Faculty Profiles

One of the greatest challenges in neuroengineering, whether toward new therapies for neurological diseases or toward new means of human-computer interaction, is to advance our fundamental understanding of how the brain functions to the point where we may effectively interface the human brain with engineered systems that approach its intelligence.

Professor Cauwenberghs pioneered the engineering of highly energy efficient, massively parallel silicon integrated circuits that emulate the fundamental physical principles, structural organization, and cognitive function of the computational brain. Embedded mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in these nanoscale integrated silicon microcircuits model the adaptive intelligence and robustness of biological nervous systems interacting with variable and unpredictable environments. Operating at extreme levels of energy efficiency and noise resilience, these integrated circuits have shown great use for ubiquitous deployment of engineered natural intelligence for applications ranging from autonomous robots to human-computer interaction and wearable health monitoring.

A main focus of current work is on extending integrated sensing and actuation to dynamical interfaces closing the loop between engineered and natural neural activity. Recent developments include unobtrusive in-ear physiological and metabolic sensing of brain and body activity with closed-loop auditory neurofeedback towards electroceutical therapy for sleep and neurological disorders, and minimally invasive intracranial electrocorticogram electrode arrays for high-resolution mapping and modulation of brain cognitive function. These dynamical interfaces between natural and artificial intelligence offer tremendous opportunities for transformative, integrative neuroscience and neuroengineering that are the focus of continued research in the Cauwenberghs laboratory, in collaboration with partners in academia, industry, and the clinical sector.

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Capsule Bio:

Cauwenberghs received the M.Eng. degree in applied physics from University of Brussels, Belgium, in 1988, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1989 and 1994.

He is Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, where he co-directs the Institute for Neural Computation. Previously, he held positions as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and as Visiting Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He co-founded Cognionics Inc., which is branded as CGX Systems and currently markets wireless dry-electrode electroencephalogram headsets FDA-cleared for neurological clinical use. He further serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Aizip, Neuralace, NextSense, TempoSense, and Qernel.ai.

He is a Francqui Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He received a number of awards including the National Science Foundation Career Award, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and  Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). He served IEEE in a variety of roles including as Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, as VP of Technical Activities on the Executive Committee of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, on the Steering Committee of IEEE Brain, and as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

Selected Publications:

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