Research & Projects

About

I am a fourth-year medical student at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine and a PhD student in Neuroengineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In Dr. Harrison Walker's lab I work on machine-learning decoding of intracranial local field potentials (LFPs) for adaptive deep brain stimulation and brain-computer interfaces.

My work to date spans neuromodulation for movement and sleep disorders, evidence synthesis and meta-analysis in neurosurgery and neurology, and equitable access to neurological care in low- and middle-income countries. Before medicine I studied chemistry at Birmingham-Southern College, where I also played football, and I grew up working on a potato farm in northeast Alabama. I am also a 2026–2027 Doximity Op-Med Medical Writing Fellow.

• Deep brain stimulation
• Adaptive neuromodulation
• Brain-computer interfaces
• Neural decoding & machine learning
• Intraoperative electrophysiology
• Open-source scientific software
• Evidence synthesis & meta-analysis
• Global neurosurgery & health equity

Walker Lab: decoding intracranial LFPs

UAB Neurology · Dr. Harrison Walker · 2026 – present · planned dissertation laboratory

Intracranial local field potentials from the subthalamic nucleus and cortex, recorded during deep brain stimulation surgery, made while patients rest, move, and speak. The goal is to decode behavioral state from these signals well enough to drive adaptive stimulation, and to understand how directional stimulation changes speech and movement. Methods: spectral and time-frequency analysis of local field potentials, band-power and phase-amplitude features, permutation statistics, and supervised decoders trained on labeled task windows.

Interactive figures

Figures below are interactive. Hover for values, drag to zoom, double-click to reset. New figures are added by dropping a file into the site's figures folder and listing it in figures.json; nothing here contains patient-level data.

Tools I build

• Open source · MIT · active

  AnalyzeLFPs

  A desktop-hosted web app for intraoperative DBS and ECoG recordings. It reads TDT, BrainVision, and EDF data through one reader, describes each recording in a hand-curated manifest, gates every analysis behind a signed human QC review, and runs recipes for spectra, band-power contrasts with permutation tests, time-frequency, phase-amplitude coupling, event-locked averages, and ERNA. Thirteen guardrails check each run before anything is computed. Nothing leaves the machine.

  It ships with a 46-lesson graduate-level curriculum on the mathematics behind the analysis, from linear algebra and DSP to spike sorting and directional leads, as paired student and solution notebooks.

  Start hereTry it in 10 minCurriculumDocs
• Pipeline · in use

  DBS recording inventory and derivatives

  A staging toolchain for a multi-case intraoperative dataset: verifies every raw file is readable, builds an inventory of leads, contacts, and streams per case, derives condition labels and task states, computes audio coherence and video motion traces for behavioral alignment, and writes de-identified derivatives to a separate store. Raw data and the identity crosswalk never leave the acquisition machine.

  Python · private data, code on request
• Pipeline · in use

  AI-assisted evidence screening

  A hybrid title-and-abstract screening pipeline for large systematic and scoping reviews. A language model votes on every record with a confidence and exclusion code; high-confidence exclusions are removed only after both human reviewers validate a random sample against a pre-declared error threshold; the model then acts as second reviewer on the retained set, with humans deciding every disagreement. Follows the 2025 Cochrane/Campbell/JBI/CEE position statement and RAISE recommendations.

  Python · Anthropic API · Covidence

Research Experience

• 2026 – present

  Walker Research Lab, UAB Neurology

  Dr. Harrison Walker · Planned dissertation laboratory, Neuroengineering PhD

  • Machine-learning decoding of intracranial LFPs for adaptive deep brain stimulation and brain-computer interfaces.
• 2024 – present

  Global Neurosurgery Research Group, Mission:Brain Foundation

  Coordinator

  • Coordinate roughly 35 international medical graduates, mainly from low- and middle-income countries, in a multi-project research group advancing equitable access to neurological care.
  • Lead members across many time zones and backgrounds toward shared goals; sharpen scientific writing, study design, and critical review across the group.
• 2023 – present

  Holland Clinical Research Lab, UAB Neurosurgery

  Dr. Marshall Holland

  • Joined as a first-year medical student on a single systematic review; grew into co-leading lab meetings and mentoring younger medical students and undergraduates.
  • Chart review, data collection, study design, and manuscript writing; managed submission and revision for multiple manuscripts and IRB protocols.
  • Designed independent studies and authored original IRB protocols.
• 2022 – 2023

  Immunology Research, UAB

  Dr. Chander Raman

  • Investigated ultraviolet B-induced immune suppression in murine models and cell lines, including vitamin D3 effects on samples from multiple sclerosis and lupus patients.
  • Cell culture, flow cytometry, and confocal microscopy; cryosectioning and staining of lymph node, spleen, and skin tissue.
  • High-dimensional flow cytometry analysis in FlowJo (tSNE, UMAP, TriMap).
  • Oversaw breeding, treatment, and upkeep of multiple transgenic mouse lines.
• 2021 – 2022

  Enzyme Kinetics Research, Birmingham-Southern College

  Dr. Kate Hayden

  • Expressed novel enzymes from vector-transfected plasmids; purified target proteins by SDS-PAGE, centrifugal size exclusion, and His-tag affinity chromatography.
  • Kinetic assays on tvGAPDH, cdGAPDH, and cpPK; Michaelis-Menten and Lineweaver-Burk modelling of K_m and V_max for medicinal-chemistry collaborators.

Leadership & Global Neurosurgery

• 2023 – present

  Mission:Brain Foundation

  UAB Chapter President · Regional Chair of Outreach · Coordinator, Global Neurosurgery Research Group

  • Launched Project:RISE (annual lecture on research equity for international medical graduates in low- and middle-income countries), NeuroCamp (a year-long neuroscience curriculum for Birmingham middle school students), and a spina bifida prevention campaign promoting corn masa folate fortification.
  • As Outreach Chair, direct fundraising, inventory, and equipment logistics supporting Sierra Leone's first publicly accessible neurosurgical service, in coordination with the WFNS and the Ministry of Health.
  • Coordinate the roughly 35-member Global Neurosurgery Research Group; oversee a manuscript bundle mapping global neurosurgery stakeholders in line with the Boston Declaration.
• 2024 – present

  Alabama House Bill 384: Corn Masa Folic Acid Fortification

  Health policy and advocacy

  Worked with the Children's of Alabama pediatric neurosurgery team to support passage of state legislation establishing folic acid fortification of corn masa, addressing the elevated prevalence of spina bifida in Hispanic communities.

Honors, teaching, service, and full history are in the CV (PDF).