I’m a neuroscientist and neural engineer working at the intersection of systems and computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence. I’m trying to understand how the brain controls movements and performs complex cognitive functions including language. I then use this knowledge to build brain-computer interface (BCIs) that treat brain injury and disease.
I recently developed a speech BCI to restore communication to people with vocal tract paralysis (e.g., due to ALS), and one of my immediate next goals is to improve speech BCIs so they can restore fully expressive voice. My mid-term goal is to develop a language BCI for people with language disorders (for example, aphasia after stroke). Closely related, I’m developing next-generation neural interfaces for human use that will provide a read-out of thousands of individual neurons simultaneously.
As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, Davis, I co-direct the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab.
My main website is my lab webpage; this site here is bare-bones and just has my CV and some teaching info.
email: sstavisky@health.ucdavis.edu
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site last updated June 2026