Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Brain-Machine Interfaces for Neural Rehabilitation after Stroke The brain-machine interface (BMI) technology aims to restore motor function disability in patients after stroke. This research work will contribute to the development and cross-validation of the BMI systems in Kazakhstan to improve the quality of life for disabled and motor-impaired people. It will focus on areas at the interface between engineering, robotics, neuroscience, and medicine. A physical human-robot interface will be designed and augmented with a non-invasive BMI to provide neural rehabilitation therapy for patients after stroke across a broad spectrum of impairment severity in the rehabilitation tasks. One of the key contributions of this proposed work will include: devising advanced electroencephalogram (EEG) interface methods (e.g. signal processing and machine learning algorithms) to stroke patients and developing a BMI for the control of the therapeutic robot that will improve upper and lower limb motor function, as well as to conduct clinical trials in collaboration with the local rehabilitation centers. Annually, over 49 thousand people suffer a stroke in Kazakhstan, 80% of them became wholly or partly disabled after the strokes (http://en.tengrinews.kz/health/-50-000-Kazakhstan-citizens-suffer-strokes-annually-9657/), and this research project will have a substantial impact in the engineering of novel tools for efficient stroke rehabilitation of patients locally.