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Electrical and Computer Engineering School of Engineering

Rachel June Smith

Assistant ProfessorThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
EEC 265C
(205) 934-8444

Research and Teaching Interests: biomedical signals processing, dynamical network models, neuroengineering, mathematical modeling, machine learning, brain-computer interface

Office Hours: By appointment

Education: 

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 

M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine

Rachel June Smith joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Neuroengineering Program as an assistant professor in August 2022. She completed her Ph.D. with Dr. Beth Lopour at UC Irvine in 2019. Her doctoral work focused on the development of computational metrics in scalp EEG data that reflected disease burden and predicted response to treatment in patients with infantile spasms (IS), a potentially devastating epileptic encephalopathy. Rachel completed her postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University with Dr. Sridevi Sarma, where she used dynamical systems and control theory techniques to localize the onset of seizures in the epileptic brain from intracranial EEG recordings during single-pulse electrical stimulation. As an assistant professor at UAB, Rachel will continue to collaborate with expert neurologists and use her computational skills to develop novel measures of therapeutic response in patients with neurodegenerative disorders. 

  • Research Interests
    Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease that affects nearly 60 million people worldwide and is defined by recurrent and unprovoked seizures. If the patient’s seizures are not controlled with anti-epileptic medications, they often lose their independence, and can experience profound behavioral, psychological, cognitive, social, and financial burdens. Currently, diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy involves visual inspection, channel by channel, of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals recorded noninvasively from the scalp or invasively through intracranial monitoring. These methods of EEG assessment are extremely time-consuming, subjective, and often disregard the network phenomena that drive seizure genesis. The Neural Signal Processing and Modeling Lab focuses on the development of novel computational tools that investigate epilepsy with quantitative frameworks to characterize the disease more objectively and accurately. Incorporation of such computational tools into clinical practice will advance current clinical decision support systems, and has the potential to significantly improve treatment outcomes.
  • Recent Courses
    • Neural Time Series Analysis
    • Digital Logic
  • Select Publications
    • Zhai S, Sarma SV, Gunnarsdottir K, Crone NE, Rouse AG, Cheng JJ, Kinsman MJ, Landazuri P, Uysal U, Ulloa CM, Cameron N, Inati S, Zaghloul KA, Boerwinkle VL, Wyckoff S, Barot N, Gonzalez-Martinez JA, Kang JY*, Smith RJ*: Virtual stimulation of interictal EEG network localizes the EZ as a measure of cortical excitability. Frontiers in Network Physiology. July 2024.
    • Nakhmani A, Brinyark H, Singh A, Yoon IJ, Smith RJ: Stability and performance analysis of systems with parameter uncertainties using generalized D-decomposition method. Commun. Optim. Theory. 35. July 2024.
    • Hays MA, Daraie AH, Smith RJ, Sarma SV, Crone NE, Kang JY: Network excitability of stimulation-induced spectral responses helps localize the seizure onset zone. Clinical Neurophysiology. (in press). July 2024.
    • Patel SA, Smith RJ, Yildirim A: Gershgorin Circle Theorem-Based Features Extraction for Biomedical Signal Analysis. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. (in press). May 2024.
    • Rajaraman R, Smith RJ, Oana S, Daida A, Shrey DW, Narai H, Lopour BA, Hussain SA: Computational EEG attributes predict response to therapy for epileptic spasms. Clinical Neurophysiology. (in press). March 2024.
    • Bernabei JM, Li A, Sinha N, Smith RJ, Gunnarsdottir KM, Ong IZ, Sarma SV, Litt B: Towards the clinical translation of quantitative measures for localizing the epileptogenic zone from intracranial EEG. Brain. 146:6. pp 2248-2258. June 2023.
    • Hays MA, Kamali G, Koubeissi M, Sarma SV, Crone NE, Smith RJ*, Kang JY*: Towards optimizing single pulse electrical stimulation: High current intensity, short pulse width stimulation most effectively elicits evoked potentials. Brain Stimulation. 16:3. pp 772-782. May 2023. *co-senior authors
    • Frauscher B, Bartolomei F, Baud M, Smith RJ, Worrell G, Lundstrom BN: Stimulation of the epileptic brain to probe, trigger and stop seizures. Epilepsia. May 2023.
    • Catenaccio E, Smith RJ, Chavez-Valdez R, Burton VJ, Graham E, Parkinson C, Vaidya D, Tekes A, Northington FJ, Everett AD, Stafstrom CE, Ritzl EK: Evaluating injury severity in neonatal encephalopathy using automated quantitative electroencephalography analysis: a pilot study. Developmental Neuroscience. 46 (2): pp 136-144. July 2023.
    • Hays MA, Smith RJ, Wang Y, Coogan C, Sarma SV, Crone NE, Kang JY: Cortico-cortical evoked potentials in response to varying stimulation intensity improves seizure localization. Clinical Neurophysiology. 145. pp 119-128. Jan 2023.
    • Hays MA, Smith RJ, Wang Y, Coogan C, Sarma SV, Crone NE, Kang JY: Cortico-cortical evoked potentials in response to varying stimulation intensity improves seizure localization. Clinical Neurophysiology. (in press, accepted Aug 2022).
    • Gunnarsdottir K, Li A, Smith RJ, Kang J, Korzeniewska A, Crone N, Rouse A, Cheng J, Kinsman M, Landazuri P, Uysal U, Ulloa C, Cameron N, Cajigas I, Jagid J, Kanner A, Elarjani T, Bicchi M, Inati S, Zaghloul K, Boerwinkle V, Wyckoff S, Barot N, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Sarma SV: Source-sink connectivity: A novel interictal EEG marker for seizure localization. Brain. (in press, accepted Aug 2022).
    • Zhai SR*, Ehrens D, Li A, Assaf F, Schiller Y, Sarma SV, Smith RJ: Temporal and morphological characteristics of high-frequency oscillations in an acute in vivo model of epilepsy. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. July 2022.
    • Smith RJ, Kamali G, Hays M, Coogan C, Crone NE, Kang JY, Sarma SV: Stimulating native seizures with neural resonance: a new approach to localize the seizure onset zone. Brain. (in press, accepted May 2022).
    • Hays MA, Smith RJ, Haridas B, Coogan CG, Crone NE, Kang JY: Effect of increasing stimulation intensity on intracranial cortico-cortical evoked potentials: a titration study. Clinical Neurophysiology. 132:11. Pg. 2766-2777. Nov 2021.
    • Smith RJ, Shrey DW, Rajaraman R, Hussain SA, Lopour BA: Computational characteristics of interictal EEG as objective markers of epileptic spasms. Epilepsy Research. 176: 106704. Jun 2021.
    • Smith RJ, Alipourjeddi E, Garner C, Maser AL, Shrey DW, Lopour BA: Infant functional networks are modulated by state of consciousness and circadian rhythm. Network Neuroscience: 1-17. Mar 2021.
  • Academic Honors and Societies
    • 2024 NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
    • Vanguard Fellowship, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
    • Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, Oak Ridge Associated Universities
    • Taking Flight Award, CURE Epilepsy
    • Junior Investigator Award, American Epilepsy Society
    • American Epilepsy Society Young Investigator Award, 2020
    • American Epilepsy Society 2020 Fellow, 2020
    • Most Promising Future Faculty Award, 2018
    • BME Graduate Student of the Year Award, 2016 & 2017
    • IEEE Society Member
    • The American Epilepsy Society Member