Prof. David Franklin is the Professor for Neuromuscular Diagnostics at TUM Department of Sport and Health Sciences since February 2nd. The 44 year old Canadian studied human physiology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (BC).
After his M.Sc. he worked as a researcher in Kyoto, Japan for seven years from 1999 to 2006 where he was part of a computational neuroscience group. During that time he was finishing his PhD in Canada regarding the computational principles of human neuromuscular motor control. In 2002 he was awarded the Research Prize of Japanese Neural Network Society and in 2005 the Governor General´s Gold Medal.
He then spent 3 years as a research associate in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge (U.K.). In 2010 he was awarded a Welcome Trust Research Career Development (RCD) Fellowship and became a research fellow at the University of Cambridge.
Dear Prof. Franklin, since around one month you´re TU Munich professor at the Department of Sport and Health Sciences. How is your first impression of both the department and the university?
My first impressions are very positive. It´s a great opportunity for me to be here, Munich is such a beautiful city. But up till now, I still have only seen parts of the department and it will take a while to see what everyone is working on.
Which where the main advantages for your decision to accept the call of TU Munich?
The main reason was that I thought that I would have the best opportunities to do the type of research that I think is most important. And also I was really excited about moving back to a department that looks at the human side of things: a sports department like ours, which was my original background.
Whereas in Cambridge you worked in the Department of Engineering for the last nine years?
Exactly. In Cambridge our main focus was information engineering; developing and examining the theories related to information processing in engineering and biological systems. In particular, our group was called the "computational and biological learning laboratory". This research group used engineering approaches to try to understand the brain but also to develop artificial learning systems.
While our research examined how people learn and adapt to the world, most of the lab examined machine learning. Unfortunately there was little transfer of the work from the biological to the computational side of the lab as they focused primarily on machine learning theory.
Will you therefore slightly change your main research-interest now at TU Munich?
My main research is basic science investigating the neuromuscular system; to try to extract out the computational algorithms that can explain the manner in which the brain controls the body. Particularly I am very interested in the links between the dynamics of the body and the neuronal structure. One of our major interests is in understanding how the brain develops predictive models about the world and objects that we interact with. Ideally, in the long-term I would like to start to investigate the neural circuitry that underlies these computations.
That sounds like your research agenda might fit perfectly well in the research of multiple professors at TU Munich, doesn´t it?
That is one of the big things that drew me here initially. That there are people - for example in robotics - who are doing things that I am very interested in and who I know already. I am pretty sure we can collaborate on some research projects. For example transforming what we learn in humans to robotic systems.
And there are some professors at the Department of Sport and Health Sciences for promising collaborations as well?
Definitely. For example, I can see some connections to Prof. Hermsdörfer where we are interested in similar questions about human learning, but we use different approaches to study the problem. And also Prof. Schwirtz where we share similar interest in the mechanical properties of muscles. I think with the overlap in interests that I have should be able to interact and cooperate with both very well. And I am hoping that there will be many others as well.
That sounds like a lot of really exciting and challenging research goals. Besides that: Which are your main purposes in the teaching of our students?
What I am hoping is to bring a different perspective on what people are studying. To be able to look more computationally at what´s happening. And I think this is really important when you are looking at high performance - in sports or even in health.
Talking about sports. Do you have any favorite sport?
In terms of research: No. Personally, I love to play basketball and I love watching Ice-Hockey. I am Canadian, originally from Vancouver, and we just love our ,Hockey'. Unfortunately it has been a long, long time since a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup [1993, annotation Fabian Kautz] but let´s see.
Prof. Franklin, one last question: Alps or Highlands?
[Laughing] I love the Alps, it is really great to be back in a place with mountains. That´s something I really missed being in the flat part of England.
Contact
Prof. David Franklin
Chair of Neuromuscular Diagnostics
Uptown Munich, Campus D
Georg-Brauchle Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
E-Mail: David.Franklin(at)tum.de
Interview: Fabian Kautz
Photo: TUM/A. Eckert