How did you come to work in neuroengineering?

For me, innovation has always been there. When I was five, I made my first drawing as an inventor; it was a shopping cart with a motor. I was sick of going to the supermarket on foot so I invented a shopping cart with a motor, so that I wouldn’t have to walk there. That was my very first invention.

I have also always liked management. Even as a child, every time we had to work in teams, I would be the one managing the project and setting people tasks. Even back then, we managed to deliver projects on time with good results!

When I was ten, I decided to study biology. I was fascinated with cells and I knew that I wanted to study life and understand where we came from.

After I finished my biology degree, I considered doing a Ph.D. but I wasn’t convinced that I wanted to stay in academia, I needed to spread my wings. So, I joined a medical device company, where I started my professional career. While I was there, I realized I needed something else in my life. Just working wasn’t enough for me. I needed to study more, so I started looking for a second degree and I decided to pursue psychology. Until that moment, neuroscience for me meant cells. And suddenly, with psychology, neuroscience was more than cells. Neuroscience was the phenotype that emerges from cells: personality and behaviour. And for me, it was fascinating to realize how the links in the chain connect. This led me to look for a master’s degree with a holistic approach to neuroscience and I found it at the University of Geneva.

Prior to that, I had done a post-graduate diploma in project management dedicated to research and development. There, one of my colleagues, an engineer working in prosthetics, showed me this super cool video from EPFL of a guy driving a wheelchair with an EEG cap. And this captivated me. At that point, I realized I wanted to be part of that, but I wasn’t an engineer, and I didn’t know how to fit into that world.

When I saw that the Wyss Center was looking for a project manager – which was my background – with experience in medical devices – as I had – with some knowledge in neuroscience – which I had – to be the project manager of a BCI system, I couldn’t believe it, and I applied without a second thought.

Can you describe your role at the Wyss Center?

I work as a neuroengineering project manager developing a BCI system called ABILITY to enable movement and communication in people with severe paralysis.

I manage the project strategy, the budget and I organize the timeline. I am also working on the design and development plans. As ABILITY is a regulated medical device, I work closely with the regulatory team to ensure compliance and submission of documents to competent authorities. This is to ensure that ABILITY reaches the people it is intended for. In essence, the role of the project manager is to guide the project from the beginning until the end, both in the short term, and in the longer term.

Tell us more about ABILITY

ABILITY stands for Active Brain Implant Live Information Transfer System. It comprises an active implant placed on the skull, under the scalp, and is connected to microelectrodes that acquire neural signals directly from the brain. There is a wearable device that wirelessly receives the neural signals from the implant and transfers them to a computer. Finally, the Wyss Center’s NeuroKey software transforms neural signals into commands to control assistive devices.