Student Support for the Eighth International Brain-Computer Interface Meeting

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Brain-computer interface (BCI) research explores avenues of controlling devices directly from brain signals. Thus, BCI technology is a powerful control option for neuro-prosthetic limbs, as well as a potential communication option for people with severe motor disabilities or disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brainstem stroke, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injury, who may have little or even no muscle control and therefore no means of communication with the external world. The International Brain-Computer Interface (IBCI) meeting is the flagship conference for the field. Effective BCI research requires interdisciplinary interactions involving neuroscience, psychology, engineering, mathematics, computer science, and clinical rehabilitation, and the IBCI meetings serve as critical catalysts for technology dissemination, new collaborations, and educational opportunities for students. The IBCI conferences are under the auspices of the BCI Society, and in light of the significant progress that has been made towards restoring communication and mobility the 2020 International BCI meeting will focus on emerging applications and techniques with the theme "BCIs: The Next Frontier." NSF funding will enable an additional 25 students, including undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, to participate in the conference. Student participation in previous IBCI meetings has been very fruitful; many of those students have now graduated and are prominent researchers in the BCI field. The organizers are actively working to recruit student attendees from traditionally underrepresented groups.Reflecting the growth of the field of BCI research, 400 or more participants are expected to attend this year's meeting, including investigators from at least 100 BCI research groups. All attendees commit to the entire meeting. A main objective of the conference is to give students a significant educational and professional experience in the BCI field, and to provide opportunities for them to gain depth in their specific interest areas. To these ends, and guided by feedback from a survey of 2018 IBCI attendees, the conference will include interactive events such as workshops and poster sessions along with 7 plenary keynote talks which will be complemented by research sessions and master classes, a BCI users forum as well as BCI didactics sessions, and a Women in BCI social.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.