Official site of the Laboratory for Brain Recovery and Function

Congratulations to MSc student Monica MacDonald who successfully defended her thesis proposal this past week. Monica’s work examines the influence aerobic fitness has on the excitability of the brain, with longer-term implications related to learning and rehabilitation.

This past Friday saw another lab member successfully defend their thesis. This time around, MSc student Ross Story defended his work applying machine learning to brain activity data collected as part of a motor imagery neurofeedback study. Ross’s work uses machine learning to pick out key features of the brain data that best represent motor imagery, and thus could be used to create the ideal neurofeedback signal. Congratulations to Ross!

Congratulations to Sarah Kraeutner who successfully defended her MSc thesis. Sarah’s thesis work investigated the nature of learning using motor imagery, as well as the impact of brain damage on motor imagery ability. Sarah won’t be straying far from the lab, however, as she will be starting her PhD this September. Congrats again Sarah!

Graduate students Chris Friesen and Jack Solomon have added to this year’s scholarship haul – Chris was awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship (NSERC) for the second year of his Master’s degree, while Jack was awarded a Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Graduate Scholarship to support both years of his Master’s degree. Congratulations Chris and Jack!

Beyond the horrible weather (When is winter going to end?!), March and April were pretty good months for members of the lab, with many being successful in attaining external funding. Current MSc student Sarah Kraeutner was awarded an NSERC PGS-D to support her PhD work (Starting September 2015). Incoming PhD student Nick Snow (from UBC) also received an NSERC PGS-D, while current MSc student Kerry McInnes received a CGS-M (CIHR) to support the second year of her MSc studies. Lab Director Shaun Boe also received good news from NSERC, as he was awarded a 5-year Discovery Grant. Congratulations to everyone, and good luck with all the great work that this funding will support!

RADIANT student and lab member Sarah Kraeutner was recently featured in material promoting the benefits of the RADIANT program. Check out her RADIANT profile video here. RADIANT is a groundbreaking program that promotes innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship in neuroscience-based research. For more details on RADIANT, visit our website.