BCI AWARD 2011
The Winner for 2011
This year, the international jury was led by Prof. Gert Pfurtscheller from the Graz University of Technology. Prof. Pfurtscheller founded the Graz BCI laboratory, one of the first labs doing brain-computer interface research. He selected the international jury and scored the 64 submitted projects with them.
"The BCI Award is outstanding because the whole world competes and only one project can win",says Gert Pfurtscheller.
The Award was presented at a gala dinner at the prestigious Hotel Weitzer in Graz. This dinner was part of the Fifth International BCI Conference hosted by the Graz University of Technology, and hence over 100 BCI researchers from around the world were present for the award ceremony.
The BCI Award 2011 winner is:
Moritz Grosse-Wentrup, Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany)
What are the Neuro-Physiological Causes of Performance Variations in
Brain-Computer Interfacing?
"The possibility to analyze Gamma activity with scalp EEG and ECoG opens many new applications",says Christoph Guger.
We are happy to announce that the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany represented by Moritz Grosse-Wentrup and Bernhard
Schölkopf was selected for the 2011 BCI Award!
The work of Dr. Moritz Grosse-Wentrup and Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf is outstanding because they were able to show that BCI users can
modulate gamma frequencies in the EEG. Gamma activity is a very high frequency component which is very small in amplitude and is
very difficult to measure in scalp EEG. It is typically only visible with invasive recordings done with implanted electrodes,
which limits the usability of BCI systems. The winning project showed that the BCI performance can be improved by using this
rhythmic activity recorded with scalp EEG.
And the winner is....This picture presents the jury and organizers congratulating the winner. From left to right:
Michael Tangermann, Gernot Müller-Putz, Gert Pfurtscheller, Theresa Vaughan, Moritz Grosse-Wentrup (fifth from left, holding the Award),
Christoph Guger, Brendan Allison, Jane Huggins, Cuntai Guan, Robert Leeb.
The Nominees for 2011
The nominated projects reflected the diversity of BCI research. The ten projects included BCIs based on single cell recordings, invasive recordings
with implanted electrodes on the cortex, and non-invasive scalp recordings. BCIs for speech recognition, stroke rehabilitation, robotic device control,
and other applications were nominated.
We are happy to present the nominees in alphabetical order:
- Tim Blakely, Kai Miller, Jeffrey Ojemann, Rajesh Rao (University of Washington, USA)
Exploring the cortical dynamics of learning by leveraging BCI paradigms. - Jonathan S. Brumberg, Philip R. Kennedy, Frank H. Guenther (Boston University, USA)
An auditory output brain-computer interface for speech communication. - Samuel Clanton, Robert Rasmussen, Zohny Zohny, Meel Velliste, S. Morgan Jeffries, Angus McMorland, Andrew Schwartz (Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Seven degree of freedom cortical control of a robotic arm. - Felix Darvas (University of Washington, USA)
Utilizing high gamma (HG) band power changes as control signal for non-invasive BCI. - Elisabeth V. C. Friedrich, Reinhold Scherer, Christa Neuper (University of Graz, Austria)
User-appropriate and robust control strategies to enhance brain computer interface performance and
usability. - Moritz Grosse-Wentrup, Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany)
What are the neuro-physiological causes of performance variations in brain-computer interfacing? - Eric C. Leuthardt, Charles Gaona, Mohit Sharma, Nicholas Szrama, Jarod Roland, Zac Freudenberg, Jamie Solis, Jonathan Breshears, Gerwin Schalk (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)
Using the electrocorticographic speech network to control a brain-computer interface in humans - Daniele De Massari, Carolin Ruf, Adrian Furdea, Sebastian Halder, Tamara Matuz, Niels Birbaumer (University of Tübingen, IRCCS, International Max Planck Research School, Germany)
Towards communication in the completely locked-in state: neuroelectric semantic conditioning BCI. - Qibin Zhao, Akinari Onishi, Yu Zhang, Andrzej Cichocki (RIKEN, Japan)
An affective BCI using multiple ERP components associated to facial emotion processing. - Raphael Zimmermann, Laura Marchal-Crespo, Olivier Lambercy, Marie-Christine Fluet, Jean-Claude Metzger, Johannes Brand, Janis Edelmann, Kynan Eng, Robert Riener, Martin Wolf, Roger Gassert (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
What's your next move? Detecting movement intention for stroke rehabilitation.
One of the nominated projects was from the laboratory for Advanced Brain Signal Processing, lead by Dr Cichocki, in the famous Riken Brain Science Institute in Wako-shi Japan, who commented on the significance of the nomination
"The nomination shows that our BCI research is perspective and competitive worldwide
and this strongly motivates us to continue our research on this topic in future",says Andrzej Cichocki.
"Thank you to the BCI experts in the jury, 2011:
Gert Pfurtscheller,
Robert Leeb,
Theresa Vaughan,
Michael Tangermann,
Cuntai Guan,
Jane Huggins",says Christoph Guger.
Details for the BCI-Award 2011
In 2011 the Annual BCI Research Award is scheduled for the 5th International Brain-Computer Interface Conference, Sept. 22-24, 2011 in Graz, Austria. The prize will be awarded by the Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Institute for Knowledge Discovery, Graz University of Technology. Chairman of the jury will be Prof. Gert Pfurtscheller, PhD. The deadline for submission will be June 15, 2011.
BCI AWARD 2010
The 10 nominated projects are published
The 10 nominated projects are published in the book Recent Advances in Brain-Computer Interface Systems,
edited by Reza Fazel, InTech, 2011: State-of-the-Art in BCI research: BCI Award 2010
More details of the book
The Winner for 2010
The BCI Award 2010 winner is:
Cuntai Guan, Kai Keng Ang, Karen Sui Geok Chua, Beng Ti Ang (A*STAR, Singapore)
Motor imagery-based Brain-Computer Interface robotic rehabilitation for stroke
"The winning project shows a newly approaching application of BCI systems for stroke rehabilitation and
in near future many groups will work on this topic",says Christoph Guger.
The Nominees for 2010
Out of 60 high quality submissions the jury has now nominated the 10 top-ranked candidates for the BCI Research Award. One of them will win the prize.
The 2010 Nominees in alphabetical order:
- Guangyu Bin, Xiaorong Gao, Shangkai Gao (Tsinghua University, China)
A high speed word spelling BCI system based on code modulated visual evoked potentials - Steven M. Chase, Andrew S. Whitford, and Andrew B. Schwartz (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Operant conditioning to identify independent, volitionally-controllable patterns of neural activity - Cuntai Guan, Kai Keng Ang, Karen Sui Geok Chua, Beng Ti Ang (A*STAR, Singapore)
Motor imagery-based Brain-Computer Interface robotic rehabilitation for stroke - Jing Guo, Shangkai Gao, Bo Hong (Tsinghua University, China)
An active auditory BCI for intention expression in locked-in - Kimiko Kawashima, Keiichiro Shindo, Junichi Ushiba, Meigen Liu (Keio University, Japan)
Neurorehabilitation for Chronic-Phase Stroke using a Brain-Machine Interface - Tao Liu, Shangkai Gao, Bo Hong (Tsinghua University, China)
Brain-actuated Google search by using motion onset VEP - Jana Muenssinger, Harry George, Sebastian Halder, Adi Hoesle, Andrea Kübler
(Universität Tübingen, Germany)
Brain Painting - "Paint your way out" - Mark Palatucci, Dean Pomerleau, Geoff Hinton, Tom Mitchell (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Thought Recognition with Semantic Output Codes - David B. Ryan and Eric W. Sellers (East Tennessee State University, USA)
Predictive Spelling with a P300-based BCI: Increasing Communication Rate - George Townsend (Algoma University BCI Lab, Canada)
Innovations in P300-based BCI Stimulus Presentation Methods
"Thank you to the BCI experts in the jury, 2010:
Eric Sellers,
Dean Krusienski,
Klaus-Robert Müller,
Benjamin Blankertz,
Theresa Vaughan,
Bo Hong",says Christoph Guger.
