Rate My Professor Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal

Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering within the Engineering faculty at the University of Houston, where he has served since 2011. He directs the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) on BRAIN as Founding Director and University of Houston Site Director for both Phase I (2017-2022) and Phase II (2022-2027), and leads the Noninvasive Brain-Machine Interface Systems Laboratory. Previously, he was Assistant Professor (1999-2005) and Associate Professor (2005-2011) at the University of Maryland, College Park. His academic background includes an Engineer's Degree in Electronics and Communications from Monterrey Institute of Technology (Mexico), M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder, Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Systems from Boston University, and postdoctoral fellowships at Arizona State University and University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He also holds adjunct and affiliate roles at University of Texas Health Science Center, TIRR Memorial Hermann, and Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute.

Contreras-Vidal's research focuses on neural engineering, brain-machine interfaces for rehabilitation robotics and neuroprosthetics, powered exoskeletons, neuromodulation, computational neuroscience, regulatory science of medical devices, neuroaesthetics, arts in medicine, and the neural basis of creativity. A Fellow of IEEE (2019) and AIMBE (2021), he earned recognition for pioneering brain-machine interfaces controlling wearable exoskeletons and mapping art-evoked brain activity. Key honors include membership on the NIH National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research (2021-2025), UH Undergraduate Research Mentor Award (2018), and presidency of the International Graphonomics Society (2013-2015). With over 200 peer-reviewed publications—including the highly cited "Deep learning for electroencephalogram (EEG) classification tasks: a review" (Journal of Neural Engineering, 2019)—and multiple patents, his work has secured millions in NSF and NIH funding for neurotechnologies aiding stroke, spinal cord injury, and Parkinson's recovery. He serves on editorial boards, including Action Editor for IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, and edited the Springer volume "Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity" (2019).