Grasping for New Technology

Tianxiao Jiang, a Ph.D. candidate studying under Dr. Nuri Ince, has decoded how the brain communicates with the hand to grasp something.  His research paper, which can be found here, was selected as a best paper at BRAININFO, which is an International Brain Conference.  After attending brain surgeries at MD Anderson hospital and studying the small, high-density electrocorticogram (ECoG), which was designed by Dr. Ince, Jiang split and annotated the data and figured out how the brain wave patterns moved when a person opens and closes their hands.

The life-changing effect of this research paves the way for a new generation of prosthetic arms that will be able to be assimilated to people as smoothly as natural limbs.  The prosthetic limbs will be able to move just because the person thinks it.  This is welcome news to the many thousands of people in the world who are affected by the loss of a limb.

We hope that Jiang will continue this research and keeping changing the world as we know it for the better!

Read the Cullen College of Engineering article HERE