Lucas Gil Nadolskis is currently a PhD student in the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Dynamical Neuroscience (DYNS) at UC Santa Barbara, where he is investigating novel ways to approach cortical implants for the blind. Being blind himself since the age of five, Lucas’ interests are broad, ranging from neuroscience to accessibility, but can be summarized as efforts to improve the lives of blind people around the world.

Lucas got his BS in Computer Science with a minor in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota in 2021, where he performed research related to autonomous navigation, computer vision and brain-computer interfaces. Later, he got his MS in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, where his primary work focused on analyzing top-down pathways of the visual system and how this could be integrated into cortical implants for the blind. In addition, he worked with the Human-Computer Interaction department on issues related to accessibility in data visualization, an area that he still seeks to explore in the future.

Education

• PhD, Dynamical Neuroscience (2023 - present)

  Bionic Vision Lab

  University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)

• MS, Biomedical Engineering (2021 - 2023)

  Carnegie Mellon University

• BS, Computer Science (2014 - 2021)

  University of Minnesota