Current Team

Prof. Patrick Degenaar
Professor of Neuroprosthetics
I received a first-class (Hons.) degree in applied physics and an M.Res. Degree in surface science from Liverpool University, Liverpool, U.K., in 1996 and 1997, respectively. After a short period as a medical engineering technician, in Northern Ireland, I went on study a PhD in the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which I completed in 2001. I then tried a period in the software industry in the Netherlands, but got bored and went on to an initial post-doctoral researcher position in the Physics dept, Imperial College, London. I had intended to go back to industry, but ended up interested in the new field of optogenetics in 2003. So I attained an RCUK fellowship and lectureship to explore the new technology for applications in retinal prosthesis in 2005. I was further promoted to senior lecturer in 2008, but decided to move to Newcastle in 2010, where I was promoted to reader in 2012 and full professor in 2019. I’ve been involved with a number of different projects, but notably, between 2010-2014, I coordinated the Eur2.1M OptoNeuro FP7 project (www.optoneuro.eu) to develop an optogenetic retinal prosthesis. Since then, I have been the engineering workpackage leader on the flagship CANDO project (www.cando.ac.uk) to develop an optogenetic prosthesis to negate seizures in epileptic patients.
My Google scholar is here.
My ORID is here.

Dr Reza Tamadoni
Research Associate
Reza was graduated from Warwick University. He joined the Warwick University as a Post Doc research fellow in Engineering Department, working on Electronic Nose development.
He later on moved from academia to industry and worked in a few spin-off companies from Warwick and Durham Universities before Joining an Innovation based company in Newcastle.
Reza research interests are mostly in Sensor Technology, Electro-Optics and Novel Innovative Devices. Reza has recently joined the Professor Degenaar team in Neuroprosthetics LAB working on the CANDO project.
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Dr Carl Dale
Research Associate
Carl has a multidisciplinary background, with a large and diverse skillset, who has practical expertise in developing novel technologies: biosensors and inertial-rate sensors. For his role working alongside the Neuro-Prosthetics Lab, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, his research focusses on developing processes for fabricating silicon neuroprosthetics using novel micro-milling techniques.
My Google scholar is here.
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Mr Lalit Miyan
Research Associate
I am a research associate with the team here at Newcastle University. Happy to be part of this research work. I am holding a Bachelor Of Engineering in "ELECTRONIC DESIGN TECHNOLOGY" from R.K.N.E.C., Nagpur (India) under Nagpur University in the year 1998. I have been in I. C. Design/ASIC/SoC industry for almost 2 decades. In the past I have worked for companies like Agilent/Avago Technologies ( Singapore ), NXP ( Singapore ), Freescale Semiconductor <Now NXP > ( India ), Cadence Design Systems ( India). During this industry experience, I have 1 patent ( with 2 additional co-author ) and 2 defensive publication with M/s Freescale Semiconductor ( Now NXP Semiconductors ). My last company I worked was Cadence Design Systems ( India ).
In the past I had been part of the design, develop, productionized of ASIC going into Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Chip with MAC+BB+RADIO one-chip solution, General purpose MCU for Automotive & Industrial Radar ADAS System, etc. I like to debug and happy to share all ASIC done till date are 100% successful.
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Dimitris Firfilionis
Research Assistant & PhD Student
I received my MEng degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering in 2016 from Newcastle University. In August 2016 I joined the CANDO project as a research assistant, working on embedded systems and system integration. I recently started a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Degenaar, with a main focus on neural implantable devices for optogenetic applications.
My Google scholar is here.

Dr Ahmed Soltan
Academic Visitor
Ahmed Soltan received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, in 2004 and 2008, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in electronics and communication from Cairo University in 2014. He is currently working as a research associate at the School of Engineering, Newcastle University. His current research interests is about energy harvesting systems, power management and thermal modelling and behaviour for implementable biomedical devices. He is interested in embedded system design for lab-on-chip system. He is also interested in the investigation of fractional circuits and systems, specifically in fractional order analog filters for signal processing and fractional order modelling for biomedical applications.
My Google scholar is here.

Banafsaj Rasool
PhD Student
I received my BSc degree from Nahrain University, Iraq, 2010. And first class MSc degree from Newcastle University, UK,2016. I awarded Santander Mobility award in 2017. I’m Currently PhD student under Supervision of Dr. Patrick Degenaar. My work is primarily focused on design and implantation of wireless ultrasonic data and powering of implantable medical devices.
My Google scholar is here.

Yu Liu
PhD Student
I received my BEng degree (Automation & Control) from Jilin University, China, 2015, and MSc degree (Wireless Embedded System) with distinction from Newcastle University, UK, 2017. I’m currently PhD student under supervision of Dr. Patrick Degenaar, with current focus on design of wireless data and power transmission of implantable devices and design of the optogenetic visual prothesis.
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