Vol. 01 — Portfolio · Washington, DCFiled under: Neuroscience · Signal Processing · Machine LearningOpen to research & engineering roles

Computational Neuroscientist · ML Engineer

Turning complex neural data into clinical impact.

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Affiliate at Georgetown University Medical Center, specializing in Computational Neuroscience, Signal Processing, and Machine Learning — from cardiac digital twins for first-of-their-kind clinical trials to decoding human speech with advanced neuroimaging.

16Years in research
2008 — 2024
05Research
institutions
Nature BMEFirst-of-its-kind
clinical trial
NIH T32TL1 — independent
fellowship
I.About / Manifesto001 / 008

My work translates complex neural and physiological data into clinical impact — building patient-specific models, decoding fast neural dynamics, and engineering the pipelines that make both reproducible at scale.

Side note — Nº 01

Trained across neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and HPC, I sit at the seam between the wet lab and the cluster: designing the experiment, writing the firmware, and building the model.

I care about methods that survive contact with real, noisy, motion-corrupted data — and about cutting the distance between a recording and a decision.

Fig. 02Plate Nº 26Georgetown · JHU · LLNL · VCUComposed by hand
II.Bio / Timeline002 / 008
2024
Post-Doctoral Research Affiliate
Georgetown University Medical Center
Computational models of speech processing.
2018 - 2024
PhD in Neuroscience
Georgetown University
Thesis on Neural Dynamics of Speech. NIH T32 & TL1 Fellow.
2019
Research Fellow
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
ML framework for TBI recovery trajectories.
2014 - 2018
Research Engineer
Johns Hopkins University
Cardiac 'Digital Twins' and clinical trials for arrhythmia.
2011 - 2013
MS in Biomedical Engineering
Virginia Commonwealth University
Thesis on cognitive-visuomotor multitasking.
2008 - 2011
BS in Biomedical Engineering
Virginia Commonwealth University
Senior Capstone: Real-time BCI system.
III.Research & Projects003 / 008
01

Neural Dynamics of Speech Perception & Production

2018 - 2024
PhD Researcher @ Georgetown University

Investigation of computational models engaged during auditory and spoken word speech processing, with potential applications for neuroscience-based speech therapy.

  • Developed methods for EEG image acquisition and decoding of very fast (millisecond range) neural dynamics involving significant motion artifacts.
  • Developed multivariate analysis pipelines using HPC clusters to analyze large neural image datasets (cut preprocessing time from 3 weeks to 2 days).
  • Led interdisciplinary team investigating evidence of internal inverse and forward models in the brain.
  • Secured independent funding (NIH T32 & TL1) and led grant proposals from concept to award.
View Analysis Code
NeuroscienceEEGHPCSignal Processing
02

Cardiac 'Digital Twins' & Arrhythmia Prediction

2014 - 2018
Research Engineer @ Johns Hopkins University

Large-scale electrophysiology simulations to analyze and predict arrhythmia behavior using patient-specific models.

  • Built MR-derived, patient-specific cardiac models and ran large-scale EP simulations.
  • Delivered the first clinical trial using virtual heart EP simulations to inform ventricular tachycardia ablation planning (Nature Biomedical Engineering).
  • Led two industry-academic partnerships to productionize finite-element solvers for biologically realistic heart models.
Nature BME Paper
CardiacModellingSimulationClinical Trial
03

Connectome-Based ML for TBI Recovery

2019
Research Fellow @ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Built an end-to-end machine learning framework to model recovery trajectories in traumatic brain injury patients.

  • Built connectome-based ML framework using 2-week post-injury fMRI from the TRACK-TBI cohort.
  • Processed functional connectivity matrices to extract graph/network features.
  • Trained elastic net, ridge, and gradient boosting models to predict Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) at 3/6/12 months.
View Pipeline on GitHub
Machine LearningfMRIPythonTBI
04

BCI & Real-Time Bio-Signal Processing

2008 - 2013
Research Assistant / BS Capstone @ Virginia Commonwealth University

Design and implementation of non-invasive brain-computer interface technologies.

  • Designed visual stimulus-based BCI system integrated within a real-time EEG pipeline.
  • Wrote assembly-level firmware for deterministic timing and achieved four-class control for on-screen navigation.
  • Developed algorithms for motor imagery BCI, validating timing determinism and signal integrity.
  • Conducted empirical evaluations to optimize accuracy, false-activation rate, and user training time.
BCIEEGEmbedded SystemsReal-time
IV.Featured Talks004 / 008
2024

Neural Dynamics of Speech Processing

Georgetown University Neuroscience Seminar
Washington, DC

Overview of my doctoral research on how the brain processes spoken language using rapid neural dynamics.

2019

Machine Learning for TBI Recovery

LLNL Summer Student Symposium
Livermore, CA

Presenting a framework for predicting recovery trajectories in TBI patients.

V.Technical Notes / Whitepapers005 / 008

Short write-ups on methods, tooling, and gotchas from my research. [ placeholder — replace with real notes ]

VI.Publications006 / 008
VII.Hobbies / Personal Projects007 / 008

Side projects — usually at the intersection of code, data, and curiosity.

I write longer-form on neuroscience, AI & machine learning.

Essays and notes from the seam between the lab and the model.

Read the blog
VIII.Contact008 / 008

Let's build something worth measuring.

nikolov[dot]phd[at]gmail[dot]com