Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Cognitive NeuroEngineering

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research. San Jose State University and University of California, Davis are partnering with Lawrence Livermore National Labs to plan for a potential Engineering Research Center in Cognitive Neuroengineering. Cognitive NeuroEngineering is the next step in the evolution of human interactions with machines. Today, machines are poised to make this important leap: from interfacing with our peripheral nervous system using sight, touch, and sound to interfacing directly with our central nervous system to usher in a world in which everyone will command computers, household machines and other assistive devices simply by thinking about what they want to do. It is in our nation?s interest to be at the forefront of this new engineering discipline and to addresses the cognitive implications of directly interfacing machines with the central nervous system. To promote the progress of science and ensure the nation's health, prosperity and welfare we will develop a diverse team that can effectively address the mission of the proposed ERC and create a Center that has the greatest opportunity for socioeconomic impact. To accomplish this, this project will engage a broad range of stakeholders, from scientist and engineers to clinicians and end-users to improve opportunities for better understanding and trust between these communities. In addition, the specialized knowledge that each community brings will be leveraged to create synergistic partnerships that advances the scientific, educational, and ethical aspects of this new field. Recommendations for national workforce development and any changes to our regulatory environment will be made. There are three major expected benefits of this proposal. The first is to optimize diversity of the stakeholder community to maximize the potential societal benefit of this new field of Cogntive Neuroengineering. The second is improved team dynamics to empower stakeholders to contribute regardless of status and power differences. The third is more effective leadership by utilizing evidence based research in team science. Just as Human Factors Engineering has grown into Cognitive Engineering, Cognitive NeuroEngineering goes beyond current neuroprosthetic applications and addresses the cognitive implications of directly interfacing machines with the central nervous system. This potential ERC represents one of the most important new challenges of the future of work at the human-technology frontier. Using team-based science, this ERC will embrace convergent research and address the complexity of interfacing with the central nervous system and its impact on cognition. Novel data analytic approaches will be developed, a greater understanding of human cognition will be achieved and innovative neurotechnologies will be created that are expected to impact society beyond the goals of the proposed ERC. To develop the proposed ERC in Cognitive Neuroengineering, this planning grant will be used to 1) enable a series of planning meetings that culminate in three workshops, 2) travel between the partner institutions and to relevant stakeholder communities for first hand exchanges of partner resources and 3) engage a profession facilitator in strategic planning as well as two experts, one in convergent science and the other in the team science. The three workshops revolve around our four Objectives. The first Objective is to identify strengths and weaknesses of our ERC. The second Objective is to identify opportunities for deployment of our proposed engineering system and opportunities for diversity. The third Objective is to fully develop the team and stakeholder community using the latest techniques of team science, including improving our ability to articulate the societal impacts. The fourth Objective is to write the ERC proposal. This planning grant will have the greatest impact on the formulation of a set of strategic objectives and metrics for our ERC. This will allow us to consider carefully and more deeply understand the societal impact of our ERC. Since groups are more likely to engage when they identify with the societal impact of a project, this will improve stakeholder engagement. In addition, the activities are expected to develop new ways of thinking to ease the significant communication and philosophical difference among stakeholders and facilitate the transdisciplinary nature of the ERC whose constituents have significant communication and philosophical differences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.