Bio-X SIGF Graduate Student Fellow

Awarded in 2016
Home Department: Mechanical Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Allison Okamura (Mechanical Engineering), Krishna Shenoy (Electrical Engineering), and Paul Nuyujukian (Bioengineering)

Research Title: The role of haptic feedback in brain-computer interface systems

Research Description: Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) can record movement-related neural activity directly from the brain and translate it into command signals for assistive devices, such as robotic arms or computer cursors. iBCIs are currently being tested for people with paralysis to restore movement and communication. In most current systems, users rely on just vision to guide the brain-controlled prosthesis (e.g. seeing how the robotic arm is moving). Darrel’s research focuses on introducing an additional form of sensory feedback: haptic (touch-based) feedback. He aims to (1) test whether the iBCI performs better when the person also receives haptic feedback; and (2) investigate how the added haptic feedback affects movement-related neural activity.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Darrel is a postdoctoral scholar for BrainGate in the Neural Prosthetics Translation Laboratory (NPTL) directed by Dr. Krishna Shenoy and Dr. Jaimie Henderson at Stanford University.