Dr. Sam Michalka

Assistant Professor
Computational Neuroscience and Engineering
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Milas Hall 357 | sam at olin dot edu

Education & Industry Experience

Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience, Boston University
M.A., Psychology (Brain, Behavior, & Cognition), Boston University
B.S., Psychological Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Prior to joining Olin, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology at Boston University and the executive director of Machine Science, a small education outreach non-profit. My doctoral research explored the relationship between hearing and sight in the organization of the human brain and how our sensory modalities interact with the type of information that we are processing. Before graduate school, I worked as an engineer for General Electric, improving manufacturing processes for wind turbines, compressor blades, and solar panels.

Research

My research combines cognitive neuroscience, data analysis, and engineering. I’m excited about developing technologies that improve the human experience.

Areas of interest and expertise:

  • Brain-machine interfaces
  • Augmented, mixed, and virtual reality
  • Cognitive load, attention and memory
  • Auditory and visual perception
  • Data analysis, statistics, and machine learning

Check out some of my lab’s projects and my publications on Google Scholar.

Interested in working together?

I am available for technical project consulting, research collaborations, sponsored projects, and education workshops. Email me or check out ways to get involved with our lab.