Sri Sarma receives NSF CAREER award

Sri Sarma, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is the recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER award, given to faculty members at the beginning of their academic careers, is one of NSF’s most competitive awards and emphasizes high-quality research and novel education initiatives.

Sri’s CAREER research involves the modeling and control of neuronal networks in the brain with applications to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease using deep brain stimulation. Her project includes the construction of a general approach for modeling complex neuronal networks where interactions occur between different brain nuclei, the design of computationally efficient control strategies for such networks, and applying these methodologies to the problem of restoring pathological network dynamics arising from Parkinson’s disease with deep brain stimulation. This work has the potential to impact the interface between control systems and neuroscience and create new opportunities for medical treatment of neurological disorders.