Assistant Professor
EEC 265D
(205) 934-0032
Research and Teaching Interests: Neuroprosthetic learning; specifically crafting innovative neuro-stimulation approaches to artificially restore and enhance cognitive skills.
Office Hours: By appointment
Education:
M.S. in Electrical/Electronics and Communications Engineering, University of Valencia
Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven
Postdoctoral Research Scientist in neuroprosthetics at the University of California, Berkeley, EECS
Nuria Vendrell Llopis is a neuroscientist and neuro-engineer who is fascinated by neuroprosthetic learning. Her passion lies in crafting innovative neuro-stimulation approaches to artificially restore and enhance cognitive skills. She earned a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Telecommunication Engineering from the UPV (Spain) in 2010, followed by a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from KU Leuven (Belgium) in 2015. She is fluent in Spanish (Castilian) Catalan (Valencian) and English.
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Research Interests
Neuroprosthetics, Neuro-stimulation, Brain-machine interfaces, neuroprosthetic learning, reinforcement learning, neural dynamics, neural circuits, machine learning approaches to neural data, data processing,
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Recent Courses
- Electronics
- Real-Time Process & Protocols
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Select Publications
- Zippi EL, Shvartsman GF, Vendrell-Llopis N, Wallis JD, Carmena JM: Distinct neural representations during a brain–machine interface and manual reaching task in motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and striatum, 1 Dec 2023, Scientific Reports
- Botros, P., Vendrell-Llopis, N., Costa, R. M., & Carmena, J. M. (2022). A neural model of proximity to reward. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.03.510669.
- N. Vendrell-Llopis, A. Koralek, R. Costa and J. Carmena, "Ventral striatum uses a temporal difference rule for prediction during neuroprosthetic control," 2019 9th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering (NER), San Francisco, CA, USA, 2019, pp. 562-565, doi: 10.1109/NER.2019.8716982.
- Vendrell-Llopis N, Fang C, Qü AJ, Costa RM, Carmena JM: Diverse operant control of different motor cortex populations during learning, 11 April 2022, Current Biology, vol. 32, p 1616-1622.
- Vendrell-Llopis N, Yaksi E: Evolutionary conserved brainstem circuits encode category, concentration and mixtures of taste, 7 Dec 2015, Scientific Reports
- Dreosti E, Vendrell Llopis N, Carl M, Yaksi E, Wilson SW: Left-right asymmetry is required for the habenulae to respond to both visual and olfactory stimuli. 17 Feb 2014, Current Biology, vol. 24:440-445.
- Jetti SK, Vendrell-Llopis N, Yaksi E: Spontaneous activity governs olfactory representations in spatially organized habenular microcircuits. 17 Feb 2014, Current Biology vol. 24:434-439
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Academic Distinctions and Professional Societies
- Best presentation award, SFN & FENS.VIB11-NERF PhD Symposium, 2013.
- Society for Neuroscience (SfN), Active Member
- Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), Active Member
- IEEE, Active Member