Selected Outreach Events
Community engagement, Education: Innovation Festival 2015
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington DC
September 25-27, 2015
We were invited to participate at the USPTO’s Innovation Festival this year! We presented our patented algorithms for real-time control of a robotic exoskeleton using a volunteer’s brain activity, and our Brain on Dance project where we collect and visualize real-time brain activity of dancers in order to control the lights in the theater.
The Innovation Festival took place in the newly opened Innovation Wing of the National Museum of American History.
Education: Tec Queretaro
Tec Queretaro visits the laboratory for Noninvasive brain-machine interface systems at the University of Houston
September 23, 2015
Students from the Digital Systems and Robotics, and Information Technology majors visited our lab and tried out our EEG technology. They had the opportunity to learn about the state of the art of neuroengineering research and emerging biomedical applications in their fields.
Community Engagement, Interdisciplinary collaboration: Houston Arts Partners (HAP) Conference
PANEL: Innovation is STEAM-Powered.
September 11-12, 2015
I was happy to in the panel: Innovation is STEAM-Powered for the HAP Conference this year, and discuss our ideas about the importance of having a complete arts education together with the STEM subjects.
One of the ideas discussed eagerly was the data-driven quantification of the benefits of artistic activities in learning, rehabilitation, and productivity. From our neuroengineering perspective, the translational research at our the lab aims to bridge engineering, science and art in an effort to understand the neural mechanisms that drive the creative process and its expression. In the future, we expect to be able to discern the “contextual” from the “functional” cognitive processes to accurately control devices with our brain. However, the study of the creative process is of central importance by itself, as all progress and innovation depends on our ability to create something new, and communicate our ideas effectively.
Education: Stomp Out Stroke Festival
At Discovery Green
May 6, 2015
Organized by UTHealth, Stomp Out Stroke Festival gives us a space to communicate our research with the community, and to provide a peak onto future technologies that may be available for stroke survivors in the near future. The festival also focuses on education and stroke awareness to the community.
Picture credit: UTHealth Stroke team.
Community engagement, Interdisciplinary collaboration: Becky Valls “Red Square” performance
At Jose Quintero Theater, University of Houston
February 28, 2015.
We implemented a real time neural decoder of conveyed emotional states for a live performance by Dr. Rebecca Valls at the Jose Quintero Theater in University of Houston. The decoder modulated the theater lights to connect the dancer with the audience through perceptible environment changes.
The public was able to see a live demonstration of a brain-machine interface complementing an experienced dancer’s own performance.
Carlos Landa, UH Cullen College of Engineering.
Education: Prepa Tec CEGS (Monterrey, Mexico)
Prepa Tec CEGS (Monterrey, Mexico) visits the laboratory for Noninvasive brain-machine interface systems at the University of Houston
February 22, 2015.
Students from the medical and biosciences department at Prepa Tec Campus Garza Sada, from Monterrey, Mexico came to visit our lab. I was fortunate enough to give them a guided tour and explain the main studies being conducted. In the picture above, Prof. Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal gives an explanation on how neuroprostheses work.
Community engagement, Citizen Science: The Menil Collection
At Jose Quintero Theater, University of Houston
September – December 2014
While collecting data from volunteers, we explained EEG and details about our research to museum visitors.
Connecting people with state-of-the art research that is being carried out at the lab was a wonderful experience. We had ~435 volunteers in our experiment. Thanks everyone for participating!
Picture Credit: Carlos Landa, UH Cullen College of Engineering.
Education: Workshop on Diagnostic
Assistive and Therapeutical Uses of Brain-controlled Lower Extremity Gait Systems.- Tecnologico de Monterret & Zambrano-hellion Medical Center, Mexico.
May 18, 2014
We were invited to give a workshop at Tecnologico de Monterrey and Hospital Zambrano-Hellion, where we demonstrated and discussed the use of EEG to decode user intentions to control a robotic exoskeleton.
Picture credit: Jesus Tamez-Duque
Education: Introduction to neuroscience
Cocle, Panama
July 15, 2014
I was invited to give an invited talk about recent developments in neuroscience and brain-machine interfaces to motivate professional engineers interested in pursuing a graduate degree or more technical training in diverse fields.
Picture credit: Alvaro Adames
Education: Personal finance
Panama. AIESEC.
July 10, 2014
In a volunteering experience in Panama, I had the opportunity to provide personal finance seminars for remote rural communities in Panama. The talks introduced them to basic financial management, and creating assets.
Education: The Setup 2014
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
February 27, 2014
Networking event for young entrepreneurs and researchers. Connected people to the topic of neuroscience and its potential applications using non-invasive technologies such as EEG.