James Mu

I'm a Neural Engineer at Duke's Suthana Lab. I build the engineering (RF, signal processing, streaming), run the science (experiments, data, papers), and handle the clinic (IRB, consenting, regulatory, OR).

I'm interested in building AI-driven Brain-Computer Interfaces. In particular, I find the goals of extending human life and enhancing human ability to be of utmost importance.

When I'm not working, I'm lifting weights, swimming, or running.

Writing

Selected Projects

Artifact Reject

Spring 2026Hackathon

Grand Prize Winner (Health Track) at HackDuke 2026. 5x improvement over industry-standard artifact rejection. Pure math, no ML, real-time viable at 30 kHz. Drop-in tap for Science Corp Synapse.

SpinnerRecruit

Spring 2026Startup

Job ads in Claude Code AI wait states. Developers earn 50% of revenue per impression. Targeted by active coding language.

Steady State

Spring 2026HackathonStartup

AI agent for patient medication adherence with real-time clinical alerting.

UVClean

2025–2026DesignStartup

UV-C light-based device to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in clinical settings. IP assigned from Duke, applied for the NIH DEBUT grant, and will be patent pending soon.

Federated Learning for Biomedical Data

Spring 2026Hackathon

First-authored preprint from the CMU x NVIDIA hackathon.

Microseizure Detection

Fall 2025Research

Optimized data pipeline for µECoG recording feature extraction.

Embedded Heart Rate Monitor

Spring 2025Embedded

nrf52833dk-based system that transmits heart rate and skin temperature in real time, using Zephyr RTOS and BLE.

Frog Pacemaker

Spring 2025Embedded

ESP32-WROOM-based benchtop pacemaker that senses heart activity and delivers pulses below a set rate.

Lightbox

Fall 2024Embedded

Arduino Nano Every-based interactive LED system with a custom PCB and 3D-printed enclosure.

Transdermal Drug Delivery Prototyping

2023–2024Research

Methodology for prototyping printed electronic transdermal drug-delivery systems.

HIV and Cocaine on Brain Function

2022–2023Research

Authored paper — Hub disruption in HIV disease and cocaine use: A connectomics analysis of brain function.

Adaptive Rock Climbing Attachment

Spring 2023Design

Adjustable low-cost attachment that enables amputee rock climbers to climb safely and efficiently.