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Neural Correlates of Human Performance in Operational Settings

Friday, March 20, 2020

2:00 PM-3:30 PM

BIOMED Special Seminar

Title:
Neural Correlates of Human Performance in Operational Settings

Speaker:
Kurtulus Izzetoglu, PhD
Associate Research Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems
Drexel University

Details:
Wearable neurotechnologies that provide measures of cognitive functioning, as well as measures of stress, fatigue, or emotion in actual field settings, have gained increasing importance over the last two decades. From the fields of aerospace to healthcare, there are numerous unmet needs that can be addressed by properly adapting these technologies and methodologies. Designing optimized training curriculum and personalized scenarios derived from measures of expertise development through neurophysiological metrics are just a few examples illustrating a potential role of these technologies.

Traditionally, behavioral measures and subjective metrics have been used to address underlying cognitive factors associated with the performance outcomes of the operators in safety critical systems. Such methods are convenient and cost-effective, but suffer from the assumption that the underlying competencies are responsible for the particular behaviors, and hence, neither specific nor reliable. With the advances in wearable technologies, additional performance analytics directly driven from the brain can be continuously obtained in real operational settings. Hence, functional neuromonitoring with concurrent behavioral and subjective measures can provide insights on closing the gap between cognition and behavior involved in skill development and decline in performance outcomes. All of these efforts can ultimately bring us closer towards establishing and maintaining safe and effective performance.

This presentation will introduce key research studies and findings on cognitive areas of interest and neural correlates of changes in performance due to varying task load and expertise levels within real-life contexts. Future trends in functional brain imaging and research ideas will also be presented in relation to implementing such measures and integrated systems in actual operational settings.

Biosketch:
Kurtulus Izzetoglu, PhD, earned his doctorate from Drexel University in 2008. He has a background in both electrical and biomedical engineering, coupled with experience in developing and adopting highly portable optical brain imaging systems for field use in applications ranging from the healthcare to aerospace domain. His current research projects focus on the integration of biosensors for personalized training in safety critical tasks; brain-in-the-loop studies to improve human autonomy teaming and training, both in clinical (e.g., nurse and surgeon training) and in aviation (e.g., autonomous systems); and effects of immersive VR manipulative interventions on learning. Dr. Izzetoglu and his students are also interested in research focusing on sensor and algorithm development for sedation monitoring; point-of-care monitoring in prolonged field care including cerebral edema and local tissue oximetry; blood flow measures for hemorrhage assessment and management; and investigation of biomarkers for evaluation of cerebral vascular reactivity in traumatic brain injury.
 
Dr. Izzetoglu is the lead for Drexel University in two Federal Centers of Excellence (FAA’s Technical Training and Human Performance and Unmanned Aircraft Systems). He also serves on various boards and program committees, including the International Conference on Augmented Cognition / International Conference on Human – Computer Interaction; program committee member of the International Conference for Research in Air Transportation (chaired in 2016); and the International Symposium on Aviation Psychology. Dr. Izzetoglu also organized and chaired the annual meeting of the Center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance in 2018.

Contact Information

Ken Barbee
215-895-1335
barbee@drexel.edu

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Location

Bossone Research Center, Room 709, located at 32nd and Market Streets.

Audience

  • Undergraduate Students
  • Graduate Students
  • Faculty
  • Staff