Samir Menon
Computer Science
Bio-X SIGF Fellow 2011/2012
Colella Family Fellow
Profs. Oussama Khatib (Computer Science) and Kwabena Boahen (Bioengineering)

The ability to coordinate muscles and resolve inter-task conflicts is fundamental to human motor control and underlies even simple motions like holding a cup with a hand and flipping a switch with the same arm’s elbow. Samir is using insights from humanoid robotic control theory to predict how the brain coordinates multiple tasks and is using functional magnetic reso-nance imaging to identify the brain regions responsi-ble. His work promises to help target rehabilitation for neurological disorders as well as improve how neural prosthetics decode the brain’s motor activity.