Contact Information
Room 2235
Engineering II Building
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
pdanzl@engineering.ucsb.edu
I completed my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at UCSB in Spring 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Jeff Moehlis. I am now a controls engineer at Bose Electroforce Systems Group in Eden Prairie, MN (which is in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area).
Research Interests
My doctoral research focused on dynamical systems and controls applications in neuroscience. In particular, I am interested in feedback control of oscillatory neurons with the objective of controlling their spike timing and level of synchrony. Ultimately, we strive to develop optimal control strategies for Electrical Deep Brain Stimulation, a treatment of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, and depression.
Brief Biography
I grew up near Minneapolis, Minnesota and received my BSME from the University of Minnesota in 2002. After graduation, I moved to South Bend, IN to work as an engineer for Honeywell Aerospace . While at Honeywell, I worked primarily on design and analysis of fuel control systems for aerospace applications. I left Honeywell to begin my graduate studies at UCSB in Fall 2005.
During my doctoral studies I completed the Graduate Program in Management Practice Certificate from the Technology Management Program at UCSB. As a part of the curriculum, I interned at Active Life Technologies, a biomedical device start-up company in Santa Barbara that specializes in commercializing tissue diagnostic instruments using breakthrough technologies developed at UCSB.
I am now a controls engineer at Bose Electroforce Systems Group. I work on optimal and robust control for high performance mechanical testing systems.
Publications
Dissertation
Refereed Journal Articles
- P. Danzl, A. Nabi, and J. Moehlis. Charge-balanced spike timing control for phase models of spiking neurons. To appear in Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series A, 2010 (preprint).
- P. Danzl, J. Hespanha, and J. Moehlis. Event-based minimum-time control of oscillatory neuron models: Phase randomization, maximal spike rate increase, and desynchronization. Biological Cybernetics, 101(5):387-399, 2009.
- P. Danzl and J. Moehlis. Weakly coupled parametrically forced oscillator networks: existence, stability, and symmetry of solutions. Nonlinear Dynamics, 59(4):661-680, 2010.
- P. Danzl, R. Hansen, G. Bonnet, and J. Moehlis. Partial phase synchronization of neural populations due to random Poisson inputs. Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 25(1):141-157, 2008. (preprint, no subscription required).
Refereed Conference Proceedings
- T. Stigen, P. Danzl, J. Moehlis, and T. Netoff. Linear control of neuronal spike timing using phase response curves. In IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference, August 2009 pages 1541-1544.
- P. Danzl and J. Moehlis. Spike Timing Control of Oscillatory Neuron Models Using Impulsive and Quasi-Impulsive Charge-Balanced Inputs. In Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Seattle, WA, pages 171-176, June 2008.
- P. Danzl and J. Moehlis. Event-Based Feedback Control of Nonlinear Oscillators Using Phase Response Curves. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conf. on Decision and Control, New Orleans, LA, pages 5806-5811, December 2007.
Patent
Talks and Posters
- Dynamical Characterization and Feedback Control of Oscillatory Neural Systems. Ph.D. defense, Santa Barbara, CA 4.2.10
- Feedback Control of Oscillatory Neurons: An Event-Based Approach to Phase Randomization. SIAM Conference on Application of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird Utah 6.19.09
- Spike Timing Control of Oscillatory Neuron Models Using Impulsive and Quasi-Impulsive Charge-Balanced Inputs. American Control Conference, Seattle WA 6.11.08
- Phase Oscillators, State-periodic Events, and the Meaning of Synchrony. IGERT Systems Biology Seminar, Santa Barbara CA 5.27.08
- Dynamics and Control of Oscillatory Neural Systems: Current Results and Proposed Research. Candidacy Presentation, Santa Barbara CA 5.23.08
- Event-Based Feedback Control of Nonlinear Oscillators Using Phase Response Curves. IEEE Conf. on Decision and Control, New Orleans LA 12.14.07
- Feedback Control of Neural Firing Synchrony Using Phase Response Curves. IGERT Research Symposium, Carnegie-Mellon University 6.24.07
- Phase Reduction Methods and Application to Feedback Controlled Deep Brain Stimulation. SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird UT 5.28.07
- Desynchronize This! Event-based feedback control of nonlinear oscillators. IGERT Systems Biology Seminar, Santa Barbara CA 4.9.07
- Partial Phase Synchronization of Uncoupled Populations: An Application of Phase Reduction Methods. Grand Challenges in Neural Computation, Santa Fe NM 2.20.07
- Partial Phase Synchronization of Uncoupled Populations: An Application of Phase Reduction Methods. Theoretical Ecology Seminar, Santa Barbara CA 11.8.06
