O Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience (IIN-ELS) It is an important national center for the training of qualified human resources in the areas of neuroscience and neuroengineering. Only in the Program Master's in Neuroengineering of the Institute entered 54 students since the beginning of activities in 2013. This has drawn the attention of medical equipment companies and research in this area. Recently, two of them participated in IIN-ELS activities, in which they shared experiences with students. This is a way of enriching the training of a professional who may become an entrepreneur in the future.

The first of them was at the IIN-ELS, in Macaíba (RN), on November 24, 2017. The director of the Business Unit of boston scientific company, Carlos Figueiredo, presented the lecture: “Professionals in the Neuromodulation Industry“.

Figueiredo, with 15 years of experience in the area of implantable medical devices in cardiology and neurology, showed the IIN-ELS students the career opportunities and the professional requirements desired by the medical device industry. As it is a highly specialized branch, he stressed the importance of training beyond higher education, and personal motivation.

The presentation also included advances in the technology of pacemakers and neuromodulation devices, which in recent years have drastically reduced in size and expanded their functionality and battery life. Thanks to this technological development, thousands of people can have a better quality of life, even with a cardiac or neurological alteration. Something hard to imagine a few decades ago.

Brain-machine interfaces and their industrial applications 

On December 15th, the IIN-ELS held the Workshop: Current and future applications of non-invasive and invasive BCIs. The focus of this event was the brain-machine interface, a type of system that translates electrical brain activity into control signals for numerous applications and tools that help people with severe disabilities or disabilities to communicate and improve their quality of life.

During the Workshop, the representative of the Austrian company g.tec medical engineering, Alexander Lechner, presented advances in research and applications with brain-machine interface aimed at the field of rehabilitation. An example of this was the system recoveriX, created by the company for training people with cerebrovascular accident (CVA). Professionals use Electroencephalography (EEG) to capture electrical signals from the patient's brain when he intends to move his arm. Electrodes installed on the limb paralyzed by the stroke electrically stimulate the muscle, causing the arm to move based on the brain command captured by the system.

Next, the biomedical engineering student at Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Vitor Hazin, spoke about the beginning of his experience with brain-machine interface, using an orthosis controlled by the electrical signal of the brain or muscle for rehabilitation in stroke. This college project motivated him to undertake and create the start up Neurobot. Hazin presented products and projects that in a short time began to yield positive results. A good incentive for students in this area on how to transform scientific knowledge into innovation.