Category Archives: News

Sridevi Sarma, Associate Director of the Institute for Computational Medicine, is the co-editor of a newly published book titled, Dynamic Neuroscience: Statistics, Modeling, and Control that sheds new light on the field of neuroscience. The book, co-edited with Zhe Chen, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and Physiology at New York University School of Medicine, capitalizes on the knowledge and experience of experts in the field of neuroscience by presenting recent advances in computational research methods and discussing important research issues in neural data analysis.

Dynamic Neuroscience: Statistics, Modeling, and Control takes an interdisciplinary approach with chapters written by computational and experimental researchers as well as those at the interface. The chapter titled, “Characterizing Complex Human Behaviors and Neural Responses Using Dynamic Models,” authored by Sarma and Pierre Sacre, Postdoctoral Fellow in Sarma’s ICM lab, proposes a framework for analyzing data and addressing challenges that arise in neuroscience experiments with human subjects.

Dynamic Neuroscience: Statistics, Modeling, and Control is published by Springer and can be found here.

Sridevi Sarma, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and associate director of the Institute for Computational Medicine, is the principal investigator on one of six projects to receive a two-year seed grant from The Science of Learning Institute at the Johns Hopkins University. The project titled, “How can we characterize individual differences in learning behaviors as a function of motivation?” is an interdisciplinary study that addresses interactions among motivation, attention, learning, working memory, and cognitive control. The study, which is a collaboration with Susan Courtney, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science, could positively impact educational practices by improving classroom instruction through computer-based learning. Read the full project proposal here.

The Science of Learning Institute was founded in 2013 to support interdisciplinary research that seeks to understand the ability to learn. Sarma’s research project is a recipient of the fifth round of seed grants from the institute. Read the full story in The Hub.

Sridevi V. Sarma, associate professor of biomedical engineering, has been appointed associate director of the Institute for Computational Medicine.

Sarma joined Johns Hopkins University as an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and core faculty of the Institute for Computational Medicine, in 2009. In 2016, she was promoted to associate professor. Her research combines modeling, estimation, and control of dynamical systems with neurophysiology. She has developed a novel computational tool, EZTrack, which quickly and accurately identifies the seizure focus or epileptogenic zone (EZ) from hundreds of non-invasive EEG recordings with 95% accuracy. Sarma also studies the ways in which physiological monitoring data collected from patients in critical care units can be used to identify those patients whose condition is likely to deteriorate, thereby opening a window of intervention that may save their lives.

Sarma is a recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER Award, and in 2012 was chosen to receive the NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. In 2014, she received the first annual Krishna Kumar Young Investigator Award from the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS).

Assistant Professor Sridevi Sarma of The Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Computational Medicine, is the recipient of a 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE is the highest honor the federal government gives to its young scientists and is intended to recognize some of the finest scientists and engineers who, while early in their research careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge during the twenty-first century. This year, 96 PECASE awards were granted. Sri will receive her award at a ceremony at the White House later this year.

This is not the first award for Sri. She joined the Institute for Computational Medicine as a 2008 recipient of a prestigious Burroughs Welcome Fund Careers at the Scientific Interface award. She has been awarded research grants by both NIH and NSF, and is also a 2011 recipient of an NSF Career award. These awards all recognize her innovative work at the interface of systems/control theory and neuroscience, particularly the area of improving methods for treating neurological disorders using deep brain stimulation.

To read the full JHU Whiting School of Engineering release, click here.

Let us all congratulate Sri on these outstanding achievements.