g.tec medical engineering: a global team making a huge impact on the world through Brain-Computer Interface Tech

In the past, science fiction books and movies depicted people controlling a computer or other equipment using only their brains. What seemed like a very futuristic technology is now within reach, with numerous advancements in the technology brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is happening in just a few years.

One of the companies leading in the field of BCI technology is g.tec medical technology GmbH, headquartered in Schiedlberg, Austria. The company was founded in 1999 by Dr. Christoph Guger and Dr. Günter Edlinger and soon started researching and producing BCI devices. Just a few weeks after starting its business, g.tec sold its first BCI system to a prestigious university in Britain, and this was quickly followed by a purchase by a research institute in South Korea. g.tec regularly collaborates with universities and research centers, which use their technology to develop new BCI applications that help advance neuroscience and neurotechnology.

G.tec has been active in the BCI world for 25 years and has built an international reputation as a pioneer. Since 2020 it has been organizing its BCI and Neurotechnology Spring School, the world’s largest event of its kind. As a hotbed of BCI research, g.tec has attracted researchers from all over the world, from outside the European Union to the US, India, China, Colombia and many more countries.

According to Dr. Guger g.tec has several research and engineering teams specialized in different aspects of the technology. For example, one team focuses on biosignal amplifiers and designs the hardware so that g.tec can measure brain waves with very high accuracy. Another team specializes in developing software to improve signal-to-noise ratios, resulting in greater intelligibility. Some researchers are focusing on collaborating with foreign partners, mostly based in other European countries, but also in the US and Japan, and testing how the technology is used for new applications.

These teams are led by renowned BCI scientists, such as Dr. Christoph Kapeller, who studied invasive BCI technology for his PhD at g.tec. He also collaborated with neurosurgeons from Japan on BCI experiments with epilepsy and tumor patients, becoming a global expert in the field. Today he heads g.tec’s invasive BCI division.

Dr. Johannes Gruenwald heads g.tec’s signal processing department and plays a key role in all of the company’s technologies. All researchers who want to do a project with g.tec in the field of signal processing must collaborate with him.

The origins of g.tec’s flagship recoveryX BCI neurorehabilitation treatment, which has been shown to help improve the conditions of heart attack And multiple sclerosis patients, also arises from international research collaborations. About a decade ago, g.tec was part of an EU consortium researching the creation of a mobile exoskeleton controlled by BCI that could help with the mobility of stroke patients. The knowledge g.tec gained during this project became essential in the development of recoveryX, which was led by a team based in g.tec’s satellite office in Barcelona, ​​led by Dr. Rupert Ortner.

“I am proud to work with many effective and efficient team leaders, most of whom come from g.tec,” says Dr. Guger. “They have worked with us for their master’s thesis or PhD research, building knowledge for the team and later leading their own teams under their areas of specialization. g.tec does so many things under BCI, so it is important that all teams and leaders are extremely capable. g.tec is continuously growing and we offer numerous opportunities to work with our leading BCI technology. We have already signed agreements to implement our recoveryiX technology more than 100 locations throughout Europegiving everyone the opportunity to work with this fantastic team.”