People


Principal Investigator

Dr. Aysegul “Ayse” Gunduz is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering. Her research focuses on neural interfacing, signal processing, neuromodulation, and neurological disorders.

Education and Training:

  • BS in Electrical Engineering from Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey, 2001)
  • MS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC, 2003)
  • PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Florida (Gainesville, FL, 2008)
  • Postdoctoral training at Albany Medical College, Department of Neurology, and at the Wadsworth Center, Division of Translational Medicine in Albany, NY

Affiliations:

  • UF Fixel Institute for Neurological Disorders
  • Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center Brain Rehabilitation Research Center
  • UF Dept of Neuroscience
  • UF Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Awards and Honors:

  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE, 2019)
  • National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award (2016)
  • International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering Early Career Award (2015)
  • Anita Borg Institute Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award (2017)
  • UF Provost’s Excellence Award for Assistant Professors (2017)
  • UF Pramod P. Khargonekar Junior Faculty Award for Excellence (2018)
  • UF Preeminence Term Professorship (2017-20)
  • UF Graduate Education Diversity Champion Award (2019)
  • UF Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute NIH KL2 Scholarship (2015)
  • UF Research Foundation Professor (2019-22)
  • Pruitt Family Endowed Faculty Fellow (2017-20)
  • IEEE Senior Member

Graduate Students

Julieth Gómez Durán, PhD Student

Julieth is a Biomedical Engineering PhD student with a BS in Electronics Engineering from Universidad de la Costa in Colombia. After working as a Field Service Engineer for Roche and as a Pain Sales Representative for Medtronic, she received a Fulbright Scholarship and decided to pursue a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering at UF. She switched to the PhD after, and her research focuses on analyzing LFP signals from Tourette’s Patients implanted with deep brain stimulation devices. In her spare time, she likes traveling, painting, photography, and roller derby.

julieth.gomez@ufl.edu
@jugodu
LinkedIn

David Johnson, PhD Student

David is a Biomedical Engineering PhD student with a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interest is in semantic memory and the impact of epilepsy and surgical treatments for epilepsy on semantic memory.

david.johnson2@ufl.edu

Natalie Geigel, PhD Student

Natalie is a Biomedical Engineering PhD student with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. She decided to pursue a graduate career in BME to become a part of the research efforts to improve the lives of those suffering from neurological disorders. Her research focuses on using deep brain stimulation for Essential Tremor and other movement disorders. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing, going to Disney, and spending time with her family.

ngeigel@ufl.edu

Grace Lowor, PhD Student

Grace Lowor is a Biomedical Engineering PhD student with an MSc and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Arizona State University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology respectively. She has industrial experience working as a manufacturing associate at Dexcom, Inc and is currently focused on neuromodulatory research in the field of neural engineering. Grace hopes to impact lives in the society through her research. She enjoys working out and listening to music in her leisure time.

g.lowor@ufl.edu
LinkedIn

Ava Burgess, PhD StudentLaboratory Manager

Ava is a Biomedical Engineering PhD student with a B.S. in General Engineering concentrating in Biomedical Engineering from Wake Forest University. She was an undergraduate research assistant at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering & Sciences. Her current neural engineering research focuses on using deep brain stimulation to identify neurophysiological markers of movement intention and tremor in hopes of developing a closed-loop system for patients with essential tremor. Additionally, Ava seeks to integrate artificial intelligence into the DBS closed-loop system. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, music, football, and binging reality tv.

avaburgess@ufl.edu
LinkedIn


Undergraduate Students

Sebastián W. Tirado-Vélez

Sebastian William Tirado-Vélez is a Senior undergraduate student at the University of Florida, studying Computer Science & Biology with a minor in Health Disparities in Society. His current research interests include movement disorders, neural networks, bioinformatics, and cancer genomics. On his free time, he enjoys playing tennis and listening to vinyl records with friends.

LinkedIn

Andrea Noy

Andrea is a Senior Mechanical Engineering student with a projected graduation in Spring 2024. She is interested in the intersection of engineering and medicine and has previously conducted research in cancer cell mechanics and mathematical modeling. She is currently interested in the applications of engineering in neurology. In her spare time, she loves sleeping, reading, and spending time with her family and friends.

Jeffrey Chen

Jeffrey Chen is a 3rd year undergraduate student at the University of Florida, studying Biomedical Engineering. His current research interests include movement disorders, bioinformatics, and electroencephalography. On his free time, he enjoys playing badminton and programming.

LinkedIn


Graduate Alumni

Dr. Sarah Long

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Technical Solutions Engineer at Alto Neuroscience
@Sarahebethlong
LinkedIn

Dr. Brandon Parks

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Post-Doc at University of Minnesota
LinkedIn

Dr. Stephanie Cernera

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Post-Doc at UCSF
@scernera1

Dr. José Alcántara

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Embedded Software Engineer at Applied Medical
LinkedIn

Dr. Jackson Cagle

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Post-Doc at UF
@caglejackson

Dr. Robert Eisinger

Formerly: MD-PhD Student
Currently: Neurology Resident
@RobertSEisinger

Dr. Enrico Opri

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Post-Doc at Emory
@oprienrico

Dr. Rene Molina

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Senior Scientist at Medtronic
LinkedIn

Dr. Alexander Cerquera

Formerly: Post-Doc
Currently: Senior Biomedical Engineer at NeuroWave Systems
@alexcerquera

Dr. Jonathan Shute

Formerly: PhD Student
LinkedIn

Dr. Aniruddh Ravindran

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Automated Systems Research Scientist at Ford Motor Company
LinkedIn

Dr. P. Justin Rossi

Formerly: PhD Student
Currently: Resident Physician at UCSF
LinkedIn

Brian Romot

Formerly: Masters Student


Undergrad Alumni

Corinna Peden

Courtney Kline

Huzaifa Wasanwala

Jake Rieke

M. Emilio Vazquez

Maria van Olphen

Nikhil Rajulapati

Phoebe Nimocks

Talib Hakim

Asraa Ahmad

Benjamin Feldt

Jeffrey Chen

Jenna Fulton

Collaborators

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