Sam Sober, Ph.D.

Sam is an Associate Professor of Biology at Emory University and the Director of the Simons-Emory International Consortium for Motor Control. Sam’s research investigates the neural, muscular, and computational mechanisms of skilled motor control across species and behaviors.

Muhannad Bakir, Ph.D.

Muhannad is the Dan Fielder Professor of Electrical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology doing research in nanotechnology and fabrication. Muhannad’s research focuses on 3D electronic systems and advanced interconnect networks.

Bryce Chung, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Bryce is a postdoc in the Sober Lab and is the Senior Manger for Technology and Innovation of the Simons-Emory International Consortium for Motor Control. Bryce’s research focuses on the neural mechanisms of motor control of complex behaviors.

Muneeb Zia, Ph.D.

Muneeb is a research engineer in the Integrated 3D Systems Lab run by Dr. Bakir. Muneeb’s research focuses on the design, fabrication, and implementation of 3D structures on flexible substrate to record neural activity and for microcircuit integration

Letter from our leadership team

Dear colleagues,

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce the motor neuroscience community to our new technology for high-resolution EMG recording. We initially developed these flexible high-density arrays to record single motor unit activity from the tiny muscles controlling breathing and vocal behavior in songbirds (Srivastava et al, 2017). Since these initial studies we have further developed our devices’ capabilities  (Zia et al. 2018, 2020) and collaborated with a number of labs to create new electrode designs to record from a number of different species and muscle groups.

We now seek to share this technology with the greater neuroscience community. This remote workshop, which will bring our methods to 100 users worldwide, represents the next step in this process. With support provided by the Simons, Kavli, Azrieli, and Novonordisk Foundations as well as institutional support from Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, we will provide (at no charge) both electrode arrays and online instruction materials for users to collect high-resolution EMG data in their own labs. 

The dual goals of the workshop are to show participants how high-resolution EMG can advance their studies of motor control and to provide us with feedback about how we might further improve our designs. Both goals will be facilitated by creating a number of online “cohorts”: groups of participations who will undertake the 4-week workshop at roughly the same time and receive support and advice from us and from each other.

To begin, please complete the Pre-Registration Questionnaire to provide your contact information and give us an idea of your lab’s goals and prior experience with collecting EMG recordings. We then follow up to arrange the details of your participation.

We are looking forward to working with you!