Chairs of the BDBC Organization Committee – Silicon Valley

BDBC-2020 Theme: “Brain Aging”

Final round:  Saturday, 5 December, 2020

Silicon Valley and Los Angeles Sections, California, USA

Hosting Chairs: Joseph Wei & Nan Chu

1^st Place Speakers from Boston, Russia & Taiwan, respectively, are invited to compete again, with invited participants .

Program for the Finale of BDBC -2020, 9:00 – 13:30 (US Pacific Time Zone) (click on text in blue to access the presentation content)

9:00 – 9:15
Nan Chu (IEEE Brain Representative), USA
Joseph Wei (IEEE Santa Clara Valley Representative), USA
“Introduction”

9:15 – 9:45
Keynote – Yuan Luo, Division of Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging (NIA), USA
Topic – “Neurotechnology for Aging Brain – Funding and Resources from NIA”

Abstract: A National goal to fight against Alzheimer’s is to prevent and develop treatment for Alzheimer Disease (AD) by 2025. To achieve this goal, NIH established implementation milestones, one of them is to enabling technology for AD and related dementias. In the past 5 years, NIA received triple increase in research budget, the overall appropriation in FY 2020 reached $3.2Billion for AD research. This keynote will share with you some NIA funding opportunities in the technology space, the current challenges, as well as the available resources to promote open science research that has large impact on aging brain.

Dr. Yuan Luo is a Program Director of the Clinical Interventions and Diagnostics branch in the Division of Neuroscience at NIA. She oversees the Division’s technology portfolio, career development and Fellowship programs, and initiatives on plasma biomarkers. Before coming to NIA, Dr. Luo was a Scientific Review Officer at the Center for Scientific Review managing the Emerging Technology and Training in Neuroscience study sections. She also served as a member of multiple trans-NIH committees. Dr. Luo received her BS and MS from Peking University in China. After obtained Ph.D. in Neuroscience from SUNY Upstate Medical University, she then completed two postdoctoral fellowships at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. Prior to joining NIH in 2010, Dr. Luo spent more than 10 years as a NIH-funded principal investigator and an Associate Professor at The University of Southern Mississippi, and the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Her laboratory research interest was on neuroprotection in relation to aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

9:45 – 12:00
BDBC Presentations: Winners from Preliminary Runs and Invited Teams
Judges: Joaquin Anguera – Univiversity of California- San Francisco, USA
Rhoda Au – Boston University, USA
Seth Elkin-Frankston – Army Research, USA
Yuan Luo – National Institute of Health, USA
Vijaya Kolachalama, Boston University, USA
9:45 – 10:12
BDBC- Taiwan, Team MINE Professor Brain, National Central University
Topic: “Utilizing Deep Learning Model to Predict Brain Age for Alzheimer’s
Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients”
10:12 – 10:39
BDBC- Boston, Team Pokemon Brain – University of Missouri-Kansas City,
Topic: “Improving deep learning performance using transfer learning to
Predict Early Stages of Alzheimer in ADNI dataset“
10:39 – 11:06
BDBC- Saint Petersburg, Team i-Pavlovian, The Pavlov Institute of Physiology,
Russian Academy of Sciences
Topic: “Identifying age and cognitive impairment based on EEG data“
11:06 – 11:33
SPCN-2020, Team MTLNeuro, S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy, Saint
Petersburg, Russia
Topic: “Functional Connectivity of Neural Networks and Cognitive Status in
Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease“
11:33 – 12:00
SPCN-2020, Team Visual Physiology, National Academy of Sciences, Karayev
Institute of Physiology, Azerbaijan
Topic: “Neurophysiology Effects on Alzheimer’s Disease Rehabilitation by Safron and
Curcuma Longa”
12:00 – 13:15
Panel – Moderator: Troy McDaniel, Arizona State University, USA
Justin Yerbury, University of Wollongong, Australia
Rebecca Monteleone, University of Toledo, OH, USA
Katina Michael, Arizona State University, USA
Theme – “Codesigning with the End-user: An Emerging Neurotechnological Research Paradigm!”

Abstract: The development and application of neurotechnologies for the conditions of aging – from agerelated memory loss to neurodegenerative conditions – have accelerated at a rapid pace in recent years due in part to cybernetic advancements in practice. In this keynote, presented by three scholars with diverse personal, academic, and activist positions relating to disability, we will tackle the critical questions of accessibility, usability, and desirability of increasingly high-tech neurological interventions. We will consider the value of technologies modifying environments as opposed to bodies, the experiential expertise of people living with disability and chronic disease, the disparities in access to assistive technologies, and the challenges and possibilities of co-design ‘with users’ as opposed to ‘for users’. We close by advocating for creative technological, political, and social approaches that center both the needs and desires of intended users.

12:05 – 12:25
1^st Speaker: Justin Yerbury, Topic: “Living with Motor Neurone Disease.”
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/chzbcuzgol43f36/AABF-17nufQ4DJWNGD-ovGyra?dl=0

Justin Yerbury is a Professor in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Wollongong. Yerbury’s Lab focuses on the understanding of the molecular processes underpinning the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) with a particular emphasis on protein misfolding, protein aggregation and inclusion formation. The team that Justin leads is part of the Proteostasis and Disease Research Centre at the University of Wollongong and is housed in the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute. Yerbury was diagnosed with MND himself in 2016 but continues to research

12:25 – 12:50
2^nd Speaker: Rebecca Monteleone, Topic: “Leveraging Expertise as Experience in Design”

Abstract:

In this section, Dr. Monteleone will discuss the social, political, and ethical implications of research for rather than with, highlighting issues of mismatched priorities, usability, and affordability as barriers to access. She will offer examples of the experiential knowledge of people with disabilities – especially those experiencing multiple marginalizations – being leveraged in both formal and informal design practices, arguing for a broader and more inclusive definition for research and design expertise.

Rebecca Monteleone is an Assistant Professor of Disability and Technology at the University of Toledo. Her work focuses on the experiential expertise of people with disabilities in the design and use of everyday, medical, and assistive technologies. She has earned recognition as a Fulbright Scholar, Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the National Academy of Engineering, and an NSF IGERT Fellow.

12:50 – 13:15
3^rd Speaker: Katina Michael, Topic: “Empowering the End-User in the Development
and Operation of Brain Implant Technologies: The Case for Co-Design”
Slides,chats:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/chzbcuzgol43f36/AABF-17nufQ4DJWNGD-ovGyra?dl=0

Abstract: Co-designing brain implants with end-users means that the end-user is not simply “participating” in the biomedical development process, they are integral to defining the requirements and design of the implant, and then providing qualitative feedback related to usability. Once the device is embedded in the end-user’s body and the device is in the clinical testing phase or operation, communications between the supplier and end-user must remain open, beyond the quantitative data gathered from the implant automatically. Thus co-design emphasizes that in this context implant recipients work hand-in-hand with biomedical developers, engineers, and associated stakeholders to build more robust products. When end-users are ignored, there are demonstrated examples that they take matters into their own hands. We focus here on the need for open source code, consumer protection, access to the embedded device and its corresponding data streams, among other issues.

Katina Michael is a professor at Arizona State University, holding a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and School of Computing, Informatics and Decisions Systems Engineering. She is also the director of the Society Policy Engineering Collective (SPEC) and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. Katina is a senior member of the IEEE
and a Public Interest Technology advocate who studies the social implications of technology. She is the Senior Editor of the socio-economic impact section in IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine and was the editor in chief of the award-winning IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. In 2019 she took on the role of working group chair for the IEEE P2089 standard. In 2017, she received the Brian M. O’Connell SSIT
Distinguished Service Award. Katina Michael received her PhD, Master’s in Transnational Crime Prevention from the Law School at the University of Wollongong, and Bachelor of Information Technology from the University of Technology Sydney.

13:15 – 13:30
Awards
 BDBC Finale Awards
• 1^st Place: Team Pokemon Brain – University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA
Topic: “Improving deep learning performance using transfer learning to
Predict Early Stages of Alzheimer in ADNI dataset“
• 2^nd Place: Team i-Pavlovian, The Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy
of Sciences
Topic: “Identifying age and cognitive impairment based on EEG data“
 Acknowledgment of Impactful Contributors to BDBC, 2017 ~ 2020
• Prof. Joaquin Anguera (JA in photo below), University of California-San Francisco; for
his gracious and dedicated offering of Keynote, Tutorials, and Judging in various events
including BDB Special Track in ICCE, BDB-Xian and BDB-Boston in 2018, and BDBC-
2020.
• Prof. Jinchang Ren (JR in photo below), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland,
UK; for his tireless effort serving as a judge in BDB-Glasgow 2017 and BDBC-Taiwan
2020, most proudly his organization of BDB-X’ian 2018, which drew the largest BDB
audience numbered near 100.

• Prof. Yuri Shelepin (YS in photo below), I. P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia; for his relentless support of BDB since
its inception in 2017, his decades of genuine devotion in neuroscience research and
education following I.P. Pavlov’s footsteps, an international scholar for integrating
video technology, vision and communication into brain research.
• Prof. Konstantin Glasman (KG in photo below), Saint Petersburg State University on
Films and Television; for his Initiation of BDB Challenge at SPCN-2017, Producer of
IEEE-TV videos about Brain Initiative/BDB Keynotes, Panels, Tutorials, and Interviews.

 Closure of BDBC-2020