This summer, we’ve beat our own record: in just under two weeks, 20 high-schoolers created nine projects using what is shaping up to be our most creative neuroscience kit ever!
The tool (or should we say meta-tool?) called Neuro:Bit lets you build brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that work using your body’s electrical signals. Depending on the project, you can design and 3D-print the case of a desired BMI, integrate with an existing gadget such as bluetooth headphones, or even cut the case out of cardboard. What you need are two things: a Neuro:Bit to pick up your body’s electrical signals that power the interface, and one or more Micro:Bits, the famed microcontrollers designed by Microsoft and BBC, to add more functionality.
This summer school was the first time the Neuro:Bit was let into the wild. Straight away, it demonstrated an ability to integrate different disciplines. “It’s another of our democratic tools where neuroscience overlaps with electrical engineering, physical science, math, anatomy, so you can easily inject or sprinkle neuroscience into the classroom. When you look at things that inspire people, it’s all interdisciplinary and it’s all about collaborations between individuals rather than competition,” says Alex Hatch, our product designer, inventor and roboticist.
So who are the kids who gave a whirl to Neuro:Bit this summer? They all come from Belgrade or thereabouts, and most of them had little to no prior experience with programming or building things. Yet it didn’t stop them from creating their very own BMIs with the help of several undergraduates from the University of Michigan as well as our resident scientists. “It tooks them just a few days to go from zero to making computers that do amazing stuff,” our co-founder Dr. Greg Gage points out. “Last year, we developed a whole bunch of neuroscience experiments. But this year, we decided to do something different. We’re going to use the info that comes out of the brain (through muscles, eyes, heart) and have them take that info and convert it into a creative devices. It lays on the creativity aspect.”
The kids worked in 2 separate cohorts, having only five days each to build their machines from scratch. All the projects are now getting written up in our docs repository, along with full tutorials as well as Python/Java Script codes and ready-made STL files for 3D printing. Meanwhile, here’s a foretaste of what you can expect!
It’s tested and proven: Paramedics, firefighters, police officers and other first responders are almost twice as likely to develop PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) at some point in their lives than the rest of us. Still, many of them are either unaware of it or they go on with their lives without ever reporting or treating it. Worse yet, as reports have it, they are 1.39 times more prone to suicide than others.
While heroes of our communities are busy helping others, there’s someone who thinks of them. Sofia R. De Lorenzo, a teen attending Tucson High Magnet School in Arizona, turned to science to find out if stress tolerance in first responders could actually be greater than in civilians. But her aim went beyond asking the right question and finding an answer to it. The overarching goal of her research was to spread awareness of the underreported psychological impact in first responders.
And it just so happened that her research caught the ear of many! Encouraged by her school teacher Jeremy Jonas and mentored by John Moore from the Ricoy Lab, she ran a poster presentation and penned down her findings in a research paper. A bunch of awards would ensue: the SARSEF Fair Grand Award in Behavioral and Social Sciences, APA Certificate of Achievement in Research in Psychological Science, Easterseals Blake Foundation Top Award and The Betsy Bolding Top Award.
This University of Michigan student team developed a way to control a drone with a new kind of controller…
The Braincopter Team!
We work with students of all ages — from outreach to early elementary, to hands-on demonstrations, labs, and even research with students from fifth grade to… well, grad school and beyond!
We wanted to share this novel and exciting project which is the result of a group of Aerospace Engineering students who had an exciting question: Can we fly a plane, or at least a drone, with our thoughts?
It wasn’t an easy project, but with very minimal support on our end, they were able to get a prototype up and running within just the few weeks allotted to the project!
But how does it work?
Click to view the PDF
The students took advantage of two signals that you can record using the Heart and Brain SpikerBox – First, EEG (Electroencephalograms, or brain waves) could be used to “wake up” the drone (take off / ready) by opening your eyes, or “put it to sleep” (land / standby) by closing your eyes. This works because, when you record from your occipital lobe, alpha waves are present when your eyes are closed, and “disappear” when they are open – a phenomenon which the students leveraged for their “On/Off” switch.
Then they used EOG signals (Electrooculograms, from your eyes!) to tell the drone to move in different directions depending on if you are looking up, down, left, or right. This is possible thanks to the different electrical signals recorded when you look in different directions.
They were able to do this in real time, creating a very creative control scheme that could be applied to other devices as well. The sky is the limit for the future of this project! Or maybe not just the sky… maybe space isn’t even a limit anymore for students these days!
