Joel Ye, a graduate student in the Neuroscience Institute’s Program in Neural Computation(opens in new window), has been awarded the Department of Energy’s Computational Science Graduate Fellowship(opens in new window) (DOE CSGF). The prestigious fellowship provides funding for tuition, a yearly stipend and professional development allowance and access to a community of computational science and engineering leaders.

Ye is a Ph.D. candidate currently rotating with Leila Wehbe(opens in new window) and Robert Gaunt(opens in new window). His research aims to relate computation in the brain and in artificial intelligence (AI) systems and to develop deep learning systems for bidirectional brain-computer interfaces.

Ye said that while there are thriving AI and neuroscience communities at Carnegie Mellon University, surprisingly few labs are working toward applying deep learning algorithms in clinical neuroscientific applications. His fellowship will allow him to pursue work toward modeling neurostimulation, connecting the complex disciplines.

“I'm deeply grateful for the chance to pursue what I see as a big opportunity for the field,” Ye said. “We've long been trying to understand how the brain's activity derives from the behaviors it supports, and we're seeing exciting progress in our ability to quantify this connection. I believe this connection can be leveraged to improve brain computer interface applications.”

The 2022-23 class of DOE CSGF(opens in new window) includes 33 fellows from schools across the United States. The Krell Institute, which administers the fellowship, reports that more than 600 CSGF alumni now work in fields that support computing's capacity to address crucial problems.