3rd B-CRATOS Newsletter
April 2024
B-CRATOS PROGRESS AND NEXT STEPS
4th in-person Consortium Meeting
In May 2024, we had our fourth in–person consortium meeting in LINKS Foundation, Turin. We had the pleasure to present the progress and objectives of each Work Package, as well as the next perspectives for B-CRATOS.
Over two days, fruitful discussions took place and we all left Italy with renewed energy and updated plans for B-CRATOS.
Partners during the B-CRATOS Consortium Meeting in LINKS Foundation
B-CRATOS successful webinar
On March 11th 2024, a webinar on Clinical and User Impacts of BCI was organised following the last B-CRATOS’ focus. Hosted by Paul Wanda (BlackRock Mycrosystems Europe), it featured Mijail Serruya (Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia), Ian Burkhart and Scott Imbrie (BCI pioneers and advocates) as speakers.
During the webinar, many different topics emerged from the speakers’ direct experience and contribution to science. In particular, the three helped to better understand how B-CRATOS may contribute to empowering people’s independence and highlighted the advances and expectations in BCI. Affected by a life accident, S. Imbrie and I. Burkhart agreed to take part in research and receive a neural implant that has changed their daily life. S. Imbrie is now able to control an external hand with his brain implant which enables him to be more autonomous. I. Burkhart had a different story and used to have an internal device that was recently remove. He told the audience his experience with the implant and how it positively impacts his life. They are both convinced that the BCI technology will continue to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities by enhancing their system and always go beyond what’s possible.
Infographic for a better visual impact
A new page appeared on our website! What do you have in mind when we talk of a wireless device and a data transmission under the skin towards an artificial hand?
It is not always easy to understand or see what exactly is the project like as a whole and how it works. To overcome (a bit, at least) this problem and have a reference for you to follow our work, we made a map. You can now navigate between the processes of the project and see how they are all interconnected: the implant, the transmission process through the fat of the skin, the data-work with the AI module and monkeys, and finally the robotic efforts behind the prosthesis and e-skin.
We added more detailed explanations (hopefully, not too technical!) for those curious to dive deeper. In the future, depending on our new results and achievements, these parts shall be updated.
We added more detailed explanations (hopefully, not too technical!) for those curious to dive deeper. In the future, depending on our new results and achievements, these parts shall be updated.
“Meet our team” section
We have finally released the website section to give readers a broader overview of the team within B-CRATOS, a unique project in Europe. This web page, which is divided into the various Work Packages, shows which partners are involved in the different actions and their contribution to the project. Among them, different fields such as medicine, research and engineering are involved.
EIC Innovation Bootcamp 4.0: what’s next?
In the past year, the B-CRATOS consortium participated in the European Innovation Council (EIC) Innovation Bootcamp 4.0 as one of 16 selected EIC Pathfinder/Transition projects. In October and December, three members of the B-CRATOS Commercialization and Exploitation team (Paul Wanda, Mark Schneider, Ali Khaleghi) joined the bootcamp and received training, guidance, and feedback for business plan and pitch deck development from the EIC expert mentors. Following participation in the EIC Bootcamp 4.0, the B-CRATOS consortium applied for and was again selected to participate in the EIC Tech to Market (T2M) Venture Building Programme to further develop the business pitch and strategy to transition key B-CRATOS technologies from the lab to the market. The program provides training and support to mature the B-CRATOS entrepreneurial project through hands-on workshops and individualized coaching. Critically, the B-CRATOS WP7 team plans to engage in intensive business model development through the EIC program, to better ensure that the B-CRATOS next-generation wireless technologies will ultimately arrive in human-ready devices and revolutionize everyday BCI!
B-CRATOS new interview!
During the Consortium Meeting, we were pleased to interview Burim Kabashi and Robinson Guachi. Research Fellows at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, they have been involved in WP4 of B-CRATOS and shared with us their incredible work on the e-skin’s integration process.
You can (re)watch the interviews on our Youtube Channel.
Stay tuned for more interviews to come!
Project details:
TITLE: Wireless Brain-Connect inteRfAce TO machineS
START-END: March 2021 – February 2025
EU CONTRIBUTION: €4,475,059.25
TOPIC: FETOPEN-01-2018-2019-2020: FET-Open Challenging Current Thinking
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 965044