Prof. Dr. Christian Klaes

Professor Dr. Christian Klaes is a neuroscientist at the Ruhr-University in Bochum. His research focuses on Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine. He has extensive experience in neurophysiology, working with non-human primates and tetraplegic human patients. To analyse and classify neural data, he uses machine learning algorithms. His research has been funded by grants from the DFG and the European Union. Previously, he worked at the California Institute of Technology as a post-doc, focusing on clinical BCI applications. After returning to Germany, he established his research lab, funded by an Emmy Noether stipend. In 2021, he became Professor for Neurotechnology at the Ruhr-University Bochum. Christian Klaes obtained his PhD at the University of Göttingen. He currently also leads the Incubator Health+ of the WorldFactory Start-up Center at the Ruhr University Bochum.

Silvia Wolko

Silvia is a trained publishing clerk and supports the KlaesLab and Incubator Health+ at RUB. On top of that, she has set up two projects that guide schoolchildren and students in text entry and text correction and support companies in the design of presentation layouts (www.tippmaus.de, www.schriftwerk-wolko.de). Silvia enriches the cooperation in the team with her organisational activities and creative contributions, as well as her strength in promoting key networking.

Art Pilacinski

Art has background in (human) motor control and human-machine interactions. He received his PhD in Tübingen, where he worked with Axel Lindner on action planning and established a prototyping lab (fablab) for the University of Tübingen. The he moved to Coimbra, Portugal to work at Proaction Lab where he primarily focused on project Neurocobots: enhancing human-machine collaboration. At Klaeslab he works on number processing in single neurons of human IPS, avatars and collaborative robotics. Meanwhile, he also advises start-ups as part of Health+ Incubator. He is generally interested in how the thoughts move the body and vice versa. He tweets here.

Aline Xavier Fidêncio

Aline joined the KlaesLab’s team in May 2021. After completing her master’s studies in Automation and Robotics at the Technical University Dortmund, she joined the project VAFES. Her work focuses on machine learning-based strategies for the detection and application of neurobiological error-related reinforcement signals in brain-computer interfaces. You can reach her at aline.xavierfidencio@rub.de.

Marita Metzler

Marita obtained her Diploma in Biology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz with a specialization in psychophysics and sensorimotor learning in humans. After subsequent short-time project collaborations dealing with visual cognition and neurological diseases, she joined the Computational Systems Neuroscience Group at the University of Cologne and received a one-year funding of the SmartStart Training Program in Computational Neuroscience. She thereby gained skills in machine learning and novel tools in analyzing neural data. In 2019 Marita started her PhD in the KlaesLab. Her main focus lies on the development of the AI assistance system as part of the REXO project as well as the development of virtual reality test scenarios and a multimodal decoder for Brain-Computer Interfaces.

Namit Mishra

Namit Mishra has a Master’s degree in Computational Mechanics from the University of Duisburg-Essen with a specialization in mathematical modelling. He performed exploratory analysis during his Master’s thesis to detect Parkinson’s tremors using unsupervised machine learning. He also developed a neural network-based fall recognition system while at Dexter Health GmbH.

He joined Klaeslab as a PhD student, associating with the Terahertz.nrw research network focussed on using deep learning to uncover neuronal activity through the terahertz waves. His interests are neurodegenerative diseases, bio-signals, neuroimaging, computational modelling, and virtual reality tests. You can reach him at namitmishra50@gmail.com.

Omair Ali

Omair Ali, a graduate of Technical University of Dortmund, is a Robotics Engineer by profession with majors in Machine Learning.

He is currently affiliated with KlaesLab and Ruhr University Bochum as a PhD scholar. His research question lies in the paradigm of ‘what are the implications of Machine Learning in Neuroscience’. He is also actively involved in project REXO. Under its umbrella, together with his project members, he is developing an AI based assistance system for the rehabilitation of upper limb of patients with movement impairments.

Before becoming a team member of KlaesLab, Omair served as a machine learning scientist at DFKI GmbH and Carl Zeiss AG and provided ML based solutions to many research oriented and industrial problems.

Susanne Dyck

Susanne studied Biomedical Science (Bachelor of Science) with a specialization in Neurobiology at the Philipps-University Marburg in Germany. She then moved to Bochum to study Cognitive Science (Master of Science) at the Ruhr-University Bochum, where she focused on neuroscience and computational neuroscience. Susanne continued her studies at the Ruhr-University Bochum by joining the Klaeslab as a PhD student in the area of neuroscience. In her current PhD project, she is investigating implicit and explicit motor sequence learning in healthy humans. To that extent, behavioural motor learning tasks are combined with neural recordings (EEG and MRI).

Zia Ur Rehman

Zia graduated from the Technical University of Dortmund with a Master’s degree in Automation and Robotics. He is a member of the KlaesLab since July 2022.

He joined the project named “Mercur Neural Signal Processing Using Artificial Intelligence on an Embedded Platform” in collaboration with other members of the project.

His research focuses on the development of a neural decoder using deep learning based algorithms to extract meaningful information from brain activity patterns for the development of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs).

Sebastian Wiedenski

Sebastian obtained his bachelor’s thesis in Biology in Developmental Neurobiology in the topic of synaptic development and differential morphology by means of 3D reconstruction of cortical somatosensory neurons at the RUB. He is currently working in the NeuroCobots project as part of his Neurobiology master’s thesis in cooperation with the PROACTION Lab in Coimbra, Portugal.

He is actively involved in the REXO project since June 2021, and is again part of the lab since December 2022 when he joined for his master’s thesis.

Being interested in both technology as well as neurobiology, he joined the KlaesLab to pursue his interests in the functionality and improvement of the human brain and cognition, as well as the possible implications for neurotechnological research.

Besides working on his master’s thesis, Sebastian is also an active member of the Fachschaftsrat of the Faculty for Biology and Biotechnology at RUB since 2018.

You can reach him at Sebastian.Wiedenski@rub.de.

Lisa-Marie Gonsior

Lisa is a psychology student at Ruhr-University Bochum and has been a student assistant for KlaesLab since August 2022, mainly assisting with EEG recordings.

Marie Kranz

Marie is a student assistant for KlaesLab since September 2022. She is in the 4th semester of her psychology studies and facilitates the Lab through the execution of EEG-measurements

Tobias Wienand

Tobias  has obtained his bachelor’s degree in IT Security / Information Engineering at RUB and is currently enrolled in the subsequent Master’s program with a specialization in machine learning and data science.

At Klaeslab, he is contributing to the REXO Project, which aims to rehabilitate humans with movement impairments with a BCI-controlled exo-skeleton.

Prior to joining KlaesLab, he worked as a research assistant and working student on projects related to machine learning, signal processing and neuromorphic hardware.

Associates 

Christiana Chung-yi CHOI

Dzan Hadzimujic

Alumni

Muhammad Saif-ur-Rehman

Pooja Verman

Robin Lienkämper

Sandra Sandhöfer