The Neural Control research group at the Center for Biomedical
Enginnering at the University of Kentucky has several Research
Assistantships available for Graduate study. Students must be
accepted i n the Graduate Program and work towards a Masters or Ph.D.
degree in Biomedical Engineering.
Infromation about the Biomedical Engineering program and Graduate
school applications can be obtained from:
http://www.uky.edu/RGS/CBME.
Email inquiries can also be made from the Director for Graduate
studies: DGS@CBME.uky.edu.
The Center for Biomedical Engineering has close ties with the School
of Medicine and the School of Engineering. Students take course work
related to their research in the Center as well as other departments.
Following are brief descriptions of the kinds of funded research
projects available:
Project #1: Testing causes of breathing disruption in rats during
normal and chaotic breathing, using white-noise analysis of nonlinear
system and nonlinear spectral analysis. Student will learn how to
measure breathing in anesthetized rats, how to find transfer
functions for nonlinear systems, and how to analyze chaotic data.
Could continue as a Ph.D. project by applying these methods to
unanesthetized rats and to data from human infants.
Project #2: Studying the neural oscillator that creates the rhythm
of breathing and how it is forced into chaotic behavior by feedback
from the lungs. Student will learn to record from single nerve
fibers from the lungs, and will construct mathematical model of a
neural oscillator and determine whether the recorded nerve signals
can cause the oscillator to become chaotic. Can continue as a Ph.D.
project by using model to develop new experimental methods. Student
will learn nonlinear dynamics and computational neuroscience.
Project #3: Studying neural control of breathing muscles in altered
gravitational field, using human subjects who spend 2 days in bed.
Uses optimal control methods, spectral analysis, and white-noise
system identification methods. Student will learn to measure
breathing and muscle signals from humans.
Project #4: Studying the role of interaction between the brain and
the spinal cord neural oscillator in short term and long term control
of locomotion (e.g. instability and response to perturbations;
stochastic versus deterministic behavior). Experimental data will be
obtained from an in vitro brain-spinal cord preparation of the
lamprey (an eel-like vertebrate). Extracellular and intracellular
recording and techniques from nonlinear systems analysis will be used
(time and frequency domain analyses, fractal analysis, wavelets
etc.). Student will also develop and analyze mathematical models
using dynamical systems theory. The student will learn nonlinear
dynamics and computational neuroscience.(M.S./Ph.D)
Project #5: Studying the relationship between the neural activity
of brainstem neurons and the spinal cord neurons that actually
produce the rhythmic motor output for locomotion. Student will
develop the software and analysis algorithms and conduct the analysis
using techniques such as correlations, coherence, time-frequency
analysis, phase plane analysis, fractal analysis, wavelets, or neural
networks. For M.S. project student will not perform the actual
experiments, only analyze data.
Project #6: Studying the control of the heart during cardiovascular
stress such as simulated microgravity. Student will measure heart
rate and other variables from human subjects and compare data from
stress and non-stress situations using spectral analysis or fractal
analysis. (M.S.)
Project #7: Development and evaluation of adaptive neural network
controllers for use in Functional Neuromuscular Stimulation systems.
The projects include: 1) the design of adaptive feedforward control
systems using neural network techniques, 2) the evaluation and
iterative development of the control system using computer simulated
musculo-skeletal models, and 3) the experimental evaluation of the
control system in experiments on human subjects with spinal cord
injury. Students working on these will gain experience in using
neural networks, control systems, computer simulated models, and
experience in performing experiments on human subjects with spinal
cord injury. (M.S. and Ph.D.)
Project #8: Mechanisms of malignant arrhythmia that lead to sudden
cardiac death. The project will include experimental and modeling
studies of epicardial activations during arrhythmia to investigate
the relationship between epicardial and surface electrical activity
in terms of non-linear phase locking, coherent behavior and cycle
period changes. The project will involve application of state of the
art signal processing and numerical analysis tools, with
implementation in software and hardware. (M.S. and Ph.D.)
Ranu Jung, Ph.D. email:jung@pop.uky.edu
Center for Biomedical Engineering phone:606-257-5931
Wenner-Gren Research Lab. fax: 606-257-1856
University of Kentucky http://www.uky.edu/RGS/CBME/jung.html
Lexington, KY 40506-0070
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