About Me

I’m an undergraduate double majoring in neuroscience and biomedical engineering at UNC Chapel Hill to pursue my interest in studying brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Through my four-year experience developing autonomous robots and optimizing code for competitive programming, I realized that small changes have the potential to cause exponential changes in performance. Consequently, in research I am drawn to how fine-tuning spatial density of stimulation could yield high-fidelity artificial vision through specific electrode firing. Previously, I worked in lightweight machine-learning systems and EEG-based drowsiness detection, which furthered my interest in interpreting biological signals through the intersection of computation and neurotechnology. I aim to develop neural technologies that bypass non-congenital blindness to partially, if not completely, restore functional perception.

"Can the brain understand the brain? Can it understand the mind? Is it a giant computer, or some other kind of giant machine, or something more?"
– David H. Hubel

Research Interest

Directly stimulating neurons in the primary visual cortex (i.e. V1) partially reverses cortical vision loss from degeneration or absence of retinal signaling. Consistent with foundational studies using intracortical micro-stimulation in V1, targeted electrode activation can evoke phosphenes and simple shape percepts, demonstrating the possibility for visual information to be artificially encoded. I intend to explore how incremental changes in the spatial density of cortical stimulation patterns can enhance the fidelity of artificial vision.

"The brain is a tissue. It is a complicated, intricately woven tissue, like nothing else we know of in the universe, but it is composed of cells, as any tissue is. They are, to be sure, highly specialized cells, but they function according to the laws that govern any other cells. Their electrical and chemical signals can be detected, recorded and interpreted and their chemicals can be identified; the connections that constitute the brain's woven feltwork can be mapped. In short, the brain can be studied, just as the kidney can."
– David H. Hubel

• My Resume