Alexander A. Sawchuk Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Computer Science
Education
- 2011, Doctoral Degree, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 2006, Master's Degree, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 2004, Bachelor's Degree, Engineering Science, University of Toronto
Biography
Maryam Shanechi is the Alexander A. Sawchuk Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Computer Science. She also is a member of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at USC. She is the Founding Director of the new USC Center for Neurotechnology. She joined USC as Assistant Professor in July 2014. Prior to that, she was Assistant Professor at Cornell University's ECE department in 2014. She received the B.A.Sc. degree with honors in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto in 2004 and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2006 and 2011, respectively. She held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School from 2011-2012 and at the University of California, Berkeley from 2012-2013. She has received various awards including the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, NSF CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, MIT Technology Review World's Top 35 Innovators Under 35 (TR35), Popular Science Brilliant 10, Science News 10 Scientists to Watch (SN10), ASEE's Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, One Mind Rising Star Award, a DoD joint US-UK multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) award, the DoD BARI award for US-UK collaboration on human-machine teaming, the NAE frontiers invitation, and both the NAE and NAS frontiers invitation as speaker and session chair. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and was named a Blavatnik National Awards Finalist in both 2023 and 2024.
Research Summary
Dr. Shanechi works at the interface of AI, machine learning, and dynamical systems to develop algorithmic solutions for basic and clinical neuroscience problems. She has developed closed-loop brain-computer interfaces (BCI) that decode movements from brain activity to restore lost motor function in paralysis. She has also developed a new generation of BCIs that decode mental states such as mood to enable closed-loop deep brain stimulation for treating neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression.
Awards
- 2024 IEEE Fellow
- 2024 Blavatnik National Awards Finalist
- 2023 Blavatnik National Awards Finalist
- 2022 University of Pennsylvania Rising Star Award, Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences
- 2022 One Mind Rising Star Award
- 2021 ASEE's Curtis W. McGraw Research Award
- 2020 NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2)
- 2019 ONR Young Investigator Award
- 2019 International BCI award
- 2019 Science News’ 2019 SN 10: Scientists to Watch
- 2019 University of Toronto Engineering Alumni Network’s Mid-Career Achievement Award
- 2019 USC Viterbi Junior Faculty Research Award
- 2018 IEEE Senior Member
- 2018 DoD BARI award for US-UK collaboration on human-machine teaming
- 2018 National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium – Invited Session Chair and Speaker
- 2017 National Academy of Engineering (NAE), US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium – Invited Committee Member, Session Co-Chair
- 2016 ARO Joint US-UK MURI Award
- 2015 Viterbi Early Career Chair
- 2015 Cal-BRAIN Inaugural Award
- 2015 National Academy of Engineering (NAE) FOE invitation
- 2015 NSF CAREER Award
- 2015 Popular Science Brilliant 10
- 2015 IEEE EMBC student paper award (faculty advisor to the student)
- 2014 Best paper award in Technology, Computation, and Simulation, International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS)
- 2014 MIT Technology Review Top 35 Innovators Under 35 (TR35)
- 2006 Hewlett-Packard Graduate Fellowship 2006
- 2006 National Canadian Doctoral Fellowship 2006-2009 (NSERC)
- 2004 Next Generation of Canadian Leaders Selected by the University of Toronto Magazine
- 2004 Wilson Medal in Engineering Science--Ranked first among all Engineering Science graduates at the University of Toronto
- 2004 Gold Medalist, Professional Engineers of Ontario--Ranked first among all graduates in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Toronto
- 2003 National Canadian Undergraduate Research Fellowship (NSERC)
- 2002 National Canadian Undergraduate Research Fellowship (NSERC)
