The Ken Kennedy Institute's July Member of the Month, Dr. Behnaam Aazhang, J.S. Abercrombie Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Director, Rice Neuroengineering Initiative (NEI). Dr. Aazhang is a Fellow of IEEE and AAAS, and a distinguished lecturer of IEEE Communication Society. He received his B.S. (with highest honors), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1981, 1983, and 1986, respectively.
He received an Honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Oulu, Finland (the highest honor that the university can bestow) in 2017 and IEEE ComSoc CTTC Outstanding Service Award “For innovative leadership that elevated the success of the Communication Theory Workshop” in 2016. He is a recipient of 2004 IEEE Communication Society’s Stephen O. Rice best paper award for a paper with A. Sendonaris and E. Erkip. In addition, Sendonaris, Erkip, and Aazhang received IEEE Communication Society’s 2013 Advances in Communication Award for the same paper. He has been listed in the Thomson-ISI Highly Cited Researchers and has been keynote and plenary speaker of several conferences.
Dr. Aazhang's research areas include: signal and data processing with applications in understanding the dynamics of neuronal circuits and neuromodulation, cardiac signal monitoring and pacing, and detection, prediction, and prevention of security breaches in cloud computing systems
What is your favorite book?
Any book focused on history over the last 100 years.
How do you explain your research in one sentence?
Bringing engineering tools to understand how our neuronal system functions and how to restore its functionality.
What is your favorite aspect of your research?
Learning from data on how to best stimulate population of neurons.
What challenges do you see in your research that you didn't expect?
Neuronal circuits are way too complex and unpredictable.
How do you see computation and data advancing in the future?
We will be overwhelmed with the amount of data available. Computing is going to be cheaper and more readily available.
What is a favorite experience with the Ken Kennedy Institute?
Lunch hour talks by faculty.
