Neural Engineering Timeline

Timeline of Neural Engineering

This is the timeline of the various different milestones that have been accomplished with the different sciences and fields of Neural Engineering.

~2004: Neural engineering recognized as its own independent research area under biomedical engineering
2004: First journal published talking about neural engineering The Journal of Neural Engineering and The Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.
2003-2009: IEEE EMBS conference on neural engineering in Antalya, Turkey
2011: IEEE EMBS conference April/May in Cancun, Mexico
2013: IEEE EMBS conference San Diego, CA November
2015: IEEE EMBS conference April 2015 Montpellier.
2017: IEEE EMBS conference on neural engineering in Shanghai, China
Field still under very active development

1943: Paper written on how neurons may work and how they may be able to be integrated into artificial intelligence
~1950s: Became possible to simulate simple neural networks using electrical circuits
1975: First multilayered unsupervised neural network developed
1986: Deep learning first introduced
2009: nVidia graphics company involved in “big bang” of GPU-enabled deep learning / machine learning hardware
Present day (2017): deep learning computing power has reached levels of a worm brain

1957: First cochlear implant
1961: First motor prosthesis for foot drop in hemiplegia
1977: First auditory brainstem implant
1981: Peripheral nerve bridge implanted into spinal cord of adult rat
2000: First clinical trial of permanently implanted retinal prosthesis
- Subjects demonstrated ability to distinguish between three common objects at levels statistically above chance

1970’s: Allan McLeod Cormack and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield introduced computerized axial tomography (CAT / CT) scanning
1980’s: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI / MR) scanning first introduced clinically
1990’s: Functional MRI (fMRI) born and used to dominate brain mapping field due to its low invasiveness, lack of radiation exposure, and relatively wide availability