making substantial contributions to Iranian culture and society in the fields of politics, science, technology, public service, art, or culture. We are also grateful to Mr. Khademi for his ongoing support of academic programming promoting peace and democracy in Iran and around the world. Christine Mona Khademi (1989-2013) graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in biology with honors in 2012. Monib Khademi earned his B.S. from MIT in 1969 and founded the first computer science college in Tehran, Iran in 1973. He earned his MBA from Stanford in 1990 and is the parent of three Stanford graduates. Monib is the founder of Cypress Praxis and has been managing it since 1992.00:00-02:26: Introduction02:27-06:00: Monib Khademi Welcome06:03-39:00 Dr. Maryam Shanechi lecture