FNNDSC Weekly Newsletter - Week 80
Upcoming Events:
NBS Webinar Session: Parental Perspectives and Ethical Considerations in NE
December 13: FNNDSC Yankee Swap
MICCAI Conference: The deadline for submission of workshop proposals is 20 December 2021
Organization for Human Brain Mapping: OHBM 2022 is scheduled to take place in Glasgow, Scotland from June 19, 2022 - June 23, 2022! The deadline to submit an Abstract for OHBM 2022 is: Friday, December 17, 2021 at 11:59 PM EST. (Under no circumstances will this deadline be extended).
Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS): Abstract Submission Important Dates
Call for Abstracts: November 10, 2021, – January 5, 2022
Brain & Brain PET 2022: Abstract Submission due January 2022
13th International Newborn Brain Conference (mcascientificevents.eu): February 10-12, 2022
Clearwater Beach, Florida; hybrid event
The 22nd International Conference on Biomagnetism: August 28 – September 1, 2022
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Call for Abstracts/Posters submissions has been extended to Friday March 18, 2022
Various Dates: Newborn Brain Society - Fetal Neurology Webinar Series Helpful Links ▴ Research Computing Data Management ▴ Research Computing Self Portal ▴ Research Announcements & News ▴ Office of Sponsored Programs Updates ▴ Funding Opportunities and Links ▴ Staff Resources - Covid-19 ▴ Covid Vaccine FAQs
Honors/Awards/Accomplishments
Congratulations to Dr. Yangming Ou who received the 2021 DF/HCC CURE Mentor Appreciation Award! This award is given to 4 mentors in recognition of their willingness to engage and provide meaningful research experiences by mentoring students that participate in the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center’s CURE Research Training Program. This award is bestowed upon individuals who have tirelessly recognized and made the commitment to enhance the pipeline of underrepresented trainees. Congratulations to all of the recipients!
Congratulations to HyukJin Yun, PhD! He has recently been promoted to Instructor in Pediatrics.
FNNDSC Project Update(s):
NIRS Team
Last week, the NIRS team enrolled two new patients in one of their NICU studies. They coordinated a series of measurements on the first, and plan to do the same for the second patient this coming week. For the same NICU study, they performed three measurements on a previously enrolled patient, and coordinated two neurodevelopment follow-ups as well. Finally, the team enrolled and successfully performed a measurement on an infant in one of their other NICU studies, and completed two inpatient measurements on a subject enrolled in their Sickle Cell study. The team anticipates another productive week!
FNNDSC Lecture Series with Guest Speaker(s): Drs. Auke Ijspeert and Alice Bruel
Date/Time: Wednesday, December 8, 2021 @ 10 AM
Title: Investigating animal locomotion using biorobots and neuromechanical simulations
Abstract:
The ability to efficiently move in complex environments is a fundamental property both for animals and for robots, and the problem of locomotion and movement control is an area in which neuroscience, biomechanics, and robotics can fruitfully interact. In this talk, we will present how biorobots and neuromechanical simulations can be used to explore the interplay of the four main components underlying animal locomotion, namely central pattern generators (CPGs), reflexes, descending modulation, and the musculoskeletal system. Going from lamprey to human locomotion, we will present a series of models that tend to show that the respective roles of these components have changed during evolution with a dominant role of CPGs in lamprey and salamander locomotion, and a more important role for sensory feedback and descending modulation in human locomotion. We will also present some recent simulation work exploring the role of the spinal cord in controlling human upper-limb movements.
Biography:
Auke Ijspeert is a professor at EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland), IEEE Fellow, and head of the Biorobotics Laboratory (https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob). He has a B.Sc./M.Sc. in physics from the EPFL (1995), and a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh (1999). His research interests are at the intersection between robotics and computational neuroscience. He is interested in using numerical simulations and robots to gain a better understanding of animal locomotion and movement control, and in using inspiration from biology to design novel types of robots and locomotion controllers (see for instance Ijspeert et al, Science, Vol. 315, 2007 and Ijspeert, Science Vol. 346, 2014). He is also interested in assisting persons with limited mobility using exoskeletons and assistive furniture. With his colleagues, he has received paper awards at ICRA2002, CLAWAR2005, IEEE Humanoids 2007, IEEE ROMAN 2014, CLAWAR 2015, and CLAWAR 2019. He is associate editor for Soft Robotics, the International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, and the IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. He is also a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science magazine.
Picture: https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Auke_Ijspeert_low_res.jpg
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Brain Games
HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE?
If you have something that you would like to see featured in the next newsletter, please contact Winona Bruce-Baiden at: winona.bruce-baiden@childrens.harvard.edu