As 70,000 college football fans roar their approval, Tim Brandau clutches his alto saxophone and marches in sync with other members of the Hawkeye Marching Band.

While Brandau looks and plays like his fellow performers, he is different in one respect. The 20-year-old University of Iowa sophomore was born deaf. Because of his deafness, Brandau's musical dreams should have died at birth. But thanks to an amazing electronic device that he helped pioneer, Brandau can actually hear sounds and appreciate music. In 1987, as he neared his fourth birthday, Brandau became the first child in the United States to receive a multichannel cochlear implant.

"What Tim hears is pretty close to what we hear," says Bruce Gantz, M.D., head of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and a world leader in developing cochlear implant technology. "You learn to speak after hearing other people speak. The brain allows you to interpret these sounds."

The complex technology uses coded electrical signals that are transmitted to an implanted receiver. The receiver sends electrical impulses to remaining auditory nerve fibers in Brandau's cochlea. The signal travels to his brain, allowing him to hear sounds that, with training, can be interpreted as speech. Even now, Gantz marvels at Brandau's amazing progress since first coming to UI Hospitals and Clinics from his hometown of Rudd, Iowa.

"Who would have thought Tim would be able to speak as well as he does, let alone play music?" Gantz asks, adding that many people with cochlear implants are unable to hear the low frequencies music puts out.

Since Brandau pioneered the first device, doctors at UI Hospitals and Clinics have performed over 600 cochlear implant procedures, making them world leaders in the development and application of cochlear implant technology. Meanwhile, Brandau pursues a biomedical engineering degree at The University of Iowa, paying little heed to the obstacles he has overcome.

"I have everyday challenges just like everybody else," he says. "My motto has been, 'Life goes on.' No matter what happens, life goes on. If something bad happens, carry it with you, but keep going."

Football excitement brings out the Hawkeye spirit in Brandau, a member of the University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching band.