Phone: (403) 394-3951
e-mail: surjeet.singh@uleth.ca
Research Interests
The secret of mankind’s success, strength, and glory is knowledge. Knowledge is not something we are born with. It is through curious observation and constant learning the wealth of knowledge is amassed. I strongly believe in “learning by doing”. It is the hope of coming up with path-breaking results. It is to this belief that I attribute all, my accomplishments till today and my passion for research.
In the past few years I have developed methods for representing and analyzing signals based on the mathematics of fractals, stochastic processes and applying these to various application contexts e.g. non deterministic fractals to assess spatial memory and learning in Morris water maze, deterministic linear fractals to design multiband fractal antennas, statistics of post synaptic potential at cell soma, non-Gaussian interference statistics in a wireless network etc.
It was during the thought provoking discussions with my peers at Dr. Rajat Sandhir’s Lab in India, I observed that in the current approach to studying the brain, no matter how much we learn and how much we know about the parts that make it up at any scale, will by itself never provide an understanding of the dynamics of brain function, which necessarily requires a quantitative, i.e., mathematical and physical, context. The famous theoretical physicist Richard Feynman once wrote that “people who wish to analyze nature without using mathematics must settle for a reduced understanding.” No where is this more true than in attempting to understand the brain given its amazing complexity.
At CCBN I am working under the supervision of Drs. Robert J. Sutherland and Majid H. Mohajerani, and my research is focused on understanding hippocampal-cortical interactions and memory deficits in Alzheimer’s disease.
The amyloid cascade hypothesis, posits that the deposition of the amyloid-β peptide in the brain is a central event in Alzheimer’s disease pathology. It is not established if this Aβ “seeding” alone could cause major cognitive decline, nor is it known if this alone causes synaptic connectivity or neuron loss. I will try to address how Aβ aggregates spread through synaptic connections from an initial seed in the entorhinal cortex, to the hippocampus and other cortical regions. I will then measure if this spread leads to decline in memory, in cortical functional connectivity with the HF and within cortex, in addition to loss of neurons.
I will employ wide-field in-vivo VSDI/Ca2+ imaging and LFP recordings in awake behaving mice for understanding the functional status of cortical circuits engaged in slow-wave activity, which will reveal the mechanism of integration of information across distant brain regions involved in memory consolidation. While the novel sensory preconditioning procedures will allow us to identify a specific role for the hippocampus in pattern completion.
Further, I am interested in developing low-cost open-source solutions for high throughput rodent behavioural training and monitoring.
Biography
Surjeet obtained his B.Tech. and M.E. degrees in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, India and Thapar University Patiala, India, respectively. In 2009 while he was a master’s student at Thapar University, he worked as team leader for the project “Deployable low cost outdoor surveillance system” for which he received national award from DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India.
From 2011 to 2014 he worked as Assistant Professor with Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Institute of Engineering & Technology, Bhaddal, Ropar, Punjab, India where he taught UG/PG Courses and supervised several M. Tech thesis & B. Tech projects. From 2014 to 2016 Surjeet worked with Dept. of Governance Reforms, Govt. of Punjab, India where his role was to incorporate reforms and accountability in the administrative structure at all levels by implementing IT projects related to Government to Citizen (G2C), Government to business (G2B) & Government to Government (G2G) services.
Since undergraduate days Surjeet had a strong entice towards interdisciplinary research. His proactive approach towards learning and pursuing interdisciplinary research is manifested by his research work on algorithms for signal processing and their applications in neuroscience, UAVs, biometrics, wireless communications, mechatronics and geosciences to name a few. Convinced with the interdisciplinary research prospects in neuroscience, Surjeet worked as a volunteer with Prof. Rajat Sandhir’s neuroscience research group at Dept. of Biochemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh where he was engaged in developing new methods for automated analysis (segmentation and cell counting) in immunohistochemistry (IHC) and other stained cells (neurons & glial) images. He also developed methods to track animals in various behavioural assays e.g. Y-maze, T-maze, elevated plus maze, Morris water maze and open field test.
Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Drs. Robert J. Sutherland and Majid H. Mohajerani at CCBN, where he is studying hippocampal-cortical interactions and memory deficits in Alzheimer’s disease.
In his free time, Surjeet enjoys cooking, listening to music, and spending time with his friends and family.
Education
- B.Tech. (First Class with Distinction) in Electronics & Communication from Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar (2004-2008).
- M.E. in Electronics & Communication from Thapar University, Patiala(2008-10).
- Ph.D. (Pursuing), Department of Neuroscience/CCBN, University of Lethbridge.
Scholarships
- MHRD Fellowship, Thapar University, Patiala (2008-10).
- Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship for Research Excellence (International), The University of Nottingham (2016) (Not Availed).
- Teaching Assistantship & Research Assistantship at CCBN/Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge (2016).
Awards
- Cash award of INR 350,000 by DRDO, Ministry of Defence Govt. of India, for the project “Deployable low cost outdoor surveillance system”.
Recent Publications
- Surjeet Singh, Harpreet Kaur and Rajat Sandhir, “Fractal dimensions: A new paradigm to assess spatial memory and learning using Morris water maze,” Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 299, pp 141-146, February 2016.
- Surjeet Singh and Amit Kumar Kohli, “Wireless Fading Paradigm for Antenna Array Receiver for A Disk-Type Cluster of Scatterers,” Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 33, no. 4, pp 1231-1244, April 2014.
- Poonam Verma and Surjeet Singh, “Design and Simulation of RF MEMS Capacitive type Shunt Switch & its Major Applications,” IOSR Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering, vol.4, no. 5, pp 60-68, Feb-2013.
- Jaspreet Kaur, Surjeet Singh and Ankush Kansal, “Multiband Behaviour of Sierpinski Fractal Antenna,” Research Journal of Information Technology, vol. 3, no.1, pp. 35-43, 2011.
- Surjeet Singh and Kulbir Singh, “Segmentation Techniques for Iris Recognition System,” International Journal of Scientific and Engineering research, vol.2, no.4, April-2011.