My name is Lucretia and I am a
rising senior from The Gambia in West Africa, majoring in Bioengineering. I am
currently working in the sensorimotor and function lab in the Nguyen Engineering
building, working on further developing research on fNIRS. My project this
summer is understanding and further developing the use of functional near
infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for analysing neural activity during bi-manual
movements.
I decided to pursue this particular
project because I am
very passionate about discovering new means to analyze brain activity and in
this case, during various minimal tasks and I feel that I would benefit further
from dedicating my time to collect more data on fNIRS which can potentially lead
to a breakthrough in the field; bearing in mind that it is considerably new,
and very little research and experimentation has been done with it. It has
potential and could eventually lead to further advances in how we analyze brain
activity while the subject is performing motor tasks. I am interested in it
primarily because of its convenience, as well as having very little limitations
on motion and immaculate spatial resolution.
This being my first research
experience, having the opportunity to collect raw data, verify and analyze it,
as well as develop bimanual tasks and map the brain, has been memorable so far.
I have had the honour of working with truly influential and inspiring people
like Dr. Laurence Bray and Dr. Wilsaan Joiner, as well fellow undergraduate and
graduate students.
