ECE Graduate Seminar Lecture, Speaker: Dr. SungWon Chung, Brain Interfaces System-on-Chip, Neuralink (via Zoom)

Title:

Challenges with Improving Human Brain Computer Interfaces

Abstract:

Brain-computer interfaces have potential to innovate the interaction between humans and computers towards expanding the human cognitive capacity and accelerating our thought process. This talk introduces a Neuralink human brain-computer interface with 1024 channels, which restores autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today while aiming for unlocking human potential tomorrow, as one example of modern brain-computer interfaces. Then we discuss the performance limitations of the currently available human brain-computer interfaces, and overview a few selected scientific and technical challenges for further improving human brain-computer interfaces.

Speaker:

SungWon Chung

Head of Brain Interfaces System-on-Chip, Neuralink

Bio:

SungWon Chung is the Head of Brain Interfaces System-on-Chip at Neuralink where he is leading a chip design team to develop a high-bandwidth wireless brain computer interface. He received his PhD from MIT in 2014. Prior to his appointment at Neuralink in 2019, he held R&D positions for nine years in Mitsubishi Electric, KITEL, University of Southern California, and MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories while collaborating with Toyota, Bell Labs, Tower Semiconductor, and Samsung. His research work on an energy-efficient wireless transmitter was commercialized by Eta Devices (acquired by Nokia and Murata) and recognized with 2015 Technology Pioneers Award by World Economic Forum. Dr. Chung and his two colleagues were awarded Bell Labs Prize for their work on large-scale nanophotonic phased arrays, which was live demonstrated in 2017 ISSCC for 3D imaging, sensing, and wireless communication. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I - Regular Papers, and a Technical Program Committee Member of CICC, RFIC, and ISSCC.

Host: Professor Ulkuhan Guler