Group Members

Dr Hannes P Saal

Senior Lecturer
Email: h.saal@sheffield.ac.uk
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I studied Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. After an internship at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), I obtained an MSc and PhD in Neuroinformatics at the University of Edinburgh. I was then a postdoctoral scholar in Sliman Bensmaia’s lab at the University of Chicago, before joining the University of Sheffield to set up my own lab. For most of my career I have worked on the sense of touch, using methods from computational neuroscience, robotics, and machine learning.

Dr Rodrigo Siqueira Kazu

Data Scientist
Email: r.siqueiradesouza@sheffield.ac.uk
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I am a research associate in computational neuroscience with experience in complex networks, comparative neuroanatomy and cell culturing. In the Active Touch Lab I am helping people walk again by modelling the tactile responses of the foot sole aiming at real-time feedback prosthetics! In addition to that, I am a member of INSIGNEO and a data scientist for the AMRC at the University of Sheffield. My research interests include general intelligence, network neuroscience and information processing in the somatosensory cortex.

Dr Laura R Edmondson

Research Associate
Email: l.r.edmondson@sheffield.ac.uk
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I am a research associate investigating mechanisms that influence topography and magnification in the somatosensory cortex of both humans and non-human primates. I was previously a PhD student in the lab, focusing on modelling somatosensory cortex using dimensionality reduction techniques and self-organising models.

Luke D Cleland

MRC DiMeN PhD Student
Email: ldcleland1@sheffield.ac.uk
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I am a PhD student, part of the MRC DiMeN DTP. My research involves the investigation of tactile processing in the foot along with investigating different gait variables. I have previously worked on computational modelling of homeostatic plasticity in the somatosensory cortex in the context of touch.

Zijun Li

PhD Student
Email: zli241@sheffield.ac.uk
Twitter Orcid

I am a PhD student supervised by Hannes Saal. I am principally interested in modelling the development of the human somatotopy. My research also involves neuroimaging and psychophysical approaches.

James R E Hall

Leverhulme PhD Student
Email: JREHall1@sheffield.ac.uk

I am a PhD student supervised by Hannes Saal, having previously completed my Masters thesis in the lab. My research focuses on sub-surface imaging of the skin and understanding how its structure affects touch.

Olivia M Wallis

CCN MSc student
Email: omwallis1@sheffield.ac.uk

I am a Cognitive and Computational Master’s student at Sheffield University, having previously graduated with a Neuroscience BSc. My Master’s project, supervised by Hannes Saal, centres on image segmentation and processing techniques to investigate the role of skin structure in touch perception.

Mia Rupani

Research Assistant / SURE fellow
Email: mrupani1@sheffield.ac.uk

I am a third year BSc student on the Psychology course. After working on a SURE project over the summer, I am now writing my dissertation on the perceptual consequences of skin stretch.

Dimitrios Dimitriou

Research Assistant / SURE fellow
Email: ddimitriou1@sheffield.ac.uk

I am a third year Psychology student, peer learning leader and student ambassador at the University of Sheffield. After finishing a SURE project supervised by Laura Edmondson, I am continuing to investigate tactile representations in artificial neural networks.

Celia R Blaise

Research Assistant
Email: CBlaise1@sheffield.ac.uk
Orcid

I’m a Masters student in the Cognitive Studies program at Sheffield and I’m very interested in the intersections between Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience research.

Holly C Clark

Research Assistant
Email: HClark8@sheffield.ac.uk

I am a first year BSc Psychology student at the University of Sheffield, particularly interested in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience. I am currently learning from the lab team as they develop their research and assisting them wherever I can.

Associate members

Dr Stuart P Wilson

Lecturer
Email: s.p.wilson@sheffield.ac.uk
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My research explores the interaction between evolution and development in the context of mammalian somatosensory systems. In particular, I am interested in how self-organisation can interact with natural selection in the context of i) self-organisation of topological maps in rodent barrel cortex, ii) self-organising thermoregulatory huddling behaviours in rodent litters.

Prof Tony Prescott

Professor
Email: T.J.Prescott@sheffield.ac.uk
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I investigate active touch sensing in animals, humans and robots, focusing on (i) the evolution of the mammalian somatosensory system, (ii) multisensory perception and memory, (iii) haptic interaction and emotional touch in biomimetic robots, and (iv) haptic interfaces for sensory augmentation and telepresence.

Alumni

PhD students

Giulia Corniani (2019-2023), now postdoc at Harvard Medical School at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

MSc dissertation students

2022-23: James Hall, Raj Deshpande, Wen-Pu Chuang
2021-22: Patrick Brydon, Joanna Kubiak, Peter Beech
2020-21: Tom Graham, Lucy Bradbury, Jesus Rivero Ortega, Jinzhao Wang, Holly Rowland
2019-20: Nicholas Garside, Jonathan Jones, Zimeng Wan
2018-19: Nathan Darnley, Muneerah Patel, Luke Moffat
2017:18: Ursula de Souza Braganca, Ross Bradbury

Research assistants, SURE students, visiting students

Miguel A Casal, visiting PhD student, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (2022)
Giulia Tomassoni, SURE project student (2017)