Bio: Arya is a Computer Science Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland. He is advised by Dr. Jim Purtilo, Dr. Rodolphe Gentili & Dr. Jim Reggia. He is affiliated with Software Engineering at Maryland and the Neuromotor Control and Learning Laboratory. The objective of Arya's research is to construct biologically plausible models of the human brain, with a focus on higher-order cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, planning). The goal of the work is to improve our understanding of brain processes and better treat the relevant diseases (e.g., epilepsy), as well as inspire new artificial intelligence.
Philosophy
The human brain has billions of neurons and trillions of molecules. A truly accurate model is not computationally feasible, so the following problem naturally presents itself: How do you construct a model of the brain which is sufficiently biologically accurate while also computationally efficient? This boils down to what parts of brain anatomy and function you think are important. Since my work focuses on models of executive functions, low-level detail (like spiking neuron dynamics) are often sacrificed in exchange for larger networks with more emergent properties.
Research Interests
Computational neuroscience, neural modeling, ephaptic coupling, electroencephalography, complex systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning
Undergraduate Research
If you are an undergraduate student (any major) who is interested in research in my area, you can reach out to me via email (see the contact section below).