This is meant to read like an evolving textbook: rigorous definitions + citations, but also practical engineering heuristics.
Phase 1 — Foundations + existing tech (complete)
01 — Neuroscience background (signals, cells, and constraints)
Signals, excitability, and what peripheral nerve + cortex force you to respect.
02 — A brief history of BCIs (what worked, what didn’t, why)
Milestones across invasive/noninvasive approaches, decoding paradigms, and the recurring bottlenecks.
03 — Recording & stimulation physics (fields, SNR, artifacts, charge)
The minimum physics you need to reason about electrodes, fields, artifacts, and safe stimulation.
04 — Peripheral nerve interfaces (survey + design trade-offs)
Cuffs, FINE, intrafascicular, regenerative concepts — and how to choose based on goals.
05 — Cortical interfaces (survey + chronic reality)
ECoG, depth electrodes, and penetrating arrays — what each buys you, and what chronic use demands.
06 — Decoding & closed-loop control (from toy problems to reality)
Decoding basics, nonstationarity, and what closed-loop systems require in practice.
Phase 2 — Materials, mechanics, and biology of chronic implants
07 — Biomaterials primer for neural interfaces (what matters in the body)
Polymers, metals, coatings, hydrogels, and the practical constraints that dominate chronic implants.
08 — Mechanics and micromotion (why implants fail even when the signal is good)
Mechanical mismatch, motion environments, strain relief, and why chronic interfaces are mechanical systems.
09 — Foreign body response & encapsulation (the chronic filter you can’t ignore)
How tissue responds to implants, how encapsulation changes signal coupling, and what design levers exist.
10 — Regeneration and guidance (scaffolds, conduits, and what success means)
A pragmatic view of peripheral nerve regeneration and how it interfaces with regenerative/biohybrid devices.
Phase 3 — Biohybrid peripheral regenerative interfaces (open exploration)
11 — Biohybrid interface concepts (living tissue as part of the device)
What biohybrid could mean, why it’s attractive, and how to keep the exploration grounded.
12 — Implantation strategies (geometry, workflow, and failure modes)
Why implantation method is part of the design, and how complex geometry changes the problem.
13 — Stimulation modalities (electrical vs optical, and what each buys you)
Electrical stimulation is mature; optogenetics is powerful but demanding. The trade space matters.
14 — Manufacturing reality check (microfabrication, packaging, and why water wins)
From clever prototypes to reliable devices: processes, tolerances, hermetics, and failure analysis.
Phase 4 — Simulation-led design
15 — What to simulate (and what not to)
Model fidelity vs utility: how to build simulations that teach and guide design instead of becoming research sinkholes.
16 — The 2D nerve cross-section sandbox (electrodes, fields, constraints)
How to think about a nerve cross-section as a design space: geometry, selectivity proxies, and safe stimulation.
17 — Extending the sandbox to cortex (layers, constraints, and targets)
How cortical geometry and constraints differ from peripheral nerve, and how a cortex cross-section model should behave.
18 — Optimization loops (parameter search for implants and stimulation)
How to build design loops that search electrode geometry and stimulation parameters without fooling yourself.