Tim Pearce

• First Year Laboratory Coordinator
• Library Liaison Officer

Lecturer
Bioengineering Research Group

BSc, MSc, PhD
T: +44 (0)116 223 1307
F: +44 (0)116 252 2619
E: tcp1@le.ac.uk

Location: Room 704, Engineering Tower

Main Research Interests:
My research is focused on neuroengineering, which is emerging field at the intersection of neuroscience and technology, seeking to understand the brain through the development of new technologies. The approach has two main agendas. Firstly, to understand the brain by building models and physical implementations, and secondly to build models of the brain to create new technologies. Hence my work is a complex research activity that is intimately involved in both the life and physical sciences which currently operates largely through collaboration with biologists.

Neuroengineering has an important place in understanding the brain, as we face a mountain of largely isolated empirical observations of the brain which desperately require synthesis and interpretation. My approach is to build physical implementations of specific target regions of the nervous system, constrained by these empirical data, whilst explicitly
testing, quantifying and measuring their relationship to brain function by placing them firmly within a systems engineering and operational context.

Neuroengineering research not only acts as a proof of our understanding of specific brain centres and subsystems, but also produces a tangible technological outcome with well specified performance criteria. This technological outcome of the neuroengineering approach is highly relevant to our search for more flexible and adaptive information and sensing technologies. My work follows the solutions that the brain adopts to information processing and sensing not because they are necessarily optimal, but that billions of years of evolution has generated efficient and robust sensorimotor information processing solutions adapted to the physical laws of the world around us. This aspect has been crucial in my being able to attract significant external research income (over £1M over 4 years) to conduct my research.

Recent Publications:
• Time and Space are Complementary Coding Dimensions in the Moth Antennal Lobe, Knüsel P. Carlsson M.A., Pearce T.C., Hansson B.S., Verschure P.F.M.J., Network: Computation in Neural Systems, 18(1):35-62.
• Towards an artificial human olfactory mucosa for improved odour classification, Gardner J.W., Covington J.A., Koickal T.J., Hamilton A., Pearce T.C and Tan S.L., Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 463: 1713-1728.  (2007),
• Towards a truly biomimetic olfactory microsystem: an artificial olfactory mucosa. Covington J.A., Gardner J.W., Hamilton A., Pearce T.C., Tan S.L.., IET Nanobiotechnol.
(2007) 1(2):15-21.
• Analog VLSI Circuit Implementation of an Adaptive Neuromorphic Olfaction Chip, Koickal T.J., Hamilton A., Tan S.L., Covington J.A., Gardner J.W., Pearce T.C., IEEE Circuits and Systems, 54(1): 60-73 (2007).