CCBS Distinguished Lecture Series Presents: Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng
Intelligent Man-Machine Interface: Lessons Learned from Cochlear Implants
As the most successful neural prosthesis, the cochlear implant has restored functional hearing to over one million people worldwide. In this talk, I will discuss the journey of advancing the cochlear implant with a focus on market need, design simplicity, and the interplay between basic and translational research in speech processing. Despite the success, cochlear implant performance—particularly in understanding speech in noisy environments and appreciating music—has stagnated over the past three decades. I attribute this lack of progress to a fundamental mismatch between electrodes and neurons, an issue that limits not only cochlear implants but all man-machine interfaces. Addressing this challenge will likely require a multidisciplinary approach, which I categorize into front-end solutions (e.g., artificial intelligence and wearables) and back-end solutions (e.g., micro-machining and soft electronics). Ultimately, I envision an invisible, intelligent, and self-powered earbud that may eventually replace today’s handheld devices as the most widely used man-machine interface in the future.
Fan-Gang Zeng received B.S. from University of Science and Technology of China in 1982, M.S. from Academia Sinica in 1985, and Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1990. He worked at House Ear Institute (1990-1998), University of Southern California (1996-1998), and University of Maryland, College Park (1998-2000). He is Director of Center for Hearing Research, Research Director of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, and Chancellor’s Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Cognitive Sciences at the University of California Irvine. Dr. Zeng has published widely in areas from engineering to medicine and public policy, including a volume on cochlear implants in Springer Handbook of Auditory Research (Springer-Verlag, New York). He has been on the editorial board for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Journal of Association for Research in Otolaryngology, and Hearing Research. Dr. Zeng was elected to the USA National Academy of Engineering in 2023. He has consulted for NIH, NSF, DOD, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and numerous other public and private agencies. He is Fellow of IEEE, Acoustical Society of America, and The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and served on the Advisory Board for Apherma Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA, ImThera Medical, San Diego, CA, Nurotron Biotech Inc., Hangzhou, China, SoundCure, Boston, MA, and Syntiant, Irvine, CA.
This event will take place in 480 Dreese Lab on March 20 beginning at 4 pm.
