FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A pioneering researcher in the use of electronic devices to diagnose and treat brain disorders will be the keynote speaker at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Region 5 conference in Fayetteville April 20-22 at the University of Arkansas Center for Continuing Education.

The department of electrical engineering in the UA School of Engineering is co-hosting the conference, along with the Ozark Section of the IEEE.

Dr. Parg Patil, an engineer and neurosurgeon, will deliver the keynote address, “Brain-Machine Interfaces: Today and Tomorrow,” at 8 a.m. Friday, April 20, in Room 224 of the Center for Continuing Education on the Fayetteville Square. Patil is assistant professor of neurosurgery, neuroscience and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan. He is highly regarded for his pioneering research on monitoring and stimulating electrical signals in the human brain for the treatment of neurological diseases and disabilities. He will talk about the important role electrical engineers will play in developing this new technology. His lecture is open to the public.

The IEEE Region 5 conference will also host a robotics competition from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, on the fourth floor of the Center for Continuing Education. More than 23 universities will field 28 teams in the competition. Each team’s robot must move color-coded cargo from one location to another. Each robot will have a drive system, navigation sensors or cameras, a manipulator to handle cargo, a way to prioritize the cargo, an emergency stop button and a system for coordinating all of these elements. Several high schools have been invited to bring students to view the event. The public is also invited.

Other student events during the conference include a design competition, ethics competition, student paper competition and a student professional training conference. An awards banquet will be held Saturday evening.

Electrical engineers from 20 different universities are scheduled to deliver 94 papers during the technical conference, a record for a regional meeting. All papers will be published by IEEE Explore, a refereed, Web-searchable publication.

In all, more than 350 people are expected to attend the three-day event, including John Meredith, a University of Arkansas alumnus and president of IEEE USA.

IEEE is the largest professional organization in the world with more than 365,000 members in 150 countries.