Dr. Dmitri Perkins is the Hardy Edmiston Endowed Professor of Computer Science in The Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS) at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2005 and was selected as the Outstanding Professor in the College of Sciences in 2012. He is the Founder and Director of the Wireless Systems and Performance Engineering Research (WiSPER) Laboratory, at the University of Louisiana. His research spans the area of mobile and wireless communications & networking, including mobile ad hoc networks, sensor networks, broadband multi-hop wireless networks, cognitive radio networks, dynamic spectrum access, and IoT/Cyber-physical systems (CPS). His research thrusts center on the design of adaptive protocols, autonomic network management, and performance engineering.
Currently, Dr. Perkins is the Program Director of the Industry - University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) Program, Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS), National Science Foundation. The NSF IUCRC program promotes and funds multi-university research partnerships that conduct precompetitive industry-inspired research, with the provision that industry members must provide major financial support to the Center at all times. As the Lead CISE PD, I manage all aspects of the CISE IUCRC program and provide oversight for twenty-five CISE-funded Centers (involving over 75 U.S. academic institutions, 5 international universities, and over 225 industry members). Industry members span Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, state and federal government agencies, and national labs. I am responsible for working effectively and proactively with IUCRC PIs, university officials, and industry members on a variety of key topics, ranging from membership agreements, MOUs, intellectual property issues, center management and evaluation, international partnerships, technology roadmaps that align with US and industry demands, as well as enhancing Center growth and sustainability. To realize the NSF IUCRC program goals, I am responsible for working across government agencies and with industry collaborators to promote the NSF and the IUCRC program activities and to leverage program funds by forming and guiding industry and interagency collaborations.
Panel Moderators
Dr. Jose ‘Pepe’ Luis Contreras-Vidal is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Deputy Center Director for Innovation and Translational Initiatives and Site Director for the National Science Foundation Industry-University Collaborative Research Center on Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnologies (IUCRC BRAIN), and Director of the Laboratory for Noninvasive Brain-Machine Interface Systems at the University of Houston. He is also a Full Affiliate in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Houston Methodist Hospital, Director of Human-Machine Systems at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) Memorial Hermann, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico.
Dr. Contreras-Vidal’s research focuses on neural, cognitive and rehabilitation engineering, and the design of noninvasive brain-machine interfaces (BMI) and wearable and therapeutical robotics to restore, augment or assist whole body movement after physical injury or neurological conditions. His laboratory has pioneered the development of noninvasive BMI systems based on scalp EEG to control motorized exoskeletons and robotic prosthetic limbs to restore motor function in individuals with spinal cord injury, stroke and limb amputation. His team has also developed innovative experimental and computational approaches to acquire brain activity in ‘action and in context’ in complex real settings using context-aware mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) technology to study aesthetics, creativity and innovation. Dr. Contreras-Vidal has pioneered the concept of ‘The Museum as a Public Laboratory” to understand brain dynamics in freely behaving individuals, with applications to neuroaesthetics, art therapy, informal learning and regulatory science.
Dr. Contreras-Vidal’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the VA, DARPA, ONR, Schlumberger, the Cullen Foundation, Mission Connect - TIRR Foundation, and industry. He is in the editorial board of IEEE Human-Machine Systems, Neural Networks, International Journal Mobile Human Computer Interaction, Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics, Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, Brain Computer Interfaces, and is currently Guest Editor of Special Issues in Artistic BCIs in the journal Brain-Computer Interfaces, and Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Creativity and Innovation in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. He was Chair or Co-Chair of the 2016 and 2017 International Conference on Wearable Robots, the 2016 and 2017 International Conferences on Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Creativity and Innovation, Special Sessions Chair of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, and Session Chair in the Workshop on CNS Neuroregeneration Strategies: Discovery and Implementation. Currently, Dr. Contreras-Vidal is the IEEE Systems Council AdCom Representative, Robotics and Automation Society (Primary Rep), Member of the Publications Board of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), Special Session Co-Chair of the IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 2018; and an active member of NeuroTech Subcommittee of the IEEE Standards Association.
Dr. Contreras-Vidal’s research has reached specialized audiences and the general public through news and views reports published and/or highlighted by The Economist, Science News, Der Spiegel, National Science Foundation, Wall Street Journal, the Society for Neuroscience, O&P, Science, Nature, Scientific American, NPR’s Science Friday, and Neurology Today among others. His career development in biomedical engineering has been highlighted in the magazine Science.
Dr. Marco Santello is Professor, Harrington Endowed Chair, and Director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering (SBHSE). He is the Center Director for the National Science Foundation Industry-University Collaborative Research Center on Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnologies (IUCRC BRAIN).
Dr. Santello received a Bachelor in Kinesiology from the University of L'Aquila, Italy, and a PhD in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Birmingham, U.K. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Department of Physiology (now Neuroscience) at the University of Minnesota, he joined the Department of Kinesiology at ASU in 1999, and moved to SBHSE in 2010. His main research interests are motor control, learning, and biomechanics of object grasping and manipulation, neural control of hand muscles, haptics, prosthetics, and multisensory integration. Dr. Santello’s research has applications to rehabilitation of sensorimotor hand function, prosthetics, and biologically-inspired robotics. Dr. Santello has published his work (>100 publications) in neuroscience and engineering journals. Dr. Santello’s research has been supported by research awards from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Whitaker Foundation, The Mayo Clinic, and Google Inc. He has served as regular member of the Motor Function, Speech, and Rehabilitation Study Section at the National Institutes of Health, and currently serves as Associate Editor for Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Assistive, Rehabilitative and Therapeutic Technologies.
