Neural & Biomedical Technology Department

Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR, Singapore

Dr. Cuntai Guan is currently the Principal Scientist and Department Head at the Institute for Infocomm Research, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. He is the A*STAR Programme Leader of Neuro-Technology. He received his PhD degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Southeast University in 1993. His career began with research and development on speech recognition, text-to-speech, and spoken dialogue technologies. He was a lecturer, visiting scientist and researcher at Southeast University, CRIN/CNRS-INRIA, City University of Hong Kong, and Kent Ridge Digital Laboratories, from 1994-1998. He then spent 5 years in industry (Lernout & Hauspie, InfoTalk Technology), as a Research Manager and the R&D Director. Since 2003, he founded and directed the Brain-computer Interface (BCI) Laboratory at the Institute for Infocomm Research. From 2007 to 2012, he founded and directed two research programs on medical and healthcare technology at the Institute for Infocomm Research. These research programs covered research areas in neuro-technology, medical image processing, ambient intelligence, activity monitoring, biomedical signal processing, health monitoring, diagnosis, rehabilitation, treatment, and decision support. Since 2012, he founded and directed a research department, Neural & Biomedical Technology Department at the Institute for Infocomm Research, focusing on brain-computer interfaces, neural and biomedical signal processing and sensing, neural and biomedical image processing.

Dr.Guan's research interests include neural and biomedical signal processing, machine learning and pattern recognition, neural and cognitive process and its clinical applications, brain-computer interface algorithms, systems and applications, statistical signal processing, neural image processing, medical system and device research and development. He is the recipient of Annual BCI Research Award 2010, IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award 2009, Achiever of the Year (Research) Award 2011. He published over 200 refereed journal and conference papers and holds 14 granted patents and applications. He licensed 7 patents to US and Singapore based companies. He secured over $9.8M research grant as principal investigator and co-investigator in the past 5 years. He delivered over 40 keynote speech and invited talks. He is on Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Access (life sciences and biomedical engineering), Australasian Medical Journal, Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics, and A*STAR Research Publication.

The Neural & Biomedical Technology Department aims at advancing the science and technology in neural and biomedical engineering, with the aim of creating novel and efficacious solutions to better people's lives and to improve the quality of healthcare. We have formed strong partnerships with clinicians to validate the medical solutions and devices. To bring our technologies to the market, we are actively engaging the medical and healthcare industry for effective and efficient technology transfer. We constantly innovate in the field of neuro-technology and biomedical engineering. Our technologies have won accolades in Singapore and around the world. We have close collaborations with renowned specialists and medical institutions. Our technologies have been tested and validated in clinical settings through randomized controlled clinical trials. With our specificity on research areas that seek to address global needs such as aging population and wellness, we are able to focus and build deep capabilities into future innovations. We welcome collaborations with industry partners who would like to bring innovation to the next level in healthcare with us.

Research Area 1: Human Neural Sensing & Intervention
Millions of people suffer from neural and cognitive problems. However, the brain is the least known organ of human beings. We aim at advancing the neural information processing to provide insightful understanding of our brain, so as to alleviate mental problems, enhance cognitive capabilities and treat neural disorders.

Research Area 2: Human Physiological Sensing & Interpretation
One of the paradigm shifts in healthcare is the availability of continuous monitoring data from the brain and human body. Acquisition and interpretation of such information are essential for many healthcare systems. With this, we are bridging the gap between hospital and home, and between wellness and healthcare.

Research Area 3: Human Image Sensing
Images from the brain and human body contain very rich information in structures and functions. We focus on information extraction and characterization of the images so as to provide scientific evidence for disease diagnosis, treatment assessment, lesion detection, surgical planning and training, and disorder etiology.

Research topics

- Biomedical Image analysis & interpretation
- Biomedical Image Modelling and Simulation
- Biomedical Sensing & Actuation
- Biomedical Sensor Signal Processing
- Brain-computer Interface (BCI) Algorithms and Systems
- Brain-computer Interfaces (BCI) for Stroke, ADHD, Cognition, Sleep
- Brain State Classification & Detection
- Human Image Sensing & Processing
- Human Neural Sensing & Intervention
- Human Physiological Sensing & Interpretation
- Multimodal Neuroimaging & Connectivity
- Neural Signal Processing & Analysis

ctguan@i2r.a-star.edu.sg