Ethics within B-CRATOS
Why would ethics be relevant for a project such as B-CRATOS? Don’t we simply have to do our job, pave the way to innovation and not worry about any such kind of philosophical-like questions?
Definitely not.
On the contrary, if we look closely, our project has many reasons to take ethics into consideration: new technology and its future uses, use of animals for testing, a technology that is linked to the brain, raising many questions of safety and ethics. For us, this question is of prime importance, this is why we have an External Ethics Board supervising B-CRATOS. The Board gives us guidance and helps us understand what’s at stake. These insights are crucial to design the technology, and then to implement it, and improve it!
You can take a look at this video, in which our Ethics Board Chair, Nicola Di Stefano, explains why it matters.
If you wish to learn more about ethics in the field of technology and innovation, be sure to join us on October 27th at 4pm CEST: we organise a webinar to discuss the topic. It’s free! (register)
Meet Ilangko Balasingham from NTNU
Meet Ilangko Balasingham, Professor of Medical Signal Processing and Communications at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology!
He tells us briefly about B-CRATOS and NTNU’s role in the project.
Meeting in Trondheim!
At the end of September, the B-CRATOs team was invited to hold its General meeting at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). After a long trip to Trondheim and a warm coffee, we started to work efficiently – two days of discussions and work on the project, involving a crucial testing step of the system and a slight peak of adrenaline when we were told that the suitcase with the precious material was caught in the airport troubles and thus, delayed.
This meeting was a very fruitful, as we discussed the next steps of the B-CRATOS project and reviewed the progresses accomplished so far (not to praise ourselves, but to get experience and better prepare for the upcoming adventures ;)) It was also the occasion to have the sound and wise advises of our Advisory Board members.
Everyone very focused
Our global work is advancing, and we are happy to have a community around us, (you, visitor of our website! and Social networks), people with expectations towards the continuation of the project and what it will bring to science, everything encouraging us to work harder.
A bit of stress. Is it working…?
Since we don’t meet so often, each meeting is a bit stressful as we hold testing session for the results of different work packages to work in combination together and can’t really be sure it will work just like the theory dictates. And if it doesn’t work – there is not so much time to fix things up, so it is indeed really stressful. Although we always manage…!
Our bags full of great memories and working notes, we headed back to our usual workplace. Thanks a lot to our colleagues from NTNU for organising the meeting and welcoming us in the “North”. Next time we will meet, the project will be at a new level, and that is even more motivating.
Meet Dr. Ali Khaleghi, team leader of the Wireless Powering and Communication team!
In a short interview, Dr. Ali Khaleghi, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) introduces himself and his role in B-CRATOS. What is his team working on? What kind of techniques do they use in the project? What are some big challenges now for the Wireless Powering and Communication team?
Find out in the video!
We hope you enjoy meeting our colleagues. We will work on more interview videos to present both our teammate and the progresses in B-CRATOS. Indeed, it’s always good to see the faces behind all the big work made and ahead of us.
More videos >> here
Register now for the September Summer School: “Next Generation Wireless Brain Machine Interface”!
The B-CRATOS team prepares a summer school for Master students, PhD students and Post-Docs desiring to strengthen and deepen their knowledge in the field of Brain-Communication Interface, Robotics, Neurotechnology…
Join us in Trondheim at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) on September 27-29 for three days of lectures, visits and demo! We also plan on having team challenges and a Poster session for you to share your work with other students (and yes, there will be awards ;-)).
Our lecturers are all experts in their field, and we will have the chance to have lectures by Prof. John Donoghue and Prof. Paul Meaney!
Prof. John Donoghue is the H.M. Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University. He is known for translational research in human brain computer interfaces to restore movement for people with paralysis (known as ‘BrainGate’, as well as for fundamental research to explain how networks of cortical neurons compute actions from plans. At Brown, he was the founding Chair of the Brown Department of Neuroscience, the founding director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science (now the Carney Institute) and the Department of Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence in Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology.
Dr Paul Meaney has extensive industrial experience from working with millimeter-wave technology at both Millitech Corporation, USA, and Alpha Industries, MA. He has been a Professor with Dartmouth College since 1997, with Chalmers University of Technology and is also the President and Co-Founder of Microwave Imaging System Technologies, Inc., Hanover. His current research interests include microwave tomography, which exploits the many facets of dielectric properties in tissue and other media, and in particular, for breast cancer imaging, where his group was the first to translate an actual system into the clinic.
We will discuss, in particular:
- Wireless power transmission,
- Signal processing and communication protocols,
- Brain computer interface,
- Intra-body communication
- Robotics,
- E-skin
If you have interest for these thematics, apply now! The selection is limited to 30 students, so that we can keep a human-sized group and discuss more efficiently during the lectures.
Discover the full programme and register here
The full price for an early pre-registration (until at least mid July) is 250€, it comprises teaching and meals. If you have any questions or special needs, feel free to contact us.
We are also thankful to our sponsor, COMSOL, a company developing mathematical modeling software that drives new breakthroughs in physics and engineering.
Webinar – 9th June – 2pm CEST – “The artificial substitution of missing hands“
Our next free webinar will take place on Zoom on June 9th at 2pm CEST. Join us for an enthralling talk on “Artificial substitution of missing hands”!
“The replacement of a missing hand by a prosthesis is one of the most fascinating challenges in rehabilitation engineering. For decades, science and engineering have tried to match the sensory and motor features of the human body, designing limbs aiming at replicating the shape and functionality of the natural counterparts. Building such incredible devices and making them wearable and intuitively controllable by people is the goal of prosthetics research.
This talk aims at providing an overview of past and present artificial prosthetic hands developed and at discussing the main design issues.”
Presentation by Dr. Marco Controzzi (Assistant Professor at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) and Dr. Francesco Clemente (Managing Director at Prensilia SRL, Affiliate Professional at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
To know more and register: Events – B-Cratos
Save the date! Summer school in Trondheim, 27-29 September
The B-CRATOs team is very excited to announce the upcoming Summer School “Next Generation Wireless Brain Machine Interface Contact“, which will be organized in Trondheim, Norway, on September 27-29 at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)!
This summer school will give you an overview of the latest trends in wireless technology for brain-machine interfaces, covering topics such as wireless power transmission, signal processing, and communication protocols, robotics, E-skin, and brain computer interface.
The participants will gain hands-on experience in designing and implementing wireless brain-machine interfaces, and will have the opportunity to interact with leading experts in the field.
We will put all the information very soon on a dedicated page. In the meantime, you can already save the date and share the great news with your network!
Newsletter 2 – progresses and upcoming challenges!
We just published the second B-CRATOS newsletter! Through a few lines (or…a long page), you can catch up with the big news and events of the past few months. We share our progress made, step by step, on the project.
In an interview, Robin Augustine, Project Coordinator, and Paul Wanda, WP leader, take a look back on the first two years of the project and question the present and the future: what are the upcoming challenges? What’s awaiting B-CRATOS teams?
As we have so much to tell you since our last newsletter, we couldn’t keep for ourselves the joy of meeting in real, which we did already twice (in Sweden and Italy), sharing not only pizzas but also fruitful discussions and live improvements on the project.
Then, we decided to tell you more about our team members, you can check their interviews to learn more about them and how they are involved in B-CRATOS.
You’ll be able to learn more about their direct work scrolling among the past webinars, that are all available online. And if you are interested in hand prostheses, you can already add to your agenda the next webinar with Dr. Marco Controzzi, in June.
Last but not least, we’ve another great news: we’re organizing a summer school in Norway, in September! We will put the programme online in the coming time, so make sure to follow us, so you don’t miss any updates!
Wishing you a good reading > Read