Chalk Talk Reflection

    I’ve always viewed the human body as a machine – one that’s so elegantly designed that somewhat ironically, we humans can never fully replicate or even understand. This is why I found Ricardo’s chalk talk on brain-machine interface particularly interesting.
    Ricardo’s project studies the lag time difference of unimanual versus bimanual tasks. Specifically, he is looking at velocity models and neuron firing rate models of a monkey performing these two kinds of tasks. His project definitely has a broader implication. It helps us better understand how the neurons in our brains work and how the signals interact with motor-control cells in other parts of our body. We can then decode, or translate, the action potentials generated in the brain cortex, and program them in a way that can control machine movement mimicking the voluntary muscles. These machines can be then designed in the form of a robot that almost becomes the continuation of an individual. Whatever the individual is thinking, the robot will perform the task for him/her. Moreover, these machines can also be designed in the form of an exoskeleton for paralyzed patients, so that these patients can regain self-controlled muscle movement. These two are the most apparent applications of brain-machine interface, but I believe that once the technology becomes more mature, it can be more far-reaching and even inspire other branches of biomedical engineering.
    I think brain-machine interface very well exemplifies how humans have finally started to decode themselves – not only having a better understanding of how our own bodies work, but also trying to “learn” from the delicate mechanisms that construct ourselves and design parts that can replace parts of our bodies when necessary. This is what I am most excited about biomedical engineering: learning from the biology of human bodies, and more importantly, coming up with solutions to tackle human body problems.
    Finally, thank everyone for their awesome chalk talk! Your talks have all been very fun and inspiring. Thank you for sharing your project and I can’t wait to hear more about the results/progresses of everyone’s research during the final poster presentation!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *