Michael Beyeler

Biography

Michael Beyeler directs the Bionic Vision Lab at UC Santa Barbara. He received a PhD in Computer Science from UC Irvine as well as a BS in Electrical Engineering and a MS in Biomedical Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Prior to joining UCSB, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the labs of Ione Fine (Psychology, Institute for Neuroengineering) and Ariel Rokem (eScience Institute) at the University of Washington, where he developed computational models of bionic vision. He is Associate Director of the UCSB Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior (ReCVEB) and recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pathway to Independence Award.

Research

The 'bionic eye'—so long a dream of the future—is finally becoming a reality with several visual neuroprostheses available across the globe. We are an interdisciplinary group interested in using these neural interfaces as a tool to study the neural mechanisms of visual perception in people with low vision and to develop advanced stimulation strategies for different bionic eye technologies, with the ultimate goal of restoring useful vision to the blind.