Naveen Agnihotri

Work Address:	Home Address:
Sobayli	660 East 98th St #11G
50 Broadway, 28th floor	Brooklyn, NY 11236
New York, NY 10004	Phone: (212) 637-6408
Phone: (212) 701-9430	naveen@bhalu.com

Education:

PhD, Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University, 2002.

MS, Dept of Engineering, University of Georgia, 1996.

BE, Computer Engineering, University of Delhi, India, 1994.

Research Interests:

The use of neural networks and other pattern recognition techniques for classification of data, particularly images.

Research Experience:

7/05-Present

Chief Technology Officer, Sobayli.

• Development of new algorithms and techniques for pattern recognition in text and images.
• Coordination of the activities of several teams of neuroscienctists and computer scientists.

9/02-7/05

Research Associate, HHMI, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT.

• Investigation of the effects of reward systems and neuromodulators in neural networks in-vitro.
• Exploration of non-Hebbian plasticity mechanisms and their role in the dynamics of large neuronal networks.

9/96-9/02:

Research Assistant, Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

• 1/98-9/02: Recording of place cells; investigating the stability of place cells in wild-type and transgenic mice.
• 1/98-6/02: Neuroanatomy instructor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.
• 7/97-12/97: Cloning of the CamKII promoter to a native G-alpha subunit in order to obtain mice that constitutively express the native subunit in a spatially regulated manner.
• 1/97-6/97: Dual whole cell patch-clamp recordings of cultured rat hippocampal neurons, and study of the late phase of LTP at single vesicle-release sites.
• 9/96-12/96: Imaging of Ca2+ in whole olfactory epithelium, to see the change in Ca2+ dynamics as the epithelium responds to odors.

9/94-8/96:

Research Assistant, Department of Engineering, University of Georgia.

• Use of tumerogenic nerve cells for investigation, quantification, and analysis of increased cAMP levels in cells during sensitization and associative learning.
• Developed image processing techniques for sorting of bioproducts based on age and moisture content.
• Developed model techniques for detecting firmness of biological tissue using novel firmness sensors.

3/93 - 6/94:

Undergraduate research assistant, Department of Computer Engineering, Delhi Institute of Technology, India.

• Investigation of hamiltonian properties of the Kronecker and Strong product of graphs, particularly cycles and trees (acyclic graphs). This work culminated in several contributions, which find high applicability in a host of computer science, physical and biological systems.

4/92 - 7/94:

Undergraduate research engineer, PRAVAK Cybernetics (P) Ltd, New Delhi, India.

• Extensive study of the kinematics and dynamics of the PRAVAK Robot Arm (It is a 5-degree freedom PUMA-type arm with revolute joints).
• Development of new methods of implementing smooth movement using advanced control techniques.
• Design and development of a new robot arm with "intelligent" controllers and superior accuracy.

Refereed journal articles:

• Naveen T Agnihotri, Robert D Hawkins, Eric R Kandel and Clifford Kentros. 2004. The Long-term Stability of New Hippocampal Place Fields Requires New Protein Synthesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(10):3656-3661.
• Clifford G Kentros, Naveen T Agnihotri, Samantha Streater, Robert D Hawkins and Eric R Kandel. 2004. Increased Attention to Spatial Context Increases Both Place Field Stability and Spatial Memory. Neuron, 42(2):283-295.
• Naveen Agnihotri, William S Kisaalita and Charles H Keith. 1999. Micro-perfusion Flow Cell for Imaging Cultured Cells. Biotechniques. 27(4):722-726.
• Naveen Agnihotri, Juan Carlos López-García, Robert D Hawkins and Ottavio Arancio. 1998. Morphological Changes Associated with Long-Term Potentiation. Histology and Histopathology. 13(4):1155-1162.
• Naveen Agnihotri, William S Kisaalita and Charles H Keith. 1997. Free Cyclic AMP Increases in PC12 Cells on Depolarization. Journal of Neuroscience Research. 47(5):555-560.
• Pranava K Jha, Naveen Agnihotri and Rajesh Kumar. 1997. Long Cycles and Long Paths in the Kronecker Product of a Cycle and a Tree. Discrete Applied Mathematics. 74(2):101-121.
• Pranava K Jha, Naveen Agnihotri and Rajesh Kumar. 1996. On Edge Exchanges in Hamiltonian Decompositions of Kronecker-product Graphs. Computers and Mathematics with Applications. 31(2):11-19.

Teaching:

Neuroanatomy instructor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University from 1997 to 2002, and from 2006 to present.

Membership in professional and other organizations:

• Member, Society for Neuroscience, since 1998.
• Student Member, IEEE, since 1990.
• Member, AAAS, since 1995.
• Executive member, Computer Society of DIT, India, 1993-94.

Other work experience:

• 1999-2001, principal database engineer and administrator for a web services company based in New York. Wrote two database-backed websites, Artpopuli and Digital Echo, and built and configured the Linux Server and Oracle database installation that supported them.
• Geometrical transformation of digital images: As a six-month computer graphics project, developed and implemented a new algorithm for general-purpose transformation of digital images, which performs better (and faster) than other existing algorithms.
• Software for Chromatography: As a professional venture, developed a fully functional software that forms a data acquisition and on-line processing system for a gas/liquid chromatograph. This work, done as a summer project in 1992, involved extensive and exhaustive study of the principles and practices of modern chromatography.
• Comprehensive and extensive experience of simulation and modeling, and programming using various high and low level languages like C/C++, java, perl, tcl, assembly etc.