RAMANA KUMAR VINJAMURI

33 Fairview Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15221

Tel: (610)306-8539, Email: rkv3@pitt.edu

 

RESEARCH

INTERESTS

Signal processing, dimensionality reduction and optimization methods

Neural engineering, sensorimotor control and rehabilitation

 

RESEARCH

GRANTS

Mary E. Switzer Merit Fellowship from National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) (PR: H133F100001); Role: Principal Investigator Project: A synergy based brain machine interface to reanimate paralyzed hands.

 

PATENTS 

R. Vinjamuri (Lead), W. Wang, Z.-H. Mao, D. Weber. Human machine interface based on task-specific temporal postural synergies (US Patent Pending: 13/246,190)

EDUCATION

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, August 2008, GPA 3.78/4.0  

 

Villanova University, Villanova, PA

M.S. in Electrical Engineering, August 2004, GPA 3.74/4.0

 

Kakatiya University, India

B. Tech. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, May 2002, 82.5/100

 

EXPERIENCE

Research experience

Research Associate (Aug.2011-Current)

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh.

Project: Brain Machine Interfaces for Neural Prosthesis

 

Postdoctoral Fellow (Aug.2008-Aug.2010)

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh.

Project: Virtual reality based rehabilitation and Brain Computer Interface for Neural Prosthesis

 

Graduate Research Assistant (Aug.2005-Aug.2008)

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh.

Project: Dimensionality reduction in control and coordination of human hand: time-varying synergies in joint movements of hand (Optimization methods in MATLAB)

                                               

Graduate Research Associate (Aug.2005-Dec.2007)

Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh.

Project: Extraction of neural sources from patients with movement disorders: tremor detection in essential tremor (Blind source separation of convoluted mixtures in MATLAB)

                       

Graduate Research Assistant (Aug.2002-Aug.2004)

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Villanova University.

Project: Design and implementation of a state of charge meter for Li-ion batteries to be used in portable defibrillators (Fuzzy Logic in MATLAB and Motorola HC12)

 

Research intern (Aug.2001-Aug.2002)

ECIL Corporation of India Ltd., AP, India

Project: Hardware design of 32-bit ALU (Xilinx, Cadence)

 

Teaching experience

Mentored graduate students in Human Rehab Neural Engineering Lab (hRNEL), Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh. (Sep.2008-Current)

 

Mentored undergraduate students in the research experience for undergrads (REU) program of Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL), University of Pittsburgh. (Summer 2010 and Summer 2011)

 

Mentored graduate students in novel research of hand movement analysis in Dr. Mao’s Lab towards dissertation. (Aug.2006-Aug.2008)

 

Mentored undergraduate students in Pitt Excel student research internship in computer visualization of Kinematic synergies. (Summer 2006) 

 

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh. Computer Organization and Digital Systems Laboratory. (Aug.2004-Aug.2005)

 

PROFESSIONAL

ACTIVITIES

Reviewer for Journal of Neural Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transport Systems, IEEE EMBC, Sensors, International Journal of Radio Frequency Identification Technology and Applications, and International Journal of Nano Medicine.

 

IEEE Senior Member (Sep.2011-Current)

 

Grant reviewer for National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)

 

Chapter Chair for IEEE Signal Processing Society of Pittsburgh Chapter (Aug.2010-Current)

 

SCHOLARSHIPS

Research Fellowship supported by Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,

University of Pittsburgh and in part by NSF. (Aug.2005-Aug.2008)    

 

Graduate Teaching Fellowship by Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh. (Aug.2004-Aug.2005)

 

Graduate Research Fellowship supported by NIH for design and implementation of state-of-charge meters for Li-ion batteries used in portable defibrillators in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Villanova University. (Aug.2002-Aug.2004)

 

PUBLICATIONS

Book Chapters

1.      Ramana Vinjamuri, Wei Wang, Mingui Sun and Zhi-Hong Mao (2012). Application of Linear and Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction Methods, Principal Component Analysis, Parinya Sanguansat (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-0195-6, InTech,  Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/application-of-linear-and-nonlinear-dimensionality-reduction-methods        

 

Journal papers

1.      P. Singh, R. Vinjamuri, X. Wang, and D. Reisner. Fuzzy logic modeling of EIS measurements on Lithium-ion batteries, Electrochimica Acta, Vol. 51, pp. 1673-1679, 2006.

2.      P. Singh, R. Vinjamuri, X. Wang, and D. Reisner. Design and implementation of a fuzzy logic based state-of-charge meter for Li-ion batteries used in portable defibrillators, Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 152, pp. 829-836, 2006.

3.      R. Vinjamuri, D. Crammond, D. Kondziolka, H.-N. Lee and Z.-H. Mao. Extraction of sources of tremor in hand movements of patients with movement disorders. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Vol.13, pp. 49-56, 2009.

4.      R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, R. Sclabassi, and Z. -H. Mao. Temporal postural synergies of hand in rapid grasping tasks. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Vol.14, pp. 986-994, 2010.

5.      R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, R. Sclabassi, and Z.-H. Mao. Dimensionality reduction in control and coordination of human hand. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol.57, pp. 284-295, 2010.

6.      R. Vinjamuri, D. Weber, Z.-H. Mao, J. Collinger, A Degenhart, J. Kelly, M. L. Boninger, E. C. Tyler-Kabara and W. Wang. Towards synergy based control in brain machine interfaces. IEEE Transactions in Information Technology and Biomedicine, Vol.15, pp.726-736, 2011.

7.      R. Vinjamuri, Z.-H. Mao, D. Weber, W. Wang. Movement primitives in hand grasping movements: principal components vs. linear discriminants. Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence.

8.      R. Vinjamuri, J. Collinger, D. Weber, A. Degenhart, E. C. Tyler-Kabara, M. L. Boninger and W. Wang. Neural representations of synergies in electrocorticographic activities. Submitted to Journal of Neural Engineering.

9.      R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, R. Sclabassi, and Z.-H. Mao. Inherent bimanual postural synergies in hands. Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

10.  R. Vinjamuri, D Weber, G Sudre, A Degenhart, J Collinger, M Boninger, Z.-H. Mao, and W Wang. Myoelectric control of a multidimensional virtual hand using kinematic synergies. Submitted to IEEE Transactions in Biomedical Engineering.

11.  J. Collinger, W. Wang, R. Vinjamuri, A. Dagenhart, G. Sudre, M. Boninger, E. Tyler-Kabara, D. Weber. Mirror neuron like response of electrocorticographic recording during overt and observed hand movements. Submitted to Journal of Neuroscience.

 

Peer-reviewed conference papers and abstracts

12.  P. Singh, R. Vinjamuri, X. Wang, and D. Reisner. Fuzzy logic based state-of-health estimation of Li-ion Batteries, in 41st Power Sources Conference, Philadelphia, PA, pp. 461-464, 2004.

13.  P. Singh, R. Vinjamuri, X. Wang, and D. Reisner. Fuzzy logic modeling of EIS measurements on Lithium-ion batteries, in International Symposium on Electro chemical Impedance Spectroscopy, Cocoa Beach, FL, 2004.

14.  R. Vinjamuri, Z.-H. Mao, R. Sclabassi, and M. Sun. A novel architecture for the design of prosthetic and robotic hands, in 32nd Northeast bio Engineering Conference, Allentown, PA, pp. 163-164, 2006.

15.  R. Vinjamuri, Z.-H. Mao, R. Sclabassi, and M. Sun. Limitations of surface EMG signals of extrinsic muscles in predicting postures of human hand, in Proceedings of the 28th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, NY, USA, pp. 5491-5494, 2006.

16.  R. Vinjamuri, Z.-H. Mao, R. Sclabassi, and M. Sun. Time-varying synergies in velocity profiles of finger joints of the hand during reach and grasp, in Proceedings of the 29th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, France, pp. 4846-4849, 2007.

17.  R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, R. Sclabassi, and Z.-H. Mao. Inherent bimanual postural synergies in hands, in Proceedings of the 30th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, Canada, pp. 5093-5096, 2008.

18.  R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, R. Sclabassi, and Z. -H. Mao. Temporal variation of postural synergies of the human hand during grasping. 16th international conference on mechanics in medicine and biology, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 23rd-25th July 2008.

19.  R. Vinjamuri, D. Weber, A. Degenhart, J. Collinger, G. Sudre, P. D. Adelson, D. L. Holder, M. L. Boninger, A. B. Schwartz, D. J. Crammond, E. C. Tyler-Kabara and W. Wang. A Fuzzy logic model for hand posture control using human cortical activty recorded by micro-ECoG electrodes, in Proceedings of the 31st IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 2009.

20.  R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, D. Weber, W. Wang, D. Crammond, and Z.-H. Mao. Quantizing and characterizing the variance of hand postures in a novel transformation task, in Proceedings of the 31st IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 2009.

21.  W. Wang, A. Degenhart, J. Collinger, R. Vinjamuri, G. Sudre, P. Adelson, D. Holder, E. Leuthardt, D. Moran, M. Boninger, A. Schwartz, D. Crammond, E. Tyler-Kabara and D. Weber. Human motor cortical activity recorded with micro-ECoG electrodes during individual finger movements, in Proceedings of the 31st IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 2009.

22.  J. Collinger, W. Wang, A. Degenhart, R. Vinjamuri, G. Sudre, E. Tyler-Kabara, D. Weber Towards a direct brain interface for controlling assistive devices, in International Symposium on Quality of Life Technologies, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009.

23.  S. Foldes, R. Vinjamuri, W. Wang, D. Weber, J. Collinger. Stability of MEG for real-time neurofeedback, in Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, Boston, MA, USA, 2011.

24.  A. Degenhart, J. Collinger, R. Vinjamuri, J. Kelly, E. Tyler-Kabara, W. Wang. Classification of hand posture from electrocorticographic signals recorded during varying force conditions, in Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, Boston, MA, USA, 2011.

25.  R. Vinjamuri, D. Crammond, D. Kondziolka, and Z.-H. Mao. Extraction of neural sources from kinematic profiles of hand movement, in NSF Engineering Research and Innovation Conference, Knoxville, TN, 2008.

26.  R. Vinjamuri, Brian Dicks, Mingui Sun, Robert Sclabassi, and Z.-H. Mao. Graphical realization of time-varying synergies in velocity profiles of finger joints of the hand during reach and grasp, in NSF Engineering Research and Innovation Conference, Knoxville, TN, 2008.

27.  R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, R. Sclabassi, and Z. -H. Mao. Temporal variation of postural synergies of the human hand during grasping. 16th international conference on mechanics in medicine and biology, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 23rd-25th July 2008.

28.  R. Vinjamuri, M. Sun, and Z.-H. Mao. A framework for extracting kinematic synergies of hand movement, in NSF Engineering Research and Innovation Conference, Hawaii, 2009.

29.  R. Vinjamuri, A. Degenhart, J. L. Collinger, G. P. Sudre, E. Leuthardt, D. Moran, M. Boninger, A. B. Schwartz, D. J. Crammond, E. Tyler-Kabara, D. J. Weber, W. Wang. Human micro-electrocorticographic signals recorded during action execution and observation. BMES Annual Fall Scientific Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, Oct. 7-10, 2009.

30.  R. Vinjamuri, A. Degenhart, J. L. Collinger, G. P. Sudre, D. J. Crammond, E. Tyler-Kabara, D. J. Weber, W. Wang. Decoding hand posture based on human micro-electrocorticographic signals recorded during action observation. Neuroscience, Chicago, IL, Oct. 17-21, 2009.

31.  R. Vinjamuri, A. Degenhart, J. L. Collinger, D. J. Crammond, E. Tyler-Kabara, D. J. Weber, M. Boninger, Z.-H. Mao, W. Wang. Towards synergy based brain machine interfaces. Neuroscience, San Diego, CA, Nov. 17-21, 2010.

 

INVITED

PRESENTATIONS

1.      Limitations of surface EMG signals of extrinsic muscles in predicting postures of human hand (2006) in proceedings of the 28th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, NY, USA.

2.      A Fuzzy logic model for hand posture control using human cortical activity recorded by micro-ECoG electrodes (2009) in proceedings of 31st IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, MN, USA.

3.      Human motor cortical activity recorded with micro-ECoG electrodes during individual finger movements (2009) in proceedings of 31st IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, MN, USA.

4.      Human micro-electrocorticographic signals recorded during action execution and observation (2009) in Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA.

5.      Towards a direct-brain interface for controlling assistive devices (2009) in The 1st International Symposium on Quality of Life Technologies. Pittsburgh, PA.

6.      Brain-computer interfaces in physical medicine and rehabilitation (January 2010) in University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association (UPPDA), Pittsburgh, USA.

7.      A synergy-based brain-machine interface (April 2011) in ECE Department Seminar Series, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA.

8.      Brain-machine interfaces for neural prosthesis (October 2011) in Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Seminar Series, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.

9.      A synergy-based brain-machine interface for dexterous control of prosthetic hands (February 2012) in Biomedical Engineering Department Seminar Series, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.

10.  Dexterous control of Brain-machine interfaces for dexterous control of prosthetic hands (February 2012) in Electrical Engineering Technology Seminar Series, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, PA, USA.