Vinay Tannan

Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering

Registered U.S. Patent Agent

Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering

Vinay Tannan, Ph.D., joined the Patent Foundation in July 2008. He evaluates technologies primarily in the areas of biomedical, electrical and computer engineering as well as computer science.

Tannan received his Master of Science and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to working at UVAPF, he served as a research associate for five years at the UNC School of Medicine. His work focused on developing novel sensory testing methods for the quantitative assessment of cortical interactions in the human central nervous system. Some of his studies led to new findings on assessing and diagnosing the extent of cortical dysfunction in populations such as autism, alcoholism and traumatic brain injury.

One of Tannan's major accomplishments as a researcher, in collaboration with UNC colleagues, was the design and fabrication of a sensory diagnostic device. This work led to a start-up company currently developing new technologies that provide portable, inexpensive and non-invasive methods for monitoring the integrity of cortical information processing. Tannan has published more than 15 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented on multiple occasions at annual neuroscience conference proceedings on topics in the fields of systems neuroscience and instrumentation.

Photo by Tom Cogill