Mind-reading AI pioneer wins global award

Elon Musk’s Neuralink often grabs the headlines when it comes to brain-computer interfaces, a rapidly emerging technology that translates brainwaves into commands and language for a machine.

Academic researchers around the world are quietly advancing the revolutionary technology with potential uses that include helping people with disability communicate or control mobility devices.

One of the leading academic figures in this revolution is Distinguished Professor CT Lin, Co-Director of the UTS Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute. 

Professor Lin has spent the past 30 years creating new forms of artificial intelligence, first inventing the concept of fuzzy neural networks that incorporate human-like thinking into machine learning, and more lately exploring brain-computer interfaces.

“My research integrates artificial intelligence, neuroscience and wearable sensors into practical brain-computer interface systems by linking up both sides of the equation,” said Professor Lin.

“On the human side, I have pioneered wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) wearable technologies that use dry sensors to measure brain activity without gels or extensive preparation and under natural movements of the body.”

“On the machine side, I developed computational-intelligence methods that can extract meaningful cognitive information from noisy EEG signals including indicators of fatigue, stress, attention, workload and intention.”