Grant Mcconachie
BIO
I am a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering Department. I received my undergraduate degree from Oregon State University in Bioengineering where I conducted research in computational chemistry under Dr. Cory Simon. After graduating, I worked at the NIH as a post-bac at the NCI Program for Natural Product Discovery (NPNPD). Here, I worked in an automation lab running, troubleshooting, and programming various robotic equipment and creating computer programs to assist the lab. Presently, my research interests include biophysical modeling of the brain and machine learning. Outside of academic activities, I like to make music, graphic design, and speed run super mario odyssey.
Current Work
I am interested in leveraging the neurobiological information in the mosquito olfactory system to discover novel aversive molecules. Right now, I am making graph neural networks (GNNs) that attempt to predict olfactory sensory neuron responses in Aedes aegypti to different odorus molecules. This work will give insight into how mosquitoes encode olfactory information.
I am also interested in implementing and testing the limits of surogate gradient methods for spiking neural networks (SNNs).