December (Zoom) 12/14/2022

Learning to See Again with a Bionic Eye

How can we return a functional form of sight to people who are living with incurable blindness? Despite recent advances in the development of visual neuroprostheses ("bionic eyes"), the quality of current prosthetic vision is still rudimentary and does not differ much across different technologies. Dr. Beyeler will describe his recent efforts to develop computational models to predict what implant recipients "see" when they use their devices. He will discuss the challenges people face when they need to learn to see again and will outline future steps.

Dr. Michael Beyeler, Assistant Professor, UCSB Computer Science & UCSB Psychological & Brain Sciences

Dr. Michael Beyeler directs the Bionic Vision Lab at UCSB. He received a PhD in Computer Science from UC Irvine as well as a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Prior to joining UCSB, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington, where he started working on computational models of bionic vision. He is the Associate Director of the UCSB Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior (ReCVEB) and a recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award as well as the prestigious NIH Director's New Innovator Award.