Three students and one graduate from the Masters in Neuroengineering at the Santos Dumont Institute were approved for international research programs in June. Students will carry out research internships at universities in Canada, from the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (Program for Emerging Leaders in the Americas, in free translation), while the graduate of the institution was approved to attend a doctorate at the University of Haifa, in Israel.
O Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program was created by the Government of Canada in 2009, with the aim of supporting the development of the next generation of leaders in the Americas, also bringing them closer to Canadian educational institutions. The program lasts approximately six months and offers scholarships to cover the costs of students' stay in the country.
ISD students Gerôncio Oliveira, Emilland Alves and Larissa Viana were selected to develop their activities, respectively, in Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, linked to the University of Quebec, and at the Metropolitan University of Toronto.
“This is where I really got into it.laughs at the search. There is a Larissa before and after ISD. I am sure that I can only grow even more with this experience and that it will greatly enrich both my professional and personal side.”, says Biomedical Engineer and Master's student in Neuroengineering Larissa Viana.
At the Metropolitan University of Toronto, Larissa will study signal processing methods for extracting features and classifying events from Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) and Signal Analysis Research (SAR), under the guidance of Professor Sri Krishnan.
Psychologist Gerôncio Oliveira and Speech Therapist Emille Alves will join the MuSAE Lab, which conducts research in the areas of Brain-Machine Interface and its applications, focusing on signal processing and deep learning. Gerôncio, who is part of the memory study laboratory at ISD, says that the experience will allow him to broaden his perspectives and skills in Neuroengineering. “Here at ISD we have access to several technologies, and that's where I learned and deepened my knowledge. It will be a different area from what I'm researching here, but it's cool because I'll be learning and understanding more about the area that I'm interested in pursuing a career”, he highlights.
For Emille, the possibility of leaving her comfort zone, getting in touch with areas and disciplines that were not part of her original training in the health area, was one of the positive points of Neuroengineering. “During the master's degree, I had contact with biological signal processing and programming, areas completely outside my comfort zone. During the exchange, I intend to study audio processing and deepen my knowledge in signal processing. I'm really excited.”
The knowledge acquired by Biomedical Cláudio Mendes during his master's degree was also important for him to obtain a Doctorate position at the University of Haifa, in Israel. There, Cláudio is going to study social decision-making in rodents, based on the Neurobiology of Social Behavior Laboratory, under the guidance of professor Shlomo Wagner. “It is very clear to me all the academic and personal knowledge I acquired in the Master. I'm going to continue the work on electrophysiology, largely using the knowledge I acquired here,” says Cláudio.
ABOUT ISD
The Santos Dumont Institute is a Social Organization linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC) and includes the Edmond and Lily Safra International Neuroscience Institute and the Anita Garibaldi Health Education and Research Center, both in Macaíba. ISD's mission is to promote education for life, forming citizens through integrated teaching, research and extension actions, in addition to contributing to a fairer and more humane transformation of Brazilian social reality.
