Latest News

Le Monde article on Brain Augmentation

Check this in-depth overview of opportunities and dangers of brain augmentation in Le Monde.

Article here.

Le Point’s special issue article

Check this special issue of a French magazine Le Point - 'Le guide du cerveau' , featuring an article about my work.

More details here.

OECD's Global Forum on Technology event

I participated in OECD's Global Forum on Technology event: "The human future: What’s on the horizon?", which took place on September 19-20, 2024 in OECD’s headquarters in Paris.

This Global Forum on Technology (GFTech) event convened policymakers, technologists and stakeholders to explore visions of the human future that guide responsible and rights-oriented technology development and deployment – a future where emerging technologies foster resilient societies, better address climate change, and cooperation leads to policies that help bridge digital and technological divides. The event explored new developments that appear poised to move humans into even more digitally and technologically-enabled experiences, including IoT-enabled environments, virtual worlds, and digital twins, as well as human enhancement through biological, neuro or other technological applications on the horizon.

I was on a panel about Learning and Cognition. 

Transformative impacts of advances in nano-, bio-, digital, and material technologies on human health and well-being are shaping neurotechnologies and enhancing learning and cognitive functioning. Brain-computer interfaces offer potential therapies for individuals with disabilities and mental illnesses, as well as enhancement of sensory and cognitive experiences. Start-ups around memory and learning are quickly entering the market, raising ethical, legal, and social considerations. This panel will explore some of the technologies that will usher in the future of the brain, examining their economic, ethical and social implications.

Other panelists included:

Moderator: Olivier Ouiller, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Inclusive Brains
Speakers:
• Hervé Chneiweiss, Chairman of Ethics Committee, INSERM
• María Lopez Valdés, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bitbrain

New Paper!

New paper is out and was presented at InterSpeech 2024:

Adults who are minimally verbal with autism spectrum disorder (mvASD) have pronounced speech difficulties linked to impaired motor skills. Existing research and clinical assessments primarily use indirect methods such as standardized tests, video-based facial features, and handwriting tasks, which may not directly target speech-related motor skills. In this study, we measure activity from eight facial muscles associated with speech using surface electromyography (sEMG), during carefully designed tasks. The findings reveal a higher power in the sEMG signals and a significantly greater correlation between the sEMG channels in mvASD adults (N=12) compared to age and gender-matched neurotypical controls (N=14). This suggests stronger muscle activation and greater synchrony in the discharge patterns of motor units. Further, eigenvalues derived from correlation matrices indicate lower complexity in muscle coordination in mvASD, implying fewer degrees of freedom in motor control.

Wazeer Zulfikar, Protyasha Nishat, Camila Canales, Heli Patel, James Williamson, Laura Sarnie, Lisa Nowinski, Nataliya Kosmyna, Paige Townsend, Sophia Yuditskaya, Tanya Talkar, Utkarsh Sarawgi, Christopher McDougle, Thomas Quatieri, Pattie Maes, Maria Mody. (2024). Analyzing Speech Motor Movement using Surface Electromyography in Minimally Verbal Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

MIT JWEL Grant Recipient

Happy to be among 11research projects supported by Education Innovation Grants in 2024 across nine departments, labs, centers, and institutes at MIT. Research themes include leveraging artificial intelligence tools to support learning, exploring low-tech ways to bring underserved audiences into STEM education, and developing new materials, tools, and curriculum to improve equity and quality of learning experiences. 

Learn more here: https://www.jwel.mit.edu/grants/latest-grants

UNESCO - Second Meeting of the Ad Hoc Expert Group for the elaboration of a first draft of the Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology

The 24 international experts of the AHEG including myself reconvened at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 26 to 30 August 2024 to revise and finalize the first draft of a Recommendation on the ethics of neurotechnology.

Learn more about this effort here: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/second-meeting-ad-hoc-expert-group-elaboration-first-draft-recommendation-ethics-neurotechnology

New Paper: Image classification and reconstruction from low-density EEG

New paper is out!

Why?

🥵 Reconstruction of perceived images from the brain is currently a hot topic in brain imaging space.
💸💸💸 However, previous approaches have predominantly relied on stationary, costly equipment like MEG, fMRI or high‐density EEG, limiting the real‐world availability and applicability of such projects.
❌ Additionally, several EEG‐based paradigms have utilized artifactual, rather than stimulus‐related information yielding flawed classification and reconstruction results.
🎯 Our goal was to reduce the cost of the decoding paradigm, while increasing its flexibility. Therefore, we investigated whether the classification of an image category and the reconstruction of the image itself is possible from the visually evoked brain activity measured by a portable EEG.

In a nutshell:
🎆 600 images: 20 classes - 30 images/class
👯‍♂️ 9 subjects
⏰ 6 hours-recording/subject
🧠 8 channel EEG g.tec medical engineering GmbH - NEVER STOP RECORDING hashtag#unicorn - occipital location - we made some extra holes ;-)
💵 <$1K setup cost and <$4K GPU cost for classification and reconstruction
⏳<10 minutes setup time
🦾 paper, code, data, model - documented and available

Main takeaways:
✅ 5 classification models with our setup reaching an average accuracy of 34.4% for 20 image classes on hold‐out test recordings.
✅ After fine‐tuning, we reconstructed images from the test set with a 1000 trial 50‐class top‐1 accuracy of 35.3%.

Check the paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-66228-1

Regional consultation on the UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology

On July 10, 2024, we held a hybrid, in-person+virtual regional consultation on the UNESCO draft for the global standard on the Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology co-hosted with BrainMind.  Dr. Karen Rommelfanger moderated the virtual portion of the event.

Read the recap of the event here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-146511822

UNESCO's Policy Dialogue on AI Governance Summit

Mandag Morgen interview

Mandag Morgen, a Dutch newspaper, released a cover story on the promises, challenges and dangers of brain sensing. Read the story here, featuring opinions of several experts, myself included (in Dutch):

https://www.mm.dk/artikel/hvem-skal-have-adgang-til-at-laese-dine-tanker

Communications of the ACM article

In Communications of the ACM, Association for Computing Machinery, science journalist Sandrine Ceurstemont talks to different experts, including myself about the potential of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), and what safeguards need to be in place before they are widely adopted.

Read the article here: https://cacm.acm.org/news/whither-bcis/

TNC’24 Closing Keynote and Interview

I was so excited to be back to Rennes, France, to close GÉANT TNC24 conference with a keynote about the Future of Computing.

Check the recording of the keynote here: https://tnc24.geant.org/recordings/?session=s534 (starts on minute 32).

GÉANT also featured an interview with myself in their CONNECT magazine, read it here: https://connect.geant.org/2024/06/13/connect-interview-dr-nataliya-kosmyna-massachusetts-institute-of-technology

Virgin Galactic’07 Launch

On Saturday, June 8, 2024, the "Galactic 07" flight took place in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic’s spaceship was converted into a suborbital science lab, with VSS Unity carrying three private astronauts including Tuva Cihangir Atasever, a Turkish Space Agency (TUA) astronaut, and an Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) Backup Mission Specialist.

On Saturday’s flight, Atasever flew with three human-tended experiments, including custom headgear with brain activity monitoring sensors to collect physiological data related to human spaceflight. We were happy to work alongside our colleagues at MGH in contributing to the headgear component of this payload, namely designing and manufacturing the black headband piece, that you can see on Tuva’ head, and which had been worn by Tuva for the full duration of the flight. 

Learn more about the process, check the photos and videos here:

https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/space-headband/

TechWeek, NYC, 2024

On June 3, 2024 I spoke at an MIT Alumni event, part of NY TechWeek: The A to Z of AI—The Artificial Intelligence Landscape and its impact on business and society.

With Jag Gill hosting the event, I joined several MIT-affiliated founders and industry leaders: Anvisha Pai Minna Song Rami Sayar Sam Udotong

https://lnkd.in/ehDrgxhx

It was great to participate in BrainMind conference, which took place June 1- June 3 in NYC.

Learn more about the event here: https://brainmind.org

Ageing with Tech Festival, Hamburg, May 2024

I was excited to be invited by Körber-Stiftung Foundation to be part of their Tech Festival in Hamburg, which took place on May 15-16, 2024.

I gave a talk (with German twists!) and a demo about the Future of Aging in the Era of AI.

The Foundation put together an brochure about Ageing in Germany with different studies and opinion pieces, which you can download here:

https://koerber-stiftung.de/projekte/ageing-with-tech/uncover-smart-ageing

Watch my talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_elt3rOx4s&list=PL6HWFiCS5-GPzSM6X49onryUZ5EnOGfOR&index=18

Le Monde - Commander un objet ou une action par la pensée : vingt-cinq années de progrès de la recherche

Commander un objet ou une action par la pensée : 25 dernières années de recherche et les questions éthiques qui se posent.

Permettre à une personne paraplégique de contrôler sa marche par la pensée ; aider une femme handicapée à s’exprimer par ordinateur interposé ; donner à un enfant, atteint de la maladie de Charcot, la possibilité d’alerter sa famille en actionnant à distance l’interrupteur dans sa chambre… Ces dernières années, des équipes de chercheurs ont prouvé qu’il était possible, dans certaines conditions et à l’aide d’un équipement ad hoc, d’aider une personne fortement handicapée à agir ou à communiquer à l’aide de son unique volonté.

Lire cet article ici.

[English]

French newspaper Le Monde offers a great infographic on the 25 years of research in brain-computer interfaces featuring AttentivU and Ddog projects. Check the article here (in French).

VRT NWS video

Watch: Professor Pattie Maes, head of the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group, and myself demonstrate a wearable brain-computer interface called AttentivU. By equipping a pair of glasses with sensors, Professor Maes says, her group has developed a system that can “read your brain wave activity using EEG as well as determine your eye movements. From there, we can detect a lot of information about the brain, like how tired you are or how focused you are.”

While journalist Tim Verheyden, of VRT NWS, was particularly impressed with the system’s ability to let him move a ball with his mind, it also has potential applications in treating ADHD and helping people with conditions like ALS communicate.

Video: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2024/04/05/augmented-reality-ai-mit/

Member of Ad Hoc Expert Group for UNESCO - Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology

Honored to be part of 24 international experts (Ad Hoc Expert Group - AHEG) for UNESCO to help prepare a first draft of the Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology. The first meeting of AHEG took place from 22 to 26 April 2024 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

From May to July 2024, global, regional, and national consultations will be conducted by UNESCO in order to collect the views of a wide range of key stakeholders and to incorporate pluralistic perspectives into the draft Recommendation, ensuring an open and inclusive elaboration process. 

This will be followed by a second meeting of the AHEG from 26 to 30 August 2024, intended to embed the inputs raised by the consultation process. The first draft of the standard-setting instrument will be shared with Member States by September 2024, opening the intergovernmental consultation processthat will take place until 2025. 

The final text of the Recommendation will be presented for adoption in November 2025 at the 43rdsession of the General Conference.

Learn more here: https://www.unesco.org/en/ethics-neurotech/expert-group

Panel @Hello Tomorrow Summit, Paris, March 2024

I was excited to be part of Hello Tomorrow Summit, which took place on 03/21-03/22 and shared with the audience some insights on how we can bridge the Minds and Machines – Exploring the Advances in Brain-Computer Interfaces.

My co-panelist included Balint Varkuti from CereGate. This panel was moderated by Elodie Chabrol.

Watch video of the panel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DzzfyAtTro

Videos Available from Paris Saclay Summit 2024

The inaugural edition of the Paris-Saclay Summit at the EDF LAB Paris-Saclay, in Palaiseau, took place February 29 to March 1, 2024  .

On March 1, 10am CET, I did a deep dive on brain-computer interfaces and explaining how we can control objects using our brains. I will also present a live demo of a new project. Watch the video here.

This talk was followed by myconversation with Valérie Pécresse, President of the Paris Region, moderated by Etienne Gernelle, director of the Le Point. Watch the video here.

Article @Le Point about Paris Saclay Summit 2024

Grab a print copy of this week’s Le Point magazine (N2690), or check the online version of the article here to learn more about the ground-breaking innovations from amazing scientists from all different areas of expertise: why we do what we do, what are the societal and ethical implications of our work, and understand the infrastructure needed to be in place to make all this research come to life.

Paris Saclay Summit 2024

The inaugural edition of the Paris-Saclay Summit at the EDF LAB Paris-Saclay, in Palaiseau, will take place February 29 to March 1, 2024  .

On March 1, 10am CET, I will be doing a deep dive on brain-computer interfaces and explaining how we can control objects using our brains. I will also present a live demo of a new project.

This talk will be followed by myconversation with Valérie Pécresse, President of the Paris Region, moderated by Etienne Gernelle, director of the Le Point. 

Register here: https://evenements.lepoint.fr/paris-saclay-summit-en/program/ 

Judge for Hult Prize, Boston Cohort, 2024

I was inspired and honored to be on the team of judges for Hult Prize, Boston cohort, 2024.

The Hult Prize challenges young people around the world to solve the planet's most pressing issues through social entrepreneurship. This year, a team can pitch any idea they have for a social enterprise, as long as it is world-changing and aligned with at least one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Article @Le Point about the ethics of brain sensing solutions

Le 29/01/2024 je viens de présenter mes nouveaux travaux sur la détection cérébrale non invasive avec une démo live : prendre une photo et la poster sur Twitter en utilisant uniquement son cerveau et une paire de lunettes 👓 🧠 📸. Le Point vient de publier un article aujourd'hui sur cette mise à jour d'Elon Musk concernant Neuralink et il contient beaucoup de mes réflexions. Jetez-y un œil.

En résumé, voici ce que je dis : je soulève plusieurs préoccupations éthiques et techniques.

- la nécessité d'utiliser un implant pour des fonctions (potentiellement - car on ne connaît rien sur le patient!) réalisables par des moyens moins invasifs

- la hâte de Neuralink, motivée par des intérêts commerciaux (la motivation commerciale est 1000% normale et acceptable - juste il ne faut pas oublier que cette entreprise doit lever des fonds pour exister et fonctionner).

- mes inquiétudes sur la sécurité des données cérébrales et les potentiels abus, y compris les risques liés à des mises à jour insuffisantes des implants et l'utilisation des données pour des fins non éthiques, comme la publicité ciblée directement dans le cerveau des utilisateurs.

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

On 29/01/2024 at SPIE conference in San Francisco, I presented my new work on non-invasive brain detection with a live demo: taking a photo and posting it on Twitter using only one's brain and a pair of glasses 👓 🧠 📸 . Le Point just published an article today about this update from Elon Musk regarding Neuralink and it contains a lot of my thoughts. Take a look.

In summary, here's what I'm saying: I raise several ethical and technical concerns.

- I question the necessity of using an implant for functions (potentially - as we know nothing about the patient!) that could be achieved by less invasive means

- Neuralink's haste, driven by commercial interests (commercial motivation is 1000% normal and acceptable - just don't forget that this company needs to raise funds to exist and operate, thus the messaging about « telepathy »).

- my concerns about the security of brain data and potential abuses, including risks associated with the use of data for unethical purposes, such as targeted advertising directly in users' brains.

New Paper @SPIE 2024: ‘Are You Still Watching’?

New Paper: Ddog

Our paper 'A Brain-Controlled Quadruped Robot: A Proof-of-Concept Demonstration' is published!

If you want to learn more on how to build:

🤖 autonomous
📱mobile
👁️eyes-free
system
using
🧠brain-sensing glasses
and Spot from Boston Dynamics, check our paper: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/1/80

We call this system Ddog 🐶 👓 🧠 The goal of Ddog was to design an autonomous application that would enable a user to control a Spot robot based on the user’s input via brain only and give feedback to the user and their caregiver using voice via the app 📱

Ddog is designed to work either fully offline, or fully online. The online version has a more advanced set of machine learning (ML) models, as well as better fine-tuned models.

Our paper also features an overview of the state of the art in 🧠 sensing and 🤖as of 2023. We explain the challenges of portability, comfort, UI/UX for the users who would wear brain computer-enabled devices, with our proposed solution (I) being wearable form-factor with a setup time < 2 min.

Video trailer of Ddog is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBcdnOlYJw8 and a full video overview is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltrPvggcx4c

AttentivU measures the user’s electroencephalography (EEG - 🧠 ) and electrooculography (EOG - 👁️) activity of the user from the electrodes embedded in the glasses’ frame. The user mentally responds to a series of questions with YES/NO answers, using their brain only.

Each question–answer pair has a pre-configured set of actions for Spot. For instance, Spot was prompted to walk across a room, pick up an object, and retrieve it for the user (i.e., bring a bottle of water) when a sequence resolved to a YES response with a success rate of 83.4%.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first integration of wireless, non-visual-based BCI system with Spot in the context of personal assistant use cases. While Ddog is an early prototype, future iterations may embody friendly and intuitive cues similar to service dogs 🐕‍🦺

Thank you so much to my amazing co-authors Eugene Hauptmann and Yasmeen Hmaidan - this work would not be possible without them! And of course, thank you to Spot!

ASCEND 2023

I was excited to travel to Las Vegas to attend ASCEND 2023 and to present our new paper: ‘Using Wearable Brain Sensing Glasses during Zero-G Flight for Hyperscanning: Preliminary Study’.

Watch my talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jlqNxK0GoU

Radio Interview: The World (WGBH/PRX)

Scientists are gathering data of brain activity from non-invasive brain scans and analyzing that information, sometimes with AI, to understand people’s different thoughts and mental images.

The World’s Carol Hills interviewed me about how the science works, and how new discoveries can help the brain and technology function together.

Listen to the interview here: https://theworld.org/media/2023-10-20/researchers-studying-electrical-signals-human-brains-are-getting-little-closer

New Paper

New paper is out:

‘Using Wearable Brain Sensing Glasses during Zero-G Flight for Hyperscanning: Preliminary Study’

 Currently, there is paucity in the knowledge on the exact effect of microgravity on the human brain and even more so – the scarce availability of comfortable, portable and wireless systems to measure the brain activity while studying microgravity. In this study we used portable, wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrooculogram (EOG) device to simultaneously record brain activity from a group of 6 subjects during a parabolic flight. Simultaneous local data collection and subsequent data export allowed for evaluation of brain activity of flyers during various gravity environment trials when experiencing martian, lunar and zero gravity. All individual subjects showed decrease in alpha, beta and theta band powers when compared between different Gs. Alpha power was depressed in 0 G when compared to both 1/6 G and 1/3 G in all subjects. Same results can be observed for beta and theta band powers. We believe that this study paves a promising direction to investigate the neuroscience of group interactions in ecologically natural settings of parabolic flights using portable EEG systems.

Nataliya Kosmyna, Daniel Hails, Eugene Hauptmann, Christopher Markus, Zoe Lee, Gun Bolukbasi and Minsol Kim. "Using Wearable Brain Sensing Glasses during Zero-G Flight for Hyperscanning: Preliminary Study," AIAA 2023-4656. ASCEND 2023. October 2023.

CreatedBy Festival 2023

Cambridge Science Festival 2023

It was great to share my love and passion for brain sensing, as well as the most recent scientific advances in brain research during the Cambridge Science Festival 2023! I was also excited to feature my NeuraFutures project during 2 lectures, a series of demos and tours!

Learn more here: https://www.neurafutures.com/events/

NeuraFutures Installation @ Cambridge Public Library

Visit new location of NeuraFutures installation!

Admission is free and open for public starting September 25, 2023 during the working hours of The Cambridge Public Library.

Building on 15 years of our experience in designing and creating the most cutting edge interaction – fusion between the brain and computer, brain-computer interface, in our project NeuraFutures we are touching upon implanting memories, reading your dreams while you sleep and communicating a thought between two different people throughout the continents.

We analyzed 480+ books, movies, TV shows to give our audience a better picture of what brain computer interfaces are and are not. From science to science fiction, from 1641’s brain in a jar to 2021’s Rick and Morty’s memory transfer helmet.

We explore together with our audience the multitude of scenarios, use cases, form-factors of some of the most futuristic systems imagined by humans over the past 500 years to establish how close we are to those systems and try to answer THAT VERY IMPORTANT question - if you really need to get that implant tomorrow.

Learn more about the installation here: https://www.neurafutures.com/installation-cpl/

MIT Technology Review Cover Story:

‘Feet on Earth, head in the stars’

So honored to b e featured alongside my amazing colleagues from MIT Media Lab in September-October issue of MIT Technology Review!

Check the article here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/22/1076891/feet-on-earth-head-in-the-stars/

UAB Grand Rounds Talk 2023

On 08/31 The Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation held a Grand Rounds presentation, where I was an invited speaker.

Check the video recording here: https://youtu.be/svxsndmWMbE.

Momentum AI Summer Camp 2023

Truly enjoyed my time with Momentum AI 2023 summer cohort and gave a lecture about the future of brain sensing.

Learn more about the camp here (priority is given to reaching people who otherwise don’t have access to similar opportunities in computer science with no prior knowledge in CS/AI): https://momentumai.org

AI in Youth Mental Health Panel

Enjoyed being part of Applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Youth Mental Health Treatment: Benefits vs. Risks panel, hosted by the Steinberg Institute, in partnership with The Child Mind Institute (CMI) and DHCS on a project aimed at better understanding the use of technology in mental health education, support and treatment for youth in California.  

BRAIN CAPITAL INNOVATION SUMMIT

Enjoyed being part of AI and Brain Health panel during Brain Capital Innovation Summit!

Learn more about the event here: https://www.broadreach-global.com/braincapital

Config 2023 - Figma’s annual conference

Truly enjoyed last week in San Francisco speaking at Config 2023 - Figma’s annual conference, making new friends, meeting all amazing speakers, attendees and Figma's team!

Watch the video of my talk to learn more on designing next-gen brain computer interfaces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MssXWsvgRyM

Learn more about Config here: https://config.figma.com

BCI Meeting 2023

It was great to catch with friends and make new ones at BCI Meeting 2023! I was part of BCI state-of-the-art: Demonstrations of BCIs prototypes workshop co-organized the BCI Movie Night!

Learn more about the event here: https://bcisociety.org/bci-meeting/

HUMANS Project launch to ISS!

The four-person Axiom Space crew flew to space on May 21, 2023 in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft atop its Falcon 9 rocket to participate in the mission, including working and living on the orbiting laboratory to implement a full manifest of science, outreach, and commercial activities, including a live streaming of our HUMANS project - a nanowafer, carrying messages in more than 64 languages from over 80 countries.

Learn more about the project here: https://humans.mit.edu

Speaker @ BCI Spring School 2023

I gave a talk at BCI Spring School 2023 on Wearables and future applications.

More info about the event here: https://www.gtec.at/spring-school-2023/

New Project: Ddog

Check our new project, Ddog: The World’s First Brain-Controlled Spot Robot!

Video of the project here.

In-depth overview of the project here.

Augmenting Brains 2022: All lectures available!

All lectures from my first edition of Augmenting Brains conference are now available online!

Check them out here!

Talk on BCI+AI for an advanced age @ Körber-Stiftung, Hamburg, Germany

Talk @IVRHA 2023

I gave a talk ’Brain Sensing and XR: Healthcare applications and beyond’ during 7th Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Global Symposium.

Learn more about the conference here.

Lecture @MAS City Sci-fi class

The Future of Interface Workshop Panel

I was excited to present our work ‘IMPROVING AND OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE FOR LONG DURATION SPACEFLIGHT USING WEARABLE PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSING’ during NASA HRP IWS Meeting 2023.

Check the webpage of the event here.

MIT Museum After Dark Event 2023

The Economist video

I am excited to be part of this film by The Economist featuring my work on brain sensing - AttentivU with NASA, Brain Switch - for patients with ALS as well as NeuraFutures project - all carried out at MIT Media Lab.

Invited Lecture by Lisa Joy

I was extremely honored to host Lisa Joy, the screenwriter, producer and director behind Westworld, The Peripheral, Reminiscence and more for an invited lecture at MIT Media Lab on 12/14/2022: 

“DESIGNING THE FUTURE: A Liberal Arts Major’s Guide to Putting the Science in Science Fiction.” 

Check this link for more information and details.

Check the video of the talk here: https://www.media.mit.edu/events/invited-lecture-lisa-joy-nolan/

Augmenting Brains 2022

I created, curated and organized Augmenting Brains conference, which took place on December 9, 2022.

‘Augmenting Brains' is an all-day, in-person conference dedicated to the discussion of the future of brain sensing.

We covered a variety of topics, including: living implants, memory fabrication, holograms, dreams and more.

Also included were demos and inspiration stations of dream experiences, and other brain-computer interfaces.

We had a deep dive together with our speakers and audience about the multitude of current use cases and form-factors, as well as the future ones.

Additionally, we covered topics such as: hardware, healthtech, entertainment, wellbeing, ethics, and legislation.

In addition to world renowned scientists from the Media Lab and larger MIT community , I was extremely excited to host speakers and guests all in-person from different institutions around the world with different backgrounds:

Prof. Pattie Maes – MIT Media Lab; Media Arts and Sciences;

Prof. Elizabeth F. Loftus – UCI School of Social Ecology; Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science;

Dr. Nathan Whitmore – MIT Media Lab;

Theresa Vaughan, BA, National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies;

Prof. Kacy Cullen, University of Pennsylvania;

Steven Kane, producer, Halo.

Please visit the website for registration and more details: https://ab.media.mit.edu or https://www.media.mit.edu/events/augmenting-brains/

Book Feature: Superpower?: The Wearable-Tech Revolution

New Paper

New paper is out!

Kosmyna, N., Balyan, A., Hauptmann, E. (2023). Decoding Visual Imagery Using EEG/EOG Glasses: A Pilot Study. In: Arai, K. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2022, Volume 2. FTC 2022 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 560. Springer, Cham.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18458-1_29

New Paper

New paper is out!

Kosmyna, N., Balyan, A., Hauptmann, E. (2023). Target Speaker Detection with EEG/EOG Glasses: A Pilot Study. In: Arai, K. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2022, Volume 2. FTC 2022 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 560. Springer, Cham.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18458-1_30

CreatedBy Festival 2022, Boston Children’s Museum

My amazing team of students including Amie Tian and Zoey Yan, was present at CreatedBy Festival, to showcase some of brain sensing projects and prototypes, including the Thinking Cap.

Learn more about the festival here: https://createdbyfestival.org

La fête de la Science 2022, Poitiers, France

Merci à l'université de Poitiers de m'avoir invité à participer à la fête de la science le 14 et le 15 Octobre 2022.

J'ai emmené une demo d'un robot BB8 contrôle par la pensée.

A lire ici : https://sciences-et-societe.univ-poitiers.fr/luniversite-de-poitiers-fete-la-science/

Mind The Progress 2022, Hamburg, Germany

I was an invited keynote speaker and gave a talk about the fiction and science of brain sensing in Hamburg, on October 1, 2022. I have also traveled together with my collaborator Rinako Sonobe, to bring to Hamburg a travel version of our installation ‘NeuraFutures’.

Learn more about Mind the Progress 2022 here: https://mindtheprogress.de

Learn more about NeuraFutures @Mind the Progress here: https://www.neurafutures.com/installation-hamburg/

BCI & NEUROTECH MASTERCLASS MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND 1.0

I gave a talk at BCI Masterclass hosted by g.tec on Assessing attention, stress and cognitive load in XR using brain sensing on September 26, 2022.

Learn more about the event here: https://www.gtec.at/bci-neurotech-masterclass-massachusetts-and-rhode-island-1-0/

Check the video of my talk here.

Cambridge Science Festival: Oct 3 - Oct 9, 2022

Check out our lineup of activities to learn more about fiction and science of brain sensing:

10/5-10/8: Guided tours of our installation featuring a 500 retrospective of real and sci-fi brain sensing devices;

10/5: Lecture on fiction and reality of mind reading;

10/9: Live demo of robot control using your brain activity.

Book your (free) tickets here: https://calendly.com/neurafutures

Learn more about the project here: www.neurafutures.com

New Media: Quotidien, TMC (in French)

NEW PROJECT: Feedback for mv-ASD*

The aim of the project is to leverage ongoing studies to characterize and describe the locus of communication differences in individuals with mv-ASD, focusing on analysis of speech production during receptive and expressive language tasks while measuring attention and cognitive load of the subjects.

Check out the page of the project here.

*Project funded by SIMONS Foundation.

The environmental conditions of spaceflight pose psychological risks for astronauts. Check out how brain sensing can help here - Personalized Performance-Optimization Platform (P-POP) for Space Exploration.

*Project sponsored by NASA.

Speaker @ AWE 2022

NEW PROJECT: NEURAFUTURES

Speaker @ BCI Spring School 2022

Panel @CHI 2022

New Paper

PRESENTER @ATIA 2022

PRESENTER @SPIE AR/VR/MR 2022

New Editorial

ActuIA Dec 2021-March 2022

L'émission spéciale "Tout s'explique" - 20 ans

New Paper

Check our new paper on: ‘A Pilot Study of Using Brain-Computer Interfaces in Classrooms for Promoting Formal Educational Activities’ https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-89912-7_46

New Paper

New Paper

Interview: Le Management n297, aout 2021

Le magazine français Le Management n297 parle de mes travaux sur la maison intelligente contrôlée par la pensée.

Le magazine français La Recherche n565 (Avril/Juin 2021) parle d’AttentivU.

BCI Meeting 2021: ““Toward an international consensus on user characterization and BCI outcomes in settings of daily living”

Please join us on Tuesday, June 8, 2021 for a workshop for BCI Meeting 2021 on exploring directions “Toward an international consensus on user characterization and BCI outcomes in settings of daily living”.

BCI Meeting 2021: “Brain-Computer Interfaces for human enhancement”

Please join us on Monday, June 7, 2021 for a workshop for BCI Meeting 2021 on “Brain-Computer Interfaces for human enhancement”.

Robotics+Care Mashup

I gave a talk about my work in brain sensing for assistive care during the Robotics + Care Mashup, which brings together academics, care providers and technologists to develop solutions for assisted living. Check the video here.

l’ADN

French newspaper l’ADN included myself among other women researchers to follow in artificial intelligence space, check the article here (in French).

AXSChat 2021

Check out the video from AXSChat 2021, when I am talking about brain sensing, the use case of accessibility and different privacy and ethical challenges surrounding the data collection of one’s brain activity.

CHI’2021

New video talk is out: “The Thinking Cap: Fostering Growth Mindset Of Children By Means Of Electroencephalography And Perceived Magic of Harry Potter Universe.” N. Kosmyna , C. Scheirer, P. Maes. 2021.

Learn more here.

SPIE AR/VR/MR 21

New video talk is out: "Making use of XR: from Gaming at Home to ICUs at Hospitals to fight COVID-19", Proc. SPIE 11764, SPIE AVR21 Industry Talks II, 1176414 (8 April 2021).

Check it here: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2597481

GAAD 2021 @ATOS

Excited to be part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 20th 2021, and have a conversation between Atos CTO Sophie Proust about brain sensing and how it can help improve the lives of people. More details via this link: https://atos.net/en/events/gaad-2021-at-atos

CHI 2021

Excited to present our new paper “The Thinking Cap: Fostering Growth Mindset Of Children By Means Of Electroencephalography And Perceived Magic of Harry Potter Universe.” at CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ‘2021.

This work was done in collaboration with Cassie Scheirer and Pattie Maes.

Check the paper (open access pdf) as well as the video presentation here.

SPIE AR/VR/XR 2021

Excited to give a talk on “Making use of XR: from Gaming at Home to ICUs at Hospitals to fight COVID-19” for SPIE AR/VR/XR 2021. Join as on March 30, 2021, 3pm PT.

Wearable devices like XR glasses and headsets can support medical interventions and prevent the progression of the diseases like dementia, and support patients suffering from ALS, anxiety or depression. Augmenting such headsets with sensors that capture brain activity, heart rate variability or skin conductivity can give access to discovering new biomarkers. These biomarkers help modelling, simulating, and finally offering novel datasets with physiological modalities recorded over extended periods of time on an everyday basis. Moreover, patients are often older adults, frail and reluctant to travel for complex exams in hospitals. Hence remotely deployed wearable systems offer a promising alternative to current practices. An ongoing COVID-19 pandemic only added to the burden of these patients and confirmed a need to accelerate the deployment of such systems for pre-clinical and clinical trials. In this talk we will discuss several examples of these systems as well as touching upon the use cases beyond healthcare.

AXSChat

Join me on March 23, 2021, 4PM EST LIVE on Twitter for a live Q&A following my discussion with AXSChat founders about using Brain-Computer Interfaces as an assistive tool.

BCI Meeting 2021

Excited to be co-organising 2 workshops for BCI Meeting 2021! One workshop is on “Brain-Computer Interfaces for human enhancement” and another one is exploring directions “Toward an international consensus on user characterization and BCI outcomes in settings of daily living”.

Brains@Play

Happy to be on the team of judges for Brains@Play, 2021! Looking forward to checking game ideas and scenarios the participants come up with!

The Brains and Games Competition (BGC) is an international design fiction competition seeking creative ideas for brain-controlled multiplayer games. The BGC is open to anyone in the world—including, but not limited to, children, adults, schools, families, youth groups, students, scientists, engineers, and academics.

BCI Un-Conference

I was invited to be a part of the round table on “Commercial perspectives for BCI technologies” for the 2nd BCI Un-Conference,

To the general public, brain-computer interfaces have long been known mainly as a subject of science fiction. In the recent years, however, neurotechnology has become a trending topic, a development which is reflected in the growing number of companies active in BCI research. As the field grows, it is important to recognise both the potential and possible pit-falls of commercialisation. During this mini-symposium, representatives of leading neurotechnology companies will discuss the commercial perspectives of BCIs for both medical and consumer applications, ethical implications of neurotechnology and the obstacles in the way of widespread BCI use.

SPIE Preview Week 2021

I was invited to be a part of the round table on “Is the Pandemic Accelerating or Putting a Dent Into XR Adoption?” for SPIE Photonics West: Preview Week, Jan 28, 2021. Check the video here.

Atos

I had a pleasure of opening Atos Scientific Moonshot Series, for their first edition ever! I had great time and passionate discussions with Atos Scientific Community about the emergence of the “Internet of Bodies”, Nov 24, 2020.

TIC Talk @LIG

I talked to TIC Talk @ Informatics Laboratory of Grenoble, my alma mater, about my work on Brain-Computer Interfaces, included but not limited to pros and cons of invasive (implants) and non-invasive solutions (headsets) and more. Check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or other platforms of your choice here, Nov 14, 2020.

Le Monde

French newspaper Le Monde has featured the portrait of Nataliya as well as her scientific journey, her work on Brain-Computer Interfaces and ethical AI. Check it here, Sep 30, 2020.

SIDO 2020

Nataliya gave a virtual presentation for SIDO 2020, Sep 3, 2020 which took place in Lyon, France about her recent updates on brain-computer interfaces and cognitive augmentation. Nataliya talked about a pair of glasses to improve performance and measure fatigue; recent advancements in AR/VR and brain sensing; her work on fostering growth mindset in school children and finally a pilot study with ALS patients. Check the video here.

MITxTalk

Nataliya gave MITxTalk on February 13, 2020 about lessons Learned from using physiological sensing in learning environments.

ACM IDC

New paper accepted to ACM IDC 2020! Learn about the project here!

SPIE AR/VR/MR

Nataliya gave a talk during SPIE AR/VR/MR event at Moscone Center in SF, Feb 2-4,2020 about my recent advancements in AR/VR and brain sensing. Check the video here.

Napoleons Winter 2020 Summit

Nataliya gave a talk during Napoleons Winter 2020 Summit about brain-computer interfaces and cognitive augmentation and AttentivU project.

Le Monde

French newspaper Le Monde has featured a set of articles in December 2019-January 2020 about scientists and their ideation/creativity process. One of the articles was featuring myself and my inspirational places. Check it here.