Professional Background
Professor Yoram Baram of the Computer Science department at the Technion received the BSc degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Technion in 1972, the MSc degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1974, and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1976. Specializing in control theory, he found those dual properties, termed “Estimability” and “Regulability”, which guarantee maximal error reduction in state estimation and maximal cost reduction in linear feedback control, in collaboration with Professor Uri Shaked of Tel Aviv University (1985, 1986) and with Professor Thomas Kailath of Stanford University (1988). He spent two sabbatical terms (1986-1988 and 1996-1998) as a Senior Research Associate of the National Research Council at the NASA Ames Research Centre, where he also served as a consultant for twenty years. Since 1988 he has been working on a mathematical theory of dynamics and information coding in neurobiological systems. In 1999–2004 he developed an audio-visual virtual reality apparatus for gait improvement in neurological patients, for which he was awarded a US patent in 2004. In 2005 he received the Research Award for Best Platform Presentation in the conference on multiple sclerosis CMSC. In 2006 he was appointed the incumbent of the Technion’s Roy Mattas/Winnipeg Chair in Biomedical Engineering. The effectiveness of the sensory feedback device in the improvement of gait in adults and in children with neurological disorders was clinically tested and published in leading medical journals during 2002–2016. Studies of patients with Parkinson’s disease were conducted with Professor Judith Aharon-Peretz of the Technion Medical School and with Professor Alberto Espay of the University of Cincinnati Medical School. Studies of patients with Multiple Sclerosis were conducted with Professor Ariel Miller of the Technion Medical School. Studies of children with Cerebral Palsy were conducted with Dr. Ruben Lenger of Israel’s Foundation for Handicapped Children. Studies of patients with Idiopathic Senile Gait Disorders and of patient with History of Strokes were conducted with Professor Judith Aharon-Peretz and Dr. Ruben Lenger. The cortical effects of the device were demonstrated by EEG recordings with Professor Virginia de Sa and Dr. Priya Velu at the UCSD de Sa Lab. Professor Baram has supervised about thirty graduate students. Serving as head of the Technion Centre for Research in Intelligent Systems since 2010, he retired in 2015. Maintaining a full research schedule at the Technion, he continued to publish his work in leading neuroscience journals. His book, “The Subcritical Brain: A Synergy of Neural Circuits in Memory, Cognition and Sensorimotor Control”, was published by “World Scientific” in 2021.
Research Interests
- Mathematics of cortical plasticity, firing dynamics and information coding
- Statistical learning theory
- Pattern recognition
- Classification
- Regression
- Associative memory
- Non-linear network dynamics
- Artificial neural networks
- Virtual reality and feedback control aids for movement disorders.