Neda Shahidi
6431 Fannin st., MSB 7.034
Houston, TX, 77030
neda.shahidi@uth.tmc.utexas.edu
EDUCATION
PhD Candidate
(2011-present)
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
The University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston
Thesis: Analysis and manipulation of population synchrony in visual cortices
and its modulation with behavioral outcome.
Advisor: Dr. Valentin Dragoi
Master of Science in Engineering
(2007-2010)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin,
Thesis: “Response Delayed Policies for Autonomous Intersection
Management”
Advisor: Dr. Peter Stone
GPA: 3.81/4
Bachelor of Science
(1999-2004)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Advisor: Dr. Caro Lucas
RESEARCH EXPERIENCES
Dragoi Lab, Dept. of Neurobiology and Anatomy,
Jan 2012 - Present
UT Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX
• Analysis and manipulation of task relevant population coding in
visual cortices
Felleman Lab, Dept of Neurobiology and Anatomy,
Sep 2011 - Dec 2011
UT Medical School at Houston
• Array electrode recordings in visual cortex of Macaque monkeys and
information
analysis of data
Priebe Lab, Dept of Neurobiology,
2010 - Aug 2011
UT Austin
Nov
• Data Analysis of whole-cell recordings for classification of simple
and complex cells in primary visual cortex.
Seidemann Lab, Center for Perceptual Systems,
Sep 2009 - Oct 2010
UT Austin
• Analyzed Voltage Sensitive Imaging (VSDI) data to find the effect of
attention on the connection between neuronal activities of primary
visual cortex and behavioral responses of Macaque monkeys in a
detection task.
• Analyzed training procedure of a Macaque monkey for a detection
task.
• Trained Macaque monkey for detection tasks for 6 months.
• Assisted in surgical procedures to prepare a Macaque monkey for
VDSI.
• Assisted in running experiments for VDSI recording on a behaving
monkey.
• Contributed to lab management.
RoboSoccer(Stone) Lab, Dept of Computer Sciences,
Sep 2006 - Aug 2010
UT Austin
• Contributed to design and implementation of Response Delayed
policy for Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM)
• Implemented a mixed reality framework for Autonomous
Intersection Management using Eco-be robots.
• Contributed to robotic research on Sony Ibo robots.
System Control Lab, Dept of Electrical and Computer Eng,
Jun 2002 - Aug 2005
University of Tehran
• Contributed to implementation of control systems based on the
connectionist model of Amigdala.
• Contributed to SR motor control and modeling.
• Implemented multi agent controller design environment in C++.
• Implemented a self-adaptive Memetic algorithm.
• Implemented hardware-in-loop simulation in MATLAB/Simulink.
• Developed a Memetic algorithm for mobile robot path planning.
TEACHING EXPERIENCES
Teaching Assistant
Spring 2010
Texas Advance Computing Center, UT Austin
Fall 2009 and
“Parallel Computing” and “Scientific and Tech-nical Computing”,
undergrad/grad level courses
Lab Teaching and Management
2007 and Spring 2009
Dept of Electrical and Computer Eng., UT Austin
Fall
The lab sections of “Electronic Lab”, undergrad course
Teaching Assistant
Spring and Fall
2002, Spring 2003
Dept of Electrical and Computer Eng., University of Tehran
“Computer Architecture” and “Digital Logic Circuits”, undergrad
courses
PUBLICATIONS
Shahidi N., Hu M., Andrei A.R., Dragoi V., Behaviorally relevant
information is revealed in synchrony of triplets and quartets but not pairs,
Computational and System Neuroscience (COSYNE) Conference, Salt Lake
City, UT, 2015
Shahidi N., Hu M., Andrei A.R., Dragoi V., Changes in laminar synchrony in
V1 reflect perceptual decisions, Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
Conference, San Diego, CA, 2013
Shahidi N., Hu M., Andrei A.R., Dragoi V., Changes in laminar synchrony in
V1 reflect perceptual decisions, Computational and System Neuroscience
(COSYNE) Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, 2013
Shahidi N., Priebe N., Ferster D., “A unimodal distribution of linear and
nonlinear spatial responses in primary visual cortex” Society for
Neuroscience annual meeting, Washington, DC, 2011
Au T.Z., Shahidi N., Stone P., “Enforcing Liveness in Autonomous Traffic
Management,” In Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Conference on Artificial
Intelligence, August 2011
Shahidi N., Au T.Z., Stone P., “Batch Reservations in Autonomous
Intersection Management,” an extended abstract, in proceeding of
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems(AAMAS), Taipei, Taiwan,
2011
Shahidi N., Au T.Z.,Stone P., “New Policies for Autonomous Intersection
Management,” Science Writers Conference, Austin, TX, 2009
Stone P., Shahidi N.,“The UT Austin Villa 2008 Mixed Reality Team, ”
Technical Description Paper for Mixed Reality team, Robocup 2008,
Suzhou, China, July 2008.
Stone P., Sridharan M., Hester T., Mericcli T., Shahidi N.,“The UT Austin
Villa 2007 4-legged Team,” Technical Description Paper for 4-legged team,
Robocup 2007, Atlanta, GA, USA, June 29-July 10, 2007
Shahidi N., Esmaeilzadeh H., Abdollahi M., Lucas C., “Memetic Algorithm
Based Path Planning for a Mobile Robot,” International Journal of
Information Technology, Vol. 1, Num. 4, 2004
Shahidi N., Esmaeilzadeh H., Abdollahi M., Ebrahimi E., Lucas C., “SelfAdaptive
Memetic Algorithm: An Adaptive Conjugate Gradient Approach,”
Proceedings
of 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (CIS),
Singapore, 2004
Esmaeilzadeh H., Shahidi N., Ebrahimi E., Moghimi A., Lucas C., “Cim++:
A
C++ Library for Object Oriented Hardware Design,” in Proceedings of
International Conference on Informatics, 2004
Shahidi N., Gheiratmand M., Esmaeilzadeh H., Lucas C., “UTMAC: A C++
Library for Multi-Agent Controller Design,” in Proceedings of World
Automation
Congress (WAC), Seville, Spain, 2004, pp. 287-292
Shahidi N., Khakbazan M., Khodayari S., Shahabadi M., “Electromagnetic
Pump,”
4th student Conference of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tehran,
Iran, 2001
COMPUTER SKILLS
Programming Languages: C/C++, Java, Python, Lua, Pascal, Verilog
(Hardware Description Language), Prolog (Logic Programming Language),
Windows MFC and API programming
Tools: MATLAB (programming, Control Toolbox, Simulink, RTW, Image
Processing), LabVIEW, JMP (statistical analysis)
Operation Systems: Linux, Windows
REFERENCES
Valentin Dragoi, UT Health (v.dragoi@uth.tmc.edu)
Daniel Felleman, UT Health (daniel.felleman@uth.tmc.edu)
Nicholas Priebe, University of Texas at Austin (nicholas@mail.utexas.edu)
Eyal Seidemann, University of Texas at Austin (eyal@mail.cps.utexas.edu)
Peter Stone, University of Texas at Austin (pstone@cs.utexas.edu)