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  • “I-See” - EU-funded PhD position. Combining theory and neurophysiology for developing intracortical visual prostheses.
“I-See” - EU-funded PhD position. Combining theory and neurophysiology for developing intracortical visual prostheses. Optical Imaging Group

Job Description

For blind patients who cannot profit from a retinal implant, intracortical visual prostheses offer great promise. However, at the time, intracortical prostheses have had limited success, mainly because they require strong stimulation currents, which generate non-specific percepts and also bears the risk of tissue damage. We address these limitations by targeting complex response properties of neural populations in areas beyond primary visual cortex to generate more specific percepts and link electrical stimulation patterns in a closed-loop setup. Generally, our approaches shall provide further insight into brain dynamics, while exploring options for its external stimulation and the potential of interfaces to target perceptual content.


How to Apply

In case you are interested, we kindly ask you to send a detailed motivation letter, CV, transcripts and contact details of two referees, who are willing to provide a reference letter, all in a single PDF file.

Contact: PD Dr. Dirk Jancke

Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

D-44780 Bochum

Germany

email: dirk.jancke@rub.de


Requirements

Required is an excellent university degree in Biology, Medicine, Physics, or a related discipline. Successful candidates should have a strong background in neuroscience, expertise in electrophysiology, and good programming skills (Matlab/Python) applicable to complex data recordings, analysis, and mathematical concepts. The willingness to work within integrative frameworks is highly desirable. Good communication skills, creative and independent thinking, and fluent English are mandatory. The candidate may participate in the PhD program of the International Graduate School of Neuroscience (IGSN).

The Institut für Neuroinformatik (INI) is a central research unit of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. We aim to understand the fundamental principles through which organisms generate behavior and cognition while linked to their environments through sensory systems and while acting in those environments through effector systems. Inspired by our insights into such natural cognitive systems, we seek new solutions to problems of information processing in artificial cognitive systems. We draw from a variety of disciplines that include experimental approaches from psychology and neurophysiology as well as theoretical approaches from physics, mathematics, electrical engineering and applied computer science, in particular machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer vision.

Universitätsstr. 150, Building NB, Room 3/32
D-44801 Bochum, Germany

Tel: (+49) 234 32-28967
Fax: (+49) 234 32-14210