Computer Engineering

Lab Description

The Computer Engineering Laboratory (CEL) is a multi-disciplinary laboratory located in the Neuroscience Department of the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, and collaborating with various university departments, research companies and institutes with a dual mission: To provide tools and methods for advancing brain research, and to develop engineering solutions to specific neuroscience-related problems. CEL is led by dr. ir. Christos Strydis who also coordinates lab activities with the department's valorization company Neurasmus B.V. The lab maintains strong collaboration ties with a number of external partners including but not limited to the Delft University of Technology (TUD), the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN), the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), the Brain Innovations venture, the Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), and more.

The CEL research activities cover a broad spectrum of topics including brain exploration, advanced technological solutions for accelerating brain modeling and simulation, as well as novel approaches related to implantable medical devices (IMDs) with a strong focus on implantable neuromodulators. Very recently, another theme added to the lab's activities is the development of functional ultra-sound (fUS) for unprecedented brain imaging. 

Overall, the CEL spans now four distinct research themes:

• BrainFrame: The creation of an HPC-based simulation platform with an intuitive programming interface for technically non-savvy neuroscientists for conducting high-speed brain simulations as well as general brain experimentation support. The theme currently seeks to provide a comprehensive pool of innovative technical solutions to serve neuroscientific experiments. Although concerned with a variety of efforts, the flag ship research of the theme is to develop an easy-to-use heterogeneous HPC brain simulation framework using PyNN as a front-end, the BrainFrame Framework.
• Smart Implantable Neurostimulators (SINS): The design, development and prototyping of dependable, secure and low-power neural implants. SINS target the treatment of a number of tough neurological diseases such as Tinnitus, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression and more.
  
• Brain Dynamics: The living brain is constantly active. In most brain areas, the neurons continuously communicate across large extents. An understanding of brain function passes through an understanding of the brain dynamics that becomes behavior. The exploration of functional brain dynamics attempts to shed light on the biological processes of the brain, through more accurate modeling. The research effort is mostly concentrated on the exploration of the functional brain dynamics of the Cerebellum, one of the most densely populated areas of the brain, which is concerned with the acquisition and performance of complex motor behavior.
• CUBE: My lab is among the three founding labs of the cutting-edge, interdisciplinary Centre for Ultrasound and Brain Imaging at Erasmus MC (CUBE) featuring a new type of echography (functional Ultra-Sound, fUS) to visualize blood inside the brain. With its unique temporal and spatial properties, fUS will help neuroscientists to better understand how different brain areas work together and neurosurgeons to better delineate tumor from healthy functional tissue during operations.

This page is still under construction. For a more complete view of the lab activities, please consult the old page: http://erasmusbrainproject.com