Broader Impacts
2023 Summer Internships
During the summer of 2023, we reopened our lab at the University of Houston for in-person research internships. This includes two students from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program (Alana Maluszczak from the University of Arizona, Jacob Mendez from the University of Central Florida, and Jeremie Noel from the University of Nantes, France ). The summer 2023 was especially busy and exciting for the NeuroExo project, so we were very happy to have their support.
Engineers-in-Real-Life
On February 25, 2023, our team conducted a K-12 STEM outreach at the Engineers-in-Real-Life event in the Houston/Galveston Area at the Clear Lake High School.
2021 Summer Internships
During the summer of 2021, we were happy to host several interns at our lab at the University of Houston. This includes three students from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program (David Edquilang, Carolina Ramirez, and Jacob Tajchman) and one local high school student (Chloe Beaudreau). As the program began before the resurgence of COVID in the fall, we were able to directly interact with the interns in person. The summer was especially busy for this project, so we were very happy to have their support.
STEM Outreach at the Children's Museum of Houston 2020
Due to the pandemic, our planned STEAM Outreach event at the Children's Museum of Houston this July has been cancelled.
2020 Summer Internships
The NeuroExo project has the privilege of remotely hosting four interns, including two students from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program (Edgar Guzman and Kameron Moore), a graduate student (Oziel Román Cantú López), and a local high school student (Vinay Mannem). While the pandemic has forced these internships to switch from in-person experiences to a virtual program, we expect these students will have a rewarding experience in gaining and improving the skill sets necessary for successful academic research.
STEM Outreach with SEBA
On October 24th, 2019, St. Elmo Brady STEM Academy (SEBA), a local organization that encourages fourth and fifth-grade African-American and Latino boys to consider a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, joined the lab for a tour of our ongoing research. In addition to demonstrating our individual projects, we spoke with the students about what it means to be a researcher and how one could prepare for the rigors of academia.
Visit by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Senior representatives and former astronauts from NASA visited the lab to hear about our research on October 16th, 2019. During the visit, we described and demonstrated our many different neurotechnologies, including our rehabilitation arm and Brain Computer Interface module.
STEM Outreach at the Children's Museum of Houston
During the week of July 7-13, 2019 our lab visited the Children’s Museum of Houston to demonstrate EEG technology to children as part of our STEM Outreach Program. The children got to wear EEG caps and learn how brains send/receive signals to/from the rest of the body. Children and parents were able to see their brain activity in real-time up on a screen. As part of the lab’s “Brain on Art” STEM Program, the children participated in a hands-on creative art activity to demonstrate how the brain behaves while they make art.
Laboratory Demonstrations
On April 17, 2019, a group of international high school students from Darussafaka High School in Istanbul, Turkey visited our laboratory. The students were participating in the First-Robotics Competition in Houston this spring. The students interacted with our robotics exoskeletons, learned about our projects on EEG based Brain-Machine Interfaces, and used our EEG headsets to see and learn about their own brain waves.
Neurorobotics STEM Night
On February 28, 2019, our lab demonstrated a powered walking exoskeleton robot and brain recording devices to visualize brain activity non-invasively to children and parents during the STEM night at the T.H. Rogers School in Houston, Texas.
Neurotech Entrepreneurs Workshop
Prof. Contreras-Vidal is co-chair of the Neurotech Entrepreneurs Workshop to be held at Arizona State University on December 13-15, 2019 - a collaboration by Arizona State University, IEEE Brain, NSF IUCRC BRAIN Center, University of Houston, and the University of Pittsburgh. The goal of this workshop is to provide intensive and rigorous training in the areas of: ideation, market analysis, customer and stakeholder analysis, intellectual property, regulatory affairs, reimbursement, valuation, and fundraising. As part of this workshop, students will be given challenges prevalent in the neurotechnology industry and will present their startup solutions to industry leaders. Additionally, students will be given the opportunity to network with industry and academic leaders in the neurotechnology field.