Dr. Susanne Coates (Ph.D. Neuroscience) is a multimedia specialist† with a diverse background that spans software development, electronics, biological science, systems integration, and media production. Her research interests include AI and the development of collaborative, geolocated, multi-modal storytelling paradigms and the web-based technologies to support them. Such paradigms are particularly useful to educate about complex issues – such as global climate change and environmental pollution – which span time, location, and information modality.
Over the course of her career, Dr. Coates has coded in a variety of languages for a variety of applications including artificial neural networks, robotics, nerve-to-computer interfacing, geolocation, and multimedia. As a graduate student, she created the first published implementation of a parallel-processed, artificial neural network on an ad-hoc computing cluster for which she won third place in the engineering category at the Penn State Graduate Research Exhibition[1]. She then used that software, along with hardware she designed to create a nerve-to-computer interface between the eye of a horseshoe crab and a computer.[2] Additionally, she was the Project Lead and solo developer of the LabView-based FAST application used with hardware developed by Dr. Greg Gerhardt and his team at the University of Kentucky’s Center for Micro-electrode Technology. The software and system are used to study chemical messaging in the brain[3] and is currently in use in laboratories worldwide including the National Institutes of Health in the United States.
Dr. Coates has worked with numerous clients for over a decade to create video, multimedia assets, and software. Her film work[5] has screened at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank, Ca.), the Environmental Film Festival (Washington, DC), the Red Rock Film Festival (Utah), and other venues. She produces documentary films that promote women’s stories, educate around environmental issues, and/or communicate science both through Wyld Earth Films, LLC (a company she co-founded with Emily Wathen) and through independent collaboration with the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – Front Matter. Additionally, she enjoys public speaking and educating on topics related to the intersection of science, technology, and storytelling.[6]
Dr. Coates is currently the Senior Web Developer at the University of Maryland’s, College of Arts and Humanities where she developed the multimedia content archiving and distribution system (ArHu-Serv) used to distribute and manage content across the college’s 20+ websites. The system is written in PHP and is built on the Drupal CMS.
Selected Publications
| Coates SD, The Spectrum of Consciousness, completed, 2025. |
| Burmeister J, Coates SD, Gerhardt GA, Multisite Microelectrode Arrays for Measurements of Multiple Neurochemicals, Proceedings of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 26th Annual Conference, 2004. |
| Coates SD, Hampson R, Deadwyler S, Gerhardt GA, Microfabricated Ceramic Sensor Arrays for Direct Interfacing to Deep Brain Structures in Primates, Proceedings of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 25th Annual Conference, 2003. |
| Hampson R, Coates SD, Gerhardt GA, Deadwyler S, Ceramic-Based Microelectrode Neuronal Recordings in Rat and Monkey, Proceedings of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 25th Annual Conference, 2003. |
| Coates SD, Larson-Prior L, Wolpert S, Prior F, Classification of Simple Stimuli Based on Detected Nerve Activity, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine , Volume: 22 Issue: 1 , Jan/Feb 2003, pp: 64 -76, ISSN: 0739-5175. |
| Coates SD, A Web-Based Neural Interfacing Information Resource for Research and Education, Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 2002. 24th Annual Conference and the Annual Fall Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society EMBS/BMES Conference, 2002. Proceedings of the Second Joint , Volume: 3 , 2002, pp 2676 -2677. |
| Coates SD, Wolpert S, Elucidation of Simple Optic Stimuli Based on Detected Nerve Activity, Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 2002. 24th Annual Conference and the Annual Fall Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society EMBS/BMES Conference, 2002. Proceedings of the Second Joint , Volume: 1 , 23-26 Oct 2002, pp 40 -44. |
Footnotes
†Multimedia specialists design and create information technology based multimedia products such as websites, DVDs and software that combine various information modalities such as text, sounds, pictures, graphics, audio, video, virtual reality, geolocation data and/or digital animation.
[1] https://gradschool.psu.edu/exhibition/awards/awards-archive/?year=1999
[2] Classification of simple stimuli based on detected nerve activity, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, Vol 22, Issue: 1, Jan-Feb 2003
[3] http://quanteon.cc/FAST16mk-IV
[4] D.B.A. GX Media Services
[5] https://imdb.com/name/nm5929902
[6] https://www.ted.com/talks/susanne_coates_do_ai_s_dream_in_digital_media