Dr. Shreya Saxena
Assistant Professor Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida
Postdoctoral Fellow Columbia University
PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS in Biomedical Engineering Johns Hopkins University
One year into the coursework for a mechanical engineering degree, Dr. Shreya Saxena couldn’t take one more lecture on the inner workings of lawnmowers and drills. It all felt so disconnected from the world, and more importantly seemed to have little to no impact on real people. Hungry for different stimulation, she attended a lecture where Dr. Henry Markram explained how to reverse engineer the brain using the computational principles she studied in the classroom. That day, Shreya’s eyes were opened to the possibilities of marrying engineering and the brain, and she hasn’t shut her eyes since.
After working as an undergraduate research assistant with the Blue Brain Project, Shreya received a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and went on to complete her PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During her PhD, she was introduced to a cornerstone of past and current research – control theory. Control theory is an engineering framework used to understand and build systems that operate optimally, and has been used to automate production lines and manage computer memory. Human behavior can be looked at through the lens of control theory as well. Imagine you are bringing a spoon full of soup to your mouth, but you move too fast, miss, and spill it everywhere. The sensory information, e.g. a hot soup on your lap, will teach you that you have to move slower and change the trajectory of the spoon in order to get your ultimate goal — a savory mouthful of chicken noodle soup.
In the lab of Dr. Munther Dahleh, Shreya used control theory to study how people make rapid movements, and quantified how fast we can move due to neural limitations. Shreya is one of the few scientists using this framework to study the brain to understand how people precisely execute actions throughout the day. Following her PhD, Shreya went on to do her postdoctoral work at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University. During this time she collaborated with experimentalists in Dr. Mark Churchland and Dr. Anne Churchland’s labs to study cortical neural activity in monkeys and mice, and pinpoint interactions of different regions during movement.
Shreya is currently setting up her lab in the department of electrical engineering at the University of Florida to study neural control where she will continue using control theory to study movement and behavior, and answer questions like how people switch between movements quickly and accurately. “If we look at machines, it’s much harder to code it up to achieve the same variability and robustness [as the brain].” Shreya’s line of research has the potential to impact patients with movement disorders, like Parkinson’s disease. One current treatment for Parkinson’s is deep brain stimulation, where patients have an electrical implant placed in an area of the brain involved in movement generation, the basal ganglia. The implant delivers electrical stimulation with a precisely tuned frequency to ameliorate Parkinson’s symptoms like tremors and stiffness. Typically, patients sit in a doctor's office for hours having their devices tuned to find the optimal stimulation frequency. Shreya’s research may make patient’s lives easier by allowing their implants to be tuned automatically in the comfort of their own homes.
As the daughter of two doctors, she’s always kept medical applications in the foreground. She often asks herself, “How can [my research] be used to design therapies to fix things when they don’t work for patients? Being an engineer, I always tie it back to what we can actually do with this knowledge.” People don’t only play a role in Shreya’s research, but also in positive relationships in the lab environment that have bolstered her ongoing success. Shreya believes that “having a positive lab culture makes research much more sustainable. It’s one of the mentors’ duties to encourage this, and I’ll definitely try to do that in my lab.”
As a woman in science and engineering, Shreya became aware of gender disparities early in her education where she was 1 in four women in 100 students studying mechanical engineering. Despite this jarring imbalance, Shreya’s mentors kept her interested and motivated. Shreya cites Dr. Sridevi V. Sarma, one of her earliest mentors overseeing her master’s work, as a source of inspiration. “She’s been a role model to me, and I still reach out to her even with the smallest questions.” Dr. Sarma was also the first person who made her see that “people sort of like me have made it, and maybe that means I can make it too.”
In addition to building lasting relationships with mentors, Shreya makes sure to immerse herself in the larger research and peer community as well. During her recent postdoctoral fellowship, she moderated lecture series, organized reading groups and seminars, and played a major role in the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. “[Getting involved] stems from imposter syndrome,” Shreya thoughtfully explains. “Coming into a new place, I always feel a little bit like I don’t belong. I’m seeing all of these great people around me… and I ask myself, what in my life have I actually done to deserve this position?” In order to deal with this feeling, Shreya actively takes part in the community. Not only does it help her acclimate to new environments, but she sees it as an act of passing it forward.
Looking forward, Shreya utilizes a strategy for success: creating a five year plan. “You pinpoint a goal you’d like to get and figure out all the paths that can take you to that goal.” This flexible framework is essentially control theory applied to life, allowing her to imagine a shifting landscape of possibilities, and move forward with purpose. In essence, Shreya’s application of control theory to brain research and to her own life will produce exciting results no matter what — we can’t wait to see them.
Stay up-to-date as Shreya finishes setting up her lab at the University of Florida here.
Listen to Leslie’s interview with Shreya below or wherever you get your podcasts!
