Internal Seminar: Qi Unit and De Schutter Unit

Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit (Yabing Qi)

Speaker : Yuichi Kato

Title : Flexible transparent electrodes for solar cells.

Abstract : To take out the photo-current from solar cells, we need electrodes. However, usual metal electrodes are not transparent. Therefore transparent electrodes are necessary. Especially, transparent flexible electrodes are important for developing low-cost organic electronics such as organic solar cells, because of their compatibility with roll-to-roll processing. The electrodes should satisfy all of the requirements, for example, flexibility, conductivity, gas-barrier, transparency, low work functions, and so on. In the internal seminar, I will introduce the research back ground and on-going project about flexible transparent electrodes. 

1. Silver nanoparticle/conductive polymer/zinc oxide multilayer electrode.
2. Dispersion of carbon nanotubes to make thin films.

Computational Neuroscience Unit (Erik De Schutter)

Speaker : Richard Tomsett

Title : How modelling will help us to interpret extracellular electrode recordings of brain dynamics

Abstract : Neuroscientists study the activity of neurons to understand nervous system function. However, measuring neuronal activity poses many technical challenges that make recording the electrical dynamics of more than a few neurons simultaneously very difficult. Rather than recording from individual neurons, experimentalists can use various techniques to measure population averages of neuronal activity. One such method is to use extracellular electrodes: electrodes positioned in the exracellular space around the neurons. These electrodes measure a weighted average of the local population electrical activity. Inferring the underlying neural causes of these measurements, though, is non-trivial. In this talk I will describe the physics of extracellular potentials and the challenges involved in their interpretation. I will also share recent results from modelling studies that have contributed towards our understanding of extracellular potentials; in particular, what the spatial range of the measurements is, and which types of neurons contribute most to the measured signal under different conditions.