Metin Akay

Faculty

Metin Akay

Founding Chair
John S Dunn Endowed Chair Professor

Office Location SERC 2027

Phone 832-842-8813

Fax 713-743-2501

Email makay [at] uh.edu

Prof. Metin Akay is currently the founding chair of the new Biomedical Engineering Department and the John S. Dunn professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Houston. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey in 1981 and 1984, respectively and a Ph.D. degree from Rutgers University in 1990

Dr. Akay has played a key role in promoting biomedical education in the world by writing and editing several books, editing several special issues of prestigious journals, including the Proc of IEEE, and giving more than hundred keynote, plenary and invited talks at international conferences, symposiums and workshops regarding emerging technologies in biomedical engineering.

His Neural Engineering and Informatics Lab is interested in developing an intelligent wearable system for monitoring motor functions in Post-Stroke Hemiplegic Patients and detecting coronary artery disease. In addition, his lab is currently investigating the effect of nicotine on the dynamics of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neural networks as well as the detection of coronary occlusions.

Courses

Introduction to Biomedical Informatics (BIOE 5318)

Capstone Design II (BIOE 4336)

Biomedical Informatics (BIOE 6345)

Awards and Honors

President Elect, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, one of the largest and oldest International Biomedical Engineering Society

Chair, Healthcare Expert Committee for the Canada Foundation for Innovation Fund

Member, 2020 Think-Tank Forum on Grand Challenges in BME, UCSD, 2020

Chair-Elect, International Academy of Medical Biological Engineering

Inaugural Keynote Speaker, the 1st Artificial Intelligence for Medical Application, Organized by the Peking Union Medical College Hospital (the best Medical School and Hospital in China) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, May 25, 2019

Editor-in-Chief, BRAIN Encyclopedia, published by Wiley and IEEE Press, supported by IEEE Brain, IEEE EMBS, IEEE Life Sciences

Member, International Academic Advisory Board, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shantou University, China

Member, International Academic Advisory Board, Master of Science Degree Program, Pecs University, Hungary

Member, Academic Advisory Board, International Biomedical Engineering, Master of Science Program, University of Crete, Foundation of Research (FORTH) and Technology and Crete Technical University

Founding Editor-in-Chief, Biomedical Engineering Book Series (published by Wiley and IEEE Press) and the Wiley Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering

Editor, Neural Engineering Handbook (published by Wiley/IEEE Press)

First steering committee chair, IEEE Trans on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

Established the Annual International Summer School on Biocomplexity from Gene to System sponsored by NSF and the IEEE EMBS

Founding Chair, IEEE EMBS Special Topic Conference on Neural Engineering

Chair, IEEE EMBS Neuroengineering Technical Committee

Program Co-Chair, Annual International IEEE EMBS (2011)

Co-chair, Annual International IEEE EMBS (2006)

Program Chair, International IEEE EMBS (2001)

Recipient, IEEE EMBS Early Career and Service awards, IEEE Third Millenium Medal

Fellow, IEEE, the Institute of Physics (IOP), the American Institute of Medical Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Serves on advisory board of several international journals and on several NIH and NSF review panels

Research Interests

Dr. Akay’s research is focused on promoting Biomedical Education at all levels in the U.S. and internationally.

Selected Publications

Keller, RF, Kazemi, T, Dragomir, A, Akay, YM, Akay, M. Comparison between dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic neurons in the VTA following chronic nicotine exposure during pregnancy. Sci. Rep. 2019 Jan 24;9(1):445.
Xia, H, Avci, N, Akay, YM, Esquenazi, Y, Schmitt, L, Tandon, N, Zhu, J, Akay, M. Temozolomide in Combination with NF-kB Inhibitor Significantly Disrupts the Glioblastoma Multiforme Spheroid Formation. IEEE OJEMB - Science. 2019 Dec 30; DOI: 10.1109/OJEMB.2019.2962801.
Sugita, N, Akay, M, Akay, YM, Yoshizawa, M. Noise reduction technique for single color video plethysmography using singular spectrum analysis. IEEE J-BHI. 2019 Nov 6; DOI: 10.1109/JBHI.2019.2949883