Ismael Robles-Razzaq

Hi! I'm Ismael, a third-year undergrad at the University of Chicago studying Statistics and Computer Science. I'm a member of Professor Ramon Nogueira's lab in the University of Chicago Neuroscience Theory Center. I'm passionate about computational neuroscience and leveraging neurotechnology to improve lives.

My research interests lie at the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning. I believe the success of foundation models in NLP can translate to neural data; over the next decades, models that generalize across tasks and subjects will enable practical BCI applications, from direct machine interfaces to clinical therapies for mental disorders. I'm fascinated by both the science and its potential for impact.

In my spare time, I love playing tennis and volleyball, rock climbing, hiking, and searching for the best chocolate croissant.

1. May 2024 — Present

   Undergraduate Researcher · Nogueira Lab ↗

   Grossman Center for Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior

   Developed continuous-time RNNs to model neural dynamics and information processing. Analyzed human electrophysiology recordings (Fried Lab, UCLA) using ML models to find neural correlates of concepts and characterize their representational geometry. Currently investigating cortical representations of context priors across brain areas in mouse decision-making using IBL neural data.

2. Sep 2024 — Aug 2025

   TPCN Scholar · Training Program in Computational Neuroscience ↗

   NIH-funded

   Year-long training in computational neuroscience through seminars, mentored research, and scientific dissemination. Built an end-to-end representational geometry pipeline for IBL ephys data.

1. Oct 2025

   TPCN Scholar Research Talk

   "The Geometry of Representations of Latent Context Priors in the Mouse Brain During a Decision-Making Task"

   University of Chicago Research Seminar

2. Jan 2025

   Neuroscience and AI Workshop

   "Geometry of Representations of Movie Characters across the Human Cortex"

   Flash Talk

• EEG Monthly arXiv Digest ↗

  Monthly digest tracking EEG foundation model papers on arXiv with an automated pipeline: keyword search, title/abstract triage, and PDF-level LLM summarization.

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  RallyClip ↗

  Tennis match segmentation software with a CLI and installable GUI. Uses YOLO pose models for feature extraction, CV methods for court detection, and Bi-Directional LSTM for frame-by-frame in-point probability prediction. Designed for free, local use to democratize access to sports analytics tools.

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  Memory Vault ↗

  Chrome extension to locally save browsing history semantically rather than with keywords. Uses embeddings stored in a local vector database for natural language search over your browsing history.

1. Aug 2025 — Present

   Founder & President · UChicago Neurotech

   Recruited and organized founding board, secured access to EEG headsets for brain-computer interface projects. Creating EEG modeling curriculum and leading team submission in the 2025 NeurIPS EEG deep learning challenge for cross-task and cross-subject generalization.

2. Sep 2024 — Present

   Director of Projects · AI@UChicago

   Organize quarter-long ML competitions and hackathons. Led Zero-to-LLM project implementing transformers from scratch with NumPy. Currently leading a project to fine-tune LLMs for course recommendations based on student reviews. Design curriculum for 30+ members to learn practical machine learning.

3. May 2025 — Present

   Chair of Clients · UChicago Techteam

   Oversee all nonprofit client partnerships, managing board members to source clients for student-led software development projects. Recruited and onboarded 150+ student contributors. Secured partnerships with Hope Chicago, the Inclusive Design Institute, and HOME Chicago.

• Quad Undergraduate Research Scholar — 2025–26
• Robert Maynard Hutchins Scholar — 2024–25, top 10% of class
• Dean's List — 2023–25
• National Merit Scholarship — 2023, 1 of 2500 nationally
• Outstanding Science Student Award — 2023, 1 out of 200
• MO High School Tennis Class I Doubles State Champion — 2023
• Rensselaer Medal for Math and Science — 2022, 1 out of 200