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Scientific breakthroughs don’t just explain the world—they change it. Through both basic research grants and awards targeted towards innovation and entrepreneurship, the federal government enables new discoveries that drive economic growth when scientists move their inventions out of the lab and into the hands of real-world users. At the University of Rhode Island (URI), three engineering professors have taken paths to transform basic research into life-altering technologies—and the companies to deliver them. Reading—and Rewiring—the Brain Walter Besio can read your thoughts. A URI professor of electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering, Besio developed a device called a tripolar concentric ring electrode, which essentially is a set of tiny, closely spaced rings stacked like a bullseye. The design allows him to pick up clean, high frequency brainwave signals from the scalp—signals that conventional electrodes can’t reliably detect. “It allows you to see things you wouldn’t necessarily be able to see without cracking the hood,” he says. But Besio’s breakthrough isn’t just about sensing. The same device can also deliver precisely targeted electrical stimulation to the brain to treat epilepsy, potentially stopping seizures before they begin, as well as noninvasively treating other neurological disorders. “My goal has always been to prevent disease, disability, pain, and suffering. We’ve got our first trials in humans showing it’s safe and it’s working. Now I’m starting to look for big, big funding to move it along more quickly.” Besio was working on a dairy farm in Florida when his brother was paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident. Determined to help him, he went back to school to study engineering, earning a master’s at the University of Central Florida and a Ph.D. at the University of Miami. His graduate student research led him to an innovative idea. His insight was surprisingly simple—traditional EEG (electroencephalography) electrodes pick up interference from electrical signals in the environment, like those in building walls. But if multiple electrodes are placed close together in concentric rings, they all register that interference equally. “So, with simple math—one minus one—I take the difference of the electrodes, and it automatically cancels it out, leaving only the thing that’s directly beneath it,” Besio explains.

SPRING | 2026 Page 47