S2 E11: Twenty Years of Neural Engineering Conference (#NER2021) - w/ Silvestro Micera and Thomas Stieglitz

There's not much in this life that the COVID-19 Pandemic hasn't changed, and that includes the 20th anniversary of the IEEE's Neural Engineering Conference (NER). NER began under the leadership of Professor Metin Akay as a way for members of the nascent field of neural engineering to gather, share ideas, share research, and yes, share a beer or two.Now, twenty years later, the conference has grown into one of the preeminent gatherings for the field of neural engineering and was set to return to Italy. The original conference - you may have heard folk tales of the legendary event - was held on the island of Capri off the coast of Italy. Because of its sizeable growth, the conference no longer fits within the confines of the beautiful island and had been intended to be held in Sorrento - the mainland sister of Capri. Unfortunately, well, COVID (it's always stupid COVID - just go away already.)Arun and JoJo sat down with this year's Conference Co-Chairs, Professor Thomas Stieglitz and Professor Silvestro Micera to find out what makes this particular conference so special (hint: you'll be singing this Sister Sledge song for the rest of the day), how they dealt with moving this beast online, and how young folks in the field can get involved in their favorite conferences, societies, editorial boards, and more. Enjoy!