Saturday, November 3, 2007

at the California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
Registration and Continental Breakfast:
8:00 a.m. Baxter Hall
Program: 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Networking: 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Cost: $40 on-line registration fee.  $50 at-the-door.  $10 for students with full-time student ID (must show at door); free to Caltech students. Registrations are taken on-line up to 12:00 noon the day prior to the event. There are no refunds for no-shows.

The program will examine neural controlled medical devices, whether implantable or external. We will discuss the progress-to-date, the promise for the future, present priorities, the opportunities for entrepreneurs, and the prospects for private capital to fund promising companies. Please join the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum for this highly interesting and timely presentation.

Speakers

Matt McMahon, PhD
Principal Scientist
Second Sight, Sylmar, CA

Second Sight, located in Sylmar, California, is creating a retinal prosthesis to provide sight to patients blinded from outer retinal degenerations such as Retinitis Pigmentosa. The first device consists of a tiny camera and transmitter mounted in eyeglasses, an implanted receiver, and an electrode-studded array that is secured to the retina with a microtack the width of a human hair. A wireless microprocessor and battery pack worn on the belt powers the entire device. The camera on the glasses captures an image and sends the information to the video processor, which converts the image to an electronic signal and sends it to the transmitter on the sunglasses. The implanted receiver wirelessly receives this data and sends the signals through a tiny cable to the electrode array, stimulating it to emit electrical pulses. The pulses induce responses in the retina that travel through the optic nerve to the brain, which perceives patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to the electrodes stimulated. Patients learn to interpret the visual patterns produced into meaningful images.

Jeremy L. Emken, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Fellow - the Andersen Lab
Division of Biology
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

The Andersen Lab is doing cutting edge work in neural mechanisms for visual-motor integration, spatial perception and motion perception. An exciting project in the lab is to develop a cognitive-based neural prosthesis for paralyzed patients. This prosthetic system is designed to record the electrical activity of nerve cells in the posterior parietal cortex of paralyzed patients, interpret the patients' intentions from these neural signals using computer algorithms, and convert the "decoded" plans into electrical control signals to operate external devices such as a robot arm, autonomous vehicle or a computer.

Panelists

Ahmed A. Enany
President & CEO
Southern California Biomedical Council

Fred Farina
Assistant Vice President
Dept. of Technology Transfer
California Institute of Technology

Moderator

Russ Frandsen
Attorney-at-Law
The Business Legal Group

Co-Producers

Russ Frandsen
Attorney-at-Law
The Business Legal Group

Rogelio F. Nochebuena
President
Nochebuena R&D

Date
Saturday morning, November 3, 2007

Location
Registration and Continental Breakfast:
8:00 a.m. at Baxter Hall, Caltech
Program:
9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Networking:
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon at Baxter Hall, Caltech

Cost
$40 on-line registration fee.  $50 at-the-door.  $10 for students with full-time student ID (must show at door); free to Caltech students. Registrations are taken on-line up to 12:00 noon the day prior to the event. There are no refunds for no-shows.

Sponsor for this Program

	Caltech Industrial Relations Center
	Caltech Alumni Association
	MIT Alumni Association

Empowering Entrepreneurs to Build New Businesses
through Capital, Education, Strategic Partners and People

The Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum is administered in
conjunction with Entretech