Workshops
Join us for a captivating discussion about the world of artificial intelligence, and discover how ChatGPT is revolutionizing interactive communication. Kent State professors Javed Khan, Ruoming Jin and Mikhail Nesterenko will delve into the underlying technology and showcase how ChatGPT is trained on massive amounts of internet data, allowing it to generate human-like responses in conversational contexts. They’ll also discuss the ethical considerations and challenges associated with this AI-powered system, and help attendees gain a deeper understanding of its future potential.
Register by Friday, Sept. 22 for this free event.
Register Now
Join the Greater Cleveland Alumni Chapter for a Flashes football watch party! Enjoy food and drink specials from food trucks at Lakewood Truck Park, then watch an exciting MAC Conference matchup as Kent State takes on the Ohio University Bobcats. The chapter will be conducting prize drawings throughout the event, and the food trucks will be hosting a friendly competition, too! Each will represent either the Bobcats or the Flashes as they compete to see who has the best food. Come out for a great time and wash out the OU fans with blue and gold pride.
Please note: Game time is yet to be announced (event begins two hours prior to kickoff).
RSVP by Oct. 4.
Put on your blue and gold and join your fellow Kent State Geauga alumni and friends for fun and games. There will be food available for purchase from the Fork in the Road food truck and a visit from Kent State’s mascot Flash!
After the party, you will have the chance to attend the Berkshire Local Schools Badger Band Bonanza at 7 p.m. The show will feature performances from local high school marching bands and, as a special treat, an appearance by the Kent State University Marching Golden Flashes!
Tickets for the Badger Band Bonanza are $10 at the gate. Show your FLASHcard and receive a $5 discount!
Please mark your calendars for our colloquium speaker, Martin Sellbom, Ph.D. who is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Dr. Sellbom will be giving a talk entitled “Personality Disorders in our Diagnostic Manuals: An Ugly Past, but Promising Future” on Wednesday, September 20th, 2023 at 9:30 - 10:30 am in room 102 Kent Hall Annex, Kent campus.
One of the most exciting areas of research in neuroscience in the past few years has been the use of brain-machine and brain-computer interfaces in expanding our knowledge of the functions of the normal nervous system, and as a therapy in the restoration of function for patients after a variety of debilitating nervous system diseases or injuries, including stroke, spinal cord injury, hearing loss, movement disorders, and others. Join us at our 11th Annual Neuroscience Symposium on October 26-27, as we hear from world-leading researchers about ground-breaking new discoveries exploring the use of brain-machine interfaces, as well as perspectives from patient users and therapists, and from corporate leaders involved in advancing neurotechnology.
For more information, please visit the 11th Annual Neuroscience Symposium webpage.
Associate Professor (tenured)
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience
Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute
Johns Hopkins University
Shreesh P. Mysore has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (IIT Madras), Master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering and in Mathematics (Penn State), and a PhD in Control and Dynamical Systems (Caltech). He received postdoctoral training in Neurobiology (at Stanford) before moving to Hopkins to start his research group. A common thread through his diverse scientific background is a long-standing research interest in intelligent systems – first in artificial intelligence and robotics (from his undergraduate days through the first half of his PhD), and then in biological intelligence (the rest of his PhD to date). His lab studies neural circuit, computational and coding principles underlying complex behaviors and cognitive functions such as attention, decision-making, sensorimotor processing, and collaboratively, affective function. He is particularly intrigued by a comparative perspective – how do brains of different species solve similar behavioral challenges? In addition to adding to the basic understanding of how brains work, a major goal of his lab’s research is to help develop novel, targeted therapeutics for the atypical operation of attention, decision-making and executive function. A (secret) wish is to port concrete insights from experimental neurobiology to robotics and computer science in order to help build novel classes of artificially intelligent systems. His work is supported by the NIH and the NSF.
Professor of Neuroscience and Chair Department of Biology in the College of Natural Sciences on the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico
"Are the endovanilloid TRPV1 receptors within the mesolimbic system playing a role in anxiety and depression?”
Dr. Carmen S. Maldonado-Vlaar received her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University under the mentorship of Dr. Ann E. Kelley. She continued with post-doctoral training at the Department of Neuropharmacology at The Scripps Research Institute with Dr. George F. Koob. For the past 27 years, Dr. Maldonado-Vlaar has been a faculty member of the Department of Biology at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus (UPR-RP). During her research and academic career, she has successfully mentored dozens of undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented minorities (URM) in the field of Neuroscience. Moreover, she has taught numerous Neuroscience courses in her institution at both levels. Dr. Maldonado-Vlaar’s scientific research is based on an ongoing interest to discover and characterize potential therapeutic cellular targets that are important in cocaine addiction treatment and other mental disorders. Her work has been published in premier scientific journals and she has served as Assisting Editor for Behavioral Neuroscience Journal. At the UPR-RP, she served as institutional coordinator for The Leadership Alliance and for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellowship. She has extensive administrative experience as Chair of the Department of Biology and as Dean of Graduate Studies and Research. In addition, she has devoted countless hours to mentoring neuroscientists at all career stages from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds at the local and national level.
In her laboratory, Dr. Maldonado-Vlaar has mentored more than 100 Hispanic undergraduate students of which more than 70 percent were women. She was Principal and Co-Investigator of many training programs aimed at promoting increased access of women and members of URMs to careers in the Neurosciences. These include programs at the Marine Biological Laboratory Summer Program in Neuroscience, Ethics, and Success (SPINES); the Training Advisory Committee (TAC) for Diversity Program in Neuroscience (DPN) from the American Psychological Association; the Neuroscience Graduate Resilience, Affirmation and Diversity Program (NeuroGRAD); and the Neuroscience Research Opportunities to Increase Diversity (NeuroID) Training grants for graduate and undergraduate students in the Neuroscience funded by the BP-ENDURE program from National Institute Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Dr. Maldonado-Vlaar established the first Center for Undergraduate Research and Learning (CRIIAS, by its Spanish acronym) at the UPR-RP and she is the Principal Investigator of various institutional grants with significant impact. In October 2020, Dr. Maldonado-Vlaar was the first Puerto Rican Latina neuroscientist to receive the Bernice Grafstein Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Mentoring from the Society for Neuroscience. Since 2021, she serves as member of the SfN Professional Development Committee and is currently the Chair of the Neuroscience Scholar Program Subcommittee.
Assistant Professor at the Lerner Research Institute of The Cleveland Clinic
"Myelin – a favorable niche for Glioblastoma and Neuronal stem cells"
Professor and Plough Chair of Excellence, University of Memphis
Infant vocal development and the origin of language: The importance of developmental research in autism and congenital deafness
D. Kimbrough Oller (Ph.D., University of Texas, 1971), Professor/Plough Chair of Excellence, University of Memphis; Faculty Member, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Austria; member, Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis; member Scientific Advisory Board, LENA, Louisville, CO. In 2013 received ASHA Honors; in 2023 awarded Lifetime Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). With 250 articles/books his work addresses infant vocalizations, autism, multilingualism, and language evolution.
