Faculty grants, awards, and sponsored research. Learn more.
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences is dedicated to understanding the principles and mechanisms that underlie complex behavior. The center is a state of the art, multi-disciplinary research and academic unit in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. From the microscopic level of cells and organelles to the grand scale of human interaction, our mission is to bring together multiple disciplines and backgrounds such as theoretical physics, complexity science, cognitive psychology, laboratory biology, applied mathematics and philosophy to tackle the most profound questions of science, technology, and society.
Innovating with AI: How Universities are Preparing Students for the Future l Your South Florida PBS
Researchers explored how infants act purposefully by attaching a colorful mobile to their foot and tracking movements with a Vicon 3D motion capture system.
“This finding is significant because the AI systems were not told anything about the experiment or which part of the infant’s body was connected to the mobile. What this shows is that the feet – as end effectors – are the most affected by the interaction with the mobile,” said Scott Kelso, Ph.D., co-author and Glenwood and Martha Creech Eminent Scholar in Science at the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences within FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. “In other words, the way infants connect with their environment has the biggest impact at the points of contact with the world. Here, this was ‘feet first.’” Read more.
Innovating with AI: How Universities are Preparing Students for the Future l Your South Florida PBS
Associate Professor Elan Barenholtz, Ph.D., was featured on Your South Florida PBS to discuss how the power of AI is being used to develop innovative ways to study the brain while also examining the long-term implications of AI. Barenholtz, co-founder of FAU's Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory talks about benefits of a multi-disciplinary approach to their research, and using AI for good. Watch now.
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in collaboration with FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and College of Medicine, have developed a novel biohybrid neuro-prosthetic research platform comprised of a dexterous artificial hand electrically interfaced with biological neural networks. Read more.
New study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals the moment at which a baby realizes that its movement may have purpose. See https://neurosciencenews.com/conscious-awareness-babies-agency-23936/ and Meaning from movement and stillness: Signatures of coordination dynamics reveal infant agency | PNAS
The new Neuroeconomics Graduate Certificate program aims to provide students with the tools needed to analyze, interpret, and apply neuroscientific data in order to understand real-world decisions. Learn more.
“Playing the piano requires complex and highly skilled movements, and relearning tasks involves the restoration and retraining of specific movements or skills,” said Erik Engeberg, Ph.D., senior author, a professor in FAU’s Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering within the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and a member of the FAU Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute. “Our robotic glove is composed of soft, flexible materials and sensors that provide gentle support and assistance to individuals to relearn and regain their motor abilities.” Read more.
Congratulations to Asal Nouri who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on Friday, March 24th, 2023 and will graduate at the May 2023 Commencement Ceremony at FAU with the PhD in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. Asal’s dissertation was completed under the guidance of Dr’s William Hahn and Edward Ester (University of Nevada) with Committee Members Dr’s Summer Sheremata and Elan Barenholtz and entitled “Mechanisms of Selective Attention in Working Memory, Modeled from Human’s Alpha Band Oscillations.” Following graduation Asal will begin a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr’s Chad Forbes and Susan Schneider at FAU.
We are seeking talented scientists at the doctoral and post-doctoral levels. If you have have similar research interests and skills in relevant disciplines, please contact us.
