Hot Topics in Bioengineering Research:
Neuroengineering Panel Speakers

Richard F. ff. Weir, Ph.D.

Richard Weir is Director of the Biomechatronics Development Laboratory at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Dr Weir is also a Research Healthcare Scientist for the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL. In addition, Dr. Weir holds Research Associate Professor appointments in the Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Dr. Weir’s research interests are in the area of the mechanical design and control of artificial hand/arm replacements. Dr. Weir’s research covers all aspects of the problem ranging from neural control, mechatronic design and development, novel actuator technologies, and clinical deployment of these systems.

Patrick Rousche , Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Rousche has been an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Neurosurgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 2002. His research specialty is neural engineering, specifically the design, manufacture and testing of multichannel neural interfaces for the nervous system. His work contributes technology for a better basic science understanding of neural circuitry organization. He is also very active in the applied areas of neuroprosthetics, with the goal of functional recording or stimulating of the nervous system to create systems capable of sensory or motor rehabilitiation. He has served as a post-doctoral fellow at both the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in Manchester, England (Department of Visual Sciences and Optometry) and at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, USA (Department of Bioengineering). He received a PhD in Bioengineering in 1996 from the University of Utah working under Professor Richard A. Normann developing an implantable 100-channel silicon-based neural interface systems that is now being used in human studies.

David Mogul , Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, IIT

Dr. Mogul received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northwestern University. He did a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at the University of Chicago. He was on the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University prior to joining IIT and has served as a consultant to several pharmaceutical and medical device companies. His research focuses on brain electrophysiology from the cellular to the network level. His current research projects include investigating deep-brain stimulation for treating epilepsy, seizure prediction, and the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation for the non-invasive modulation of brain electrical activity. His research has been supported by grants from the NIH, NSF, and several private foundations.

Matthew Tresch , Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University

Matthew Tresch is an assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, with co-appointments in the departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and of Physiology.  He obtained his PhD from MIT in neuroscience and did postdoctoral work at the University of Copenhagen and at MIT.  His research examines the strategies and mechanism underlying the coordination of movement by the nervous system, focusing on the role of the spinal cord.