Alireza ModirshanechiI am a computer science Ph.D. student in the Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience at EPFL where I work on computational models of learning and decision-making in the brain - under the supervision of Prof. Wulfram Gerstner. My main track of research focuses on (i) mathematical definitions of surprise and novelty, (ii) their influence on human behavior, and (iii) their manifestation in physiological measurements. I use statistical inference, information theory, and reinforcement learning to develop theoretical models which I test against behavioral and physiological data. I have worked with EEG, MEG, fMRI, and single neuron recordings.
Prior to joining EPFL, I received my B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. During the last two years of my study, I did a few research projects in the Augmented Intelligence Research Lab (AIR Lab) under the supervision of Prof. Hamid Aghajan. My projects were mainly on (i) studying biomarkers of surprise in EEG signals, (ii) decoding surprise using these biomarkers, and (iii) fMRI-based classification of visual and auditory stimuli.
You can find my random scientific notes and educational articles here in my Medium account, and more information about me on my personal website.
Michela TestolinaMichela Testolina obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Trento, Italy. From 2020 she is a PhD student at the Multimedia Signal Processing Group (MMSPG) under the supervision of Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi. Her main research interests are in the field of image processing, in particular image compression and quality metrics.
Niccolo' DiscacciatiAfter receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Mathematical Engineering from Polytechnic University of Milan (PoliMi) in 2015, I took part in the double degree Master program between EPFL and PoliMi in Computational Science and Engineering. After an internship at the Swiss National Supercomputing Center, I joined the MCSS chair as a Master student in 2018 to write my thesis. Following graduation in 2018, I am currently pursuing my doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Hesthaven.