Brain I/0

The brain of an ant 🐜 is less than a cubic millimeter and has all that is required for an exciting life: navigate complex terrain, do intricate movements and even be part of a society.

Our brain is at least 1 million times larger 😮🤯.

What is this massive amount of matter doing? How do parts of the brain communicate to produce our minds?

I am fascinated by the workings of the mind and the potential this understanding has to repair missing functions.

As a scientist 👨🏻‍🔬, I would like to understand how the mind works. As an engineer 👷🏻‍♂️, I believe the key to understanding brain function is to speak the language it speaks. We can achieve this by deciphering the brain codes and developing the right algorithms to interact with the mind.

My research is focused on finding the right algorithms to directly interact with the brain via the neural code 💻💜💬🧠. I attempt to re-create the inputs and interpret the outputs of brain modules through different techniques. To achieve brain I/O, I have studied both the communication with groups of neurons through stimulation ⚡🧪, and the decoding of neural activity patterns in monkeys 🐵 to control prosthesis 🦾🦼.

As a next step, I aim to find algorithms that optimize brain-computer communication in closed-loop, based on the way brain modules learn 👩🏻‍🏫.

Currently, I am a postdoc at the Neurobiology unit on the German Primate Center (Leibniz-Gemeinschaft) in Göttingen developing brain-computer interfaces in experiments with primates.

Before joining the German Primate Center I did my doctoral studies in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization working in brain stimulation. Before that, I graduated with a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science both at Universidad EAFIT (Medellin, Colombia). Previous jobs included working as a research assistant in the Sistemas de Control and Realidad Virtual laboratories in EAFIT, and an internship at the former CAIP center in Rutgers University (Piscataway, USA).

I am also part of the technical advisory board of Omicron IoT Solutions, a company in Colombia offering affordable Internet-of-Things solutions for hospitals, disaster prevention systems, and agriculture.

In my spare time, I enjoy watching a good movie, reading about the brain, coding for fun, juggling, doing yoga, swimming, and dancing. Occasionally, I am also learning how to sail.

Please feel free to contact me over Gmail with user handle aagudel

Social

• Google Scholar

• Semantic Scholar (Allen Institute AI)

• Twitter

• ORCID (0000-0002-8528-3753)

• GitHub

• Wikipedia contributions