Afsheen Afshar Electrical Engineering Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowships 2005/2006 Professor Krishna Shenoy (Electrical Eng.) Graduated 2008 Medical Student at Stanford University

Afsheen’s research with the Shenoy group involved the design and implementation of neural prosthetics that patients can use. He focused his efforts on the paradigm of point-to-point movements, such as those done by typing on a keyboard.

Specifically, he developed innovative computational models and algorithms that help elucidate how the brain plans and executes movement. He was concurrently working on improving the electronic infrastructure that could support an extremely fast (i.e., realtime) and accurate 'virtual keyboard' that would allow a patient to type by planning movements to desired keys at desired times. Finally, he collaborated with neurosurgeon Dr. Jaimie Henderson to apply their work to a Parkinson's Disease patient population. Afsheen hoped to bring all these avenues together to help create a real, useful prosthetic.