I would like to extend a huge congratulation to my PhD student, Shanthini for winning the Best Presentation Award at IEEE TALE 2021. Her presentation was based on the paper entitled “Examining the Brain Functional Connectivity Pattern of Children with Dyslexia during Rapid Naming Tasks: A Preliminary Study”. You made our research team proud. Well done, Shanthini!
I would like to congratulate my PhD student, Fatini Md Said for successfully negotiated her proposal defense entitled “The Study of Brain Functional Connectivity during Reflective Thinking among Teachers using Electroencephalogram (EEG)” this morning.
Thank you to the examiners AP Dr. Zainudin and AP Dr. Norlaili for the insightful comments and suggestions. Thank you also to AP Dr. Baharin who chaired the session and Dr. Ivy as the assistant to the Chairperson.
Many congratulations to my PhD student, Shanthini A/P Chandra Sekaran Naidu for successfully negotiated her proposal defense entitled “Effectiveness of Clay Integrated Sound Box Approach (CISBA) in Enhancing Early Reading Skills among Children with Dyslexia” this afternoon. Thank you to the examiners Prof. Yeo and AP Dr. Zainudin for the insightful comments and suggestions. Thank you also to AP Dr. Baharin who chaired the session and Dr. Rustam as the assistant to the Chairperson.
The four of us met up at DSP Lab yesterday for some updates by Shanthini on her project.
Yesterday we gathered at DSP Lab SKE to discuss the progress of the Fatini’s research. This time around we were joined by Dr. Nurul Ashikin who shared us some of her thoughts based on her expertise and previous experiences conducting EEG on children with disabilities.
Yesterday we met up at DSP Lab to listen to Shanthini’s presentation on brain-based study among dyslexic children.
The first group meeting for “Reflective Brain” project was organised at DSP Lab yesterday. It was primarily meant for discussing the directions of the project that will be carried out by Fatini and Taha. We were joined by Dr Zuri and Dr Syahida.
Fatini presenting her literature review
Taha sharing the way he organised his literature review
During the discussion, Fatini shared her literature review on the concepts of reflection, the thinking process as well as the brain functioning related to reflections. Taha also shared his organisation of literature review. While I got the chance to share the initial conceptual framework adopted from Prof. Ombao’s talk during the short course in UTMKL last time.
Trying to fit in Prof. Ombao’s framework
The initial conceptual framework for the project
We had a short course on EEG electrode placement and data acquisition yesterday (Sunday, 25 August 2019@Advanced Electronic Lab, P19A). We were joined by our colleagues from SKE and also our PhD students. The course started off with a talk delivered by AP Dr. Norlaili, the head of the lab. Among the topics covered by Dr. Norlaili were introduction to EEG signal, its source, the anatomy and functions of the human brain, as well as the rhythms of the brain.
Dr Laili delivering her talk
The next session was a hands-on one during which we were to produce a wire-made model of the EEG cap that help determining EEG channels positioning on the scalp.
Taha the handy-man is working on the model based on Sayyid’s head size…while Dr Syahida and Fatini assisting him….
Taha beaming with pride with the final product modelled by Sayyid…well obviously we had fun in the lab…
The remaining of the session were allocated on demos using the two versions of EEG – the Russian made (a new machine) and the Japanese produced (slightly seasoned one but still works brilliantly).
Tarmidzi showed us how to apply gels on the scalp….gels work as conductors…
Dr. Shikin explaining the signals to Taha and Tarmidzi…
I had the opportunity to attend a short course on “Big data analysis of neuroimaging and genetics” which was held on 17 August 2019, at UTMKL together with Dr. Zuri and Taha, his PhD student. Prominent researchers from the area delivered talks that focusing on how data obtained mainly through EEG and fMRI are being analysed.
The longer version of the course title
Prof. Ombao delivering his talks
The session started with talks by Prof. Hernando Ombao from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology talks on “Spectral methods for brain connectivity” and “Cross-dependence in multivariate time series”. His lectures covered the basics of brain images and signals as well as the related statistical analysis, which I found to be helpful in visualising my initial research idea. One important aspect I learned is that brain signaling helps in the characterisation and differentiation of brain patterns.
While listening to Prof Ombao’s talks I managed to draft the conceptual framework for Fatini’s PhD project.
This was followed by a talk by AP Dr Anqi Qiu from National University of Singapore (NUS) entitled “Phenotypes, genotypes & voxels: a playground next to a nuclear power plant”.
Dr. Fiecas sharing his experiences
The third presenter was Dr. Mark Fiecas from University of Minnesota whose talks entitled “A grouped beta process model for multivariate resting-state EEG microstate analysis on twins” and “Tutorial on fMRI preprocessing and analysis”. Among others, he shared his experience in collecting and analysing EEG and fMRI in studies involving identical and fraternal twins.
Dr. Cribben illustrating the brain signals
The next presenter was Dr. Ivor Cribben from Alberta School of Business, who talked about “Dynamic functional connectivity for human brain imaging data”. Among all the talks, we could closely relate our current project with Ivor’s presentation especially when he highlighted the task design of his research.
Dr. Ting highliting his points entitled “Deep Learning Methods for Brain Connectivity Networks”
The remaining lectures were delivered by UTM’s very own Dr. Chee-Ming Ting from SKBSK and Dr. David Degras from University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Dr. Degras explaining “Dynamic functional connectivity: A sparse group fused lasso approach”
Overall, it was a great course because it was participant-friendly one. We had the chance to consult the experts and all the talks were lively as the Q&A sessions were very informative. Well, one thing for sure now is having the regret for not venturing in neuropsychology last time….
Consulted Prof. Ombao during lunch break and here’s what he suggested….
Dr. Zuri with his current PhD student, Taha and his ex-student from Universiti Malaysia Perlis