Modeling Biological Systems - Bioengineering @ George Mason

Bioengineering Seminar
Laurence
Bray, Ph.D.
StevenC.
Landau
Bioengineering Term Instructional Faculty Candidate
President and Founder of Touch Graphics, Inc.
Research Asst. Professor, Department of
Bioengineering, George Mason University
Modeling Biological Systems:
From Differential Equations
To Excitable Neurons
The field of bioengineering encompasses a variety
of concentrations. Although each of them requires
a different knowledge and set of skills they all
involve a strong linkage between engineering and
biological principles. Therefore, to best prepare
bioengineering students to enter their working life,
undergraduate and graduate classes should be
geared towards understanding the bridge between
theoretical methods and biological systems, and
utilizing engineering tools to solve biomedical
problems. This seminar will first give a brief
overview on how to utilize mathematical equations
to model biological structures. More specifically, it
will cover specific differential equations utilized to
simulate neural activity in the brain. The second
part of the presentation will show possible
quantitative measures that can be extracted from
modeling these neural networks. Finally, it will
provide other relevant applications that can evolve
from using mathematical methods and applying
them to biomedical systems. By the end of the
seminar, students should understand basic computational techniques for modeling and analyzing
biological systems, specifically excitable cells in
the brain.
Friday, April 17, 2015
1:30PM-2:00PM, Room 3507
Nguyen Engineering Building
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Laurence Bray received her B.S.
degree in biological sciences and M.S.
degree in bioengineering from Clemson
University, SC in 2004 and 2005,
respectively. She received her Ph.D.
degree in biomedical engineering from
the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR)
in 2010. She then gained more research
and teaching experience as a postdoctoral fellow in computer science and
engineering at UNR.
As a postdoctoral fellow and a
research assistant professor, Laurence
focused on developing bio-inspired
models and integrating them in a virtual
neurorobotic environment to study highlevel human behaviors. Along with her
research, she has taught a computational
neuroscience course for both undergraduate and graduate students.
Laurence has recently started a
new appointment as a research assistant
professor in the Department of Bioengineering at George Mason University.
She continues her research in the field of
computational neuroscience working
with Dr. Wilsaan Joiner in studying basic neural mechanisms underlying visual
perception and motor adaptation. She
has been the instructor for two senior
design courses (BENG 492 and 493) as
well as a mentor for several undergraduate students who received an
undergraduate research scholars program
(URSP) award.
For any questions please contact Claudia
Borke at [email protected], (703) 993-4190