The project "AI-Mediated Augmented and Assistive Communication Interfaces for ALS: Decoding Movement and Movement Intent Through High-Density EMG and EEG Signals" has been awarded the CMU Portugal – PRR Collaborative Research Grant.

The winning proposal, led by Pulkit Grover (CMU), Catarina Farinha (Unbabel), our researcher Hugo Plácido da Silva IT - IST), and student Mariana Ferreira Nunes (student from the IST Doctoral Program in Biomedical Engineering), competed in a highly competitive environment, spanning 12 CMU departments and collaborating with 15 PRR projects in Portugal.

The proposed work will optimize muscle and brain machine interfaces (Electromyography – EMG, Electrooculography - EOG, and Electroencephalography - EEG) to advance communication and mobility solutions for individuals with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), harnessing the power of AI. By collecting data on muscle (EMG/EOG) and brain activity (EEG), we aim to establish AI techniques and baseline metrics.

This will inform future studies on ALS patients and the creation of next-generation Augmented and Assistive Communication (AAC) interfaces. The volunteers will perform motor tasks, designed to a) decode movement using EMG, EOG, and EEG, as well as b) decode motor intent using EEG (brain activity) alone, before any movement. EEG-based decoding movement intent will enable AAC interfaces that remain functional even as muscle activity of ALS patients degenerates. These experiments will allow us to assess the signal quality, reliability, and usability of low-density versus high-density grids in decoding movement and motor intent, providing critical data for refining interface designs. 

Hugo Plácido da Silva states that “this is an important milestone for our group, as it enables us to further strengthen the collaboration with CMU and contributes to provide a top-level international experience to early-stage researchers completing their advanced training with us;” also, the “collaboration with a leading industry player such as Unbabel adds to the significance of this achievement, since we ultimately seek to develop research that can have a positive impact in the real-world and in peoples’ everyday lives.” And, lastly, he adds “I believe that it also shows how our work has an international expression and can be competitive at a global level.”

This call aims to support CMU teams by fostering and strengthening educational collaboration, including innovative educational activities, between CMU faculty and students and Portuguese universities, faculty, and students, as well as researchers from companies involved in the Portuguese PRR Mobilizing Agenda, funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).