Salt Lake City is one of the best places in the country to do this
The Utah map
The Utah Array was invented on this campus. Two of the world's neural-interface hardware companies are thirty minutes away. The university has a rehabilitation hospital built around technology, an epilepsy unit, a nanofab, and a medical device competition for students. Almost no one acts like it. Every entry below should be checked against the organization's own page before you act on it; people move and programs change.
Labs on campus
Read a paper, then email with a specific question.Visual cortex circuits, and the clinical eye center where retinal prostheses and vision restoration meet patients.
Why it matters: The sensory-prosthesis side of Phase 4 and 5.
Peripheral nerve interfaces, the Utah Slanted Electrode Array, restoring touch and motor control after amputation.
Why it matters: The Utah Slanted Electrode Array was developed here. This is where the invasive-interface spine lives on campus.
How to approach: Look for the group under Biomedical Engineering. Ask about the array fabrication and testing side, which always needs hands.
Computational and experimental work on deep brain stimulation and how it changes information flow in the basal ganglia.
Why it matters: Neuromodulation plus computational neuroscience, the least crowded and most commercially relevant pairing.
Large research institute for imaging, visualization, and computational modeling, including head models and cardiac and neural simulation.
Why it matters: The forward-and-inverse problem of Phase 4 is done here at research scale. Also the best place on campus to learn scientific software practice.
Microfabrication of neural interfaces, wireless implants, hermetic packaging. Solzbacher cofounded Blackrock Neurotech. The Nanofab is a shared cleanroom with a user training program.
Why it matters: Materials and microfab spine. Getting trained as a Nanofab user as an undergrad is unusual and valuable.
How to approach: Ask a lab you join whether they can sponsor your Nanofab training; the cleanroom runs safety and tool courses on a schedule.
Jacob George's lab in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. Bionic arms with sensory feedback, EMG decoding, peripheral nerve interfaces.
Why it matters: The closest thing on campus to Phase 5's haptic-prosthetic project, and a lab that has taken undergrads seriously.
How to approach: Read one of their recent papers on sensory feedback for amputees, then email with a specific question and an offer of ten hours a week.
Clinics and hospitals
Shadowing needs HIPAA training and an introduction. Ask a lab.Inpatient video-EEG monitoring of people with epilepsy, plus the EEG lab that runs routine studies.
Why it matters: Where seizure-detection algorithms get validated, and where EEG technologists work. Ask about shadowing and about tech training.
Psychiatric hospital and research institute, including a TMS clinic.
Why it matters: TMS is neuromodulation you can watch being delivered, safely, by trained staff.
University of Utah Health's rehabilitation hospital, opened 2020, with a strong focus on spinal cord injury and technology-assisted rehabilitation.
Why it matters: This is where the people Phase 5 is built for actually are. Volunteer, then ask therapists what does not exist.
Deep brain stimulation implantation, responsive neurostimulation, epilepsy surgery, intraoperative recordings.
Why it matters: Watching an awake DBS implantation with microelectrode recording is the most interesting hour you can spend in a hospital.
How to approach: Shadowing goes through the department's coordinator and requires HIPAA training and paperwork; ask a research lab to introduce you.
Clinical sleep lab running overnight polysomnography.
Why it matters: Sleep technologist training and night-shift work are the neuro equivalent of the EMT move.
Companies within thirty minutes
Show up to their talks. Ask for a tour. Be specific.Salt Lake City maker of the Utah Array and the recording systems used in most human intracortical BCI studies.
Why it matters: The physical center of invasive BCI hardware is thirty minutes from campus. Knock, politely and specifically.
Salt Lake City company making research neural recording and stimulation systems and developing implants.
Why it matters: Smaller than Blackrock, which often means a hungry undergraduate is more visible.
Campus resources
Do the certifications in the first weeks.Mills, lathes, and the safety certification that lets students use them.
Why it matters: Do the certification in the first weeks; almost everyone waits and loses a year.
The entrepreneurship building's ground-floor makerspace with 3D printers, laser cutters, electronics benches, and a community of students building things.
Why it matters: Free fabrication after the orientation. Also where you find teammates.
Library-run space with 3D printers, a laser cutter, sewing, and electronics, available to all students.
Why it matters: Lower barrier than the engineering shops, and open late.
Programs and competitions
Structured, often funded, reasons to do the work.The University of Utah's annual medical device competition run by the Center for Medical Innovation. Student teams form in fall, build through spring, and present for real prize money.
Why it matters: A structured, funded reason to do Phase 5 with a team and mentors. Undergraduates compete.
Campus-wide neuroscience seminars and events, open to students.
Why it matters: One seminar a month, sitting near the front and asking one question, is the cheapest networking there is.
Semester-long paid research assistantships for undergraduates working with a faculty mentor.
Why it matters: Turns a volunteer lab position into a paid one. Apply the semester after you join a lab.
Communities
Where the people you are building for actually are.Support and care coordination for people with ALS in Utah.
Why it matters: The partner for the Phase 5 speller. Approach through the organization, not by cold-contacting patients.
Utah's life sciences trade association; events, an annual summit, and a member directory of every device company in the corridor.
Why it matters: Freshmen do not show up to these events, which is exactly why showing up works.
Community organization for people with epilepsy.
Why it matters: The people seizure detectors are for should be people you know.
The global neurotechnology community, with a student club program that runs hackathons and gets direct access to companies.
Why it matters: If the University of Utah has a chapter, join it the first week. If not, founding one is a freshman-sized project that pays off for four years.
Statewide program lending assistive devices, running a fabrication lab, and connecting people with disabilities to technology.
Why it matters: The people who know what does not exist yet, and what costs $2,000 when it should cost $40.