Meeting with Prof Hanry started on time as we happened to meet him in the elevator. After a few minutes of battle with his iMac, we finally got started. After Lei Yang's overall introduction to MMIs, Hanry advised us to come up with a problem before the end of the meeting. I am not sure about others, but i got a bit nervous as we had not thought of a problem to work on. Olivier showed us a video on Graz's BCI research. Surprisingly, Hanry stayed silent during the presentations so far, without asking any questions. "may be this is how a PBL session is conducted, where the tutor doesn't ask questions" During Zhan Liang's presentation, an interesting question fueled the first discussion of the day. None of us were clear whether the EEG signal is obtained prior to the activity or during the activity. So, Hanry suggested the query to be the learning issue for the week. I don't know if Hanry knew the answer, but he asked us to find it out ourselves. "I guess in PBL, the tutor's role is to facilitate discussions, and not to provide answers" I wrapped up the BCI portion of the MMI sharing with others what Singapore and Germany have achieved so far in the BCI field. Hanry still refrained from asking questions. Ludovic introduced NPs to us. He explained to us how Deep Brain Simulator works - It doesn't cure Parkinson's disease but rather just prevents it; DBS uses Titanium invasive electrodes and gold wires; DBS has a 70% success rate. It was followed by Ni Jun's presentation on the two types of retinal implants. Yi Xiang elucidated on his findings on cochlear implants, thus completing our group's introductory presentations on MMIs.
We were left with only 10 minutes to go before we could start discussing about the problem/issue. I initiated the proceedings suggesting that we may work on developing a thought controlled neuroprosthetic device that can help the quadriplegic patients to walk. I proposed this problem because the group has people who have had background in BCI before. So, by tapping into their skills it would be easier to come up with a novel solution to the problem in hand. Zhan Liang seconded my idea. Ludovic proposed on working on an NP that can boost memory. Olivier wanted to develop an NP that can cure Alzheimer's diease. Yi Xiang suggested we should work on a device that can stimulate the muscle activity directly (something like the one shown in the movie Matrix). Hanry chipped into our discussion, saying that suppose 7 of us form a company and want to work on a project funded by Bill Gates. Then which project would we choose? It doesn't necessarily have to be revolutionary and novel, even a cocktail can make an impact if properly designed. So after a bit of deliberation (lasting few minutes if i am not wrong), we all decided to work on a BCI controlled neuroprosthetic arm. Everyone decided to search on this topic and update others on their findings.
Thus our first session with Hanry came to an end. But as usual i was not satisfied with the outcome of the meeting. We should have spent more time to come up with a problem, discuss about the loopholes in the current knowledge/applications, areas of improvement, issues in the relevant areas, etc... What if someone has already come up with such a BCI controlled limb device? What can we do then? Improve upon it? or Give up the idea and choose something else. I think we should have discussed all this. Anyway, we have a topic atleast to work on. Let us see how it shapes up.
