NEU-ChiP Outreach for Brain Research

Abstract anxiety brain hand drawn

The future of Alzheimer’s research took center stage at this year’s Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) Annual Conference, where Dr Eric Hill delivered a compelling talk to an audience of 300 registrants. This prestigious event, the leading national conference for dementia research in the UK, brought together scientists, clinicians, and experts to discuss groundbreaking advancements in the field. Dr Hill’s talk, titled “Future of Alzheimer’s Research”, explored emerging technologies, novel therapeutic approaches, and the pivotal role of neuromorphic computing in understanding neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s.

The Future of Alzheimer’s Research

Dr Hill’s presentation provided a forward-thinking perspective on the direction of Alzheimer’s research. He highlighted the integration of artificial intelligence, brain-on-a-chip technology, and advanced imaging techniques in accelerating discoveries. One of the key themes was the necessity for multidisciplinary collaboration, bringing together expertise from neuroscience, computing, and bioengineering to unravel the complexities of neurodegeneration.

The discussion also touched on the importance of humanised models for studying Alzheimer’s, reducing reliance on animal-based research while improving the relevance of experimental findings to human patients. Attendees engaged in a lively Q&A session, reflecting the growing excitement around innovative research methodologies that could pave the way for earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments.

Public Engagement: ‘Our Wonderful Brains’

Surrounding this landmark conference was an equally exciting public outreach event, ‘Our Wonderful Brains’, hosted at the Birmingham Exchange. Designed to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and the public, this event featured Dr Eric Hill and Willow Hall, who engaged people of all ages in hands-on activities showcasing the wonder of the human brain.

From retired ramblers to schoolchildren, visitors had the opportunity to explore brain science through:

  • Creating intricate brain patterns with beads, visually representing neural connectivity.
  • 3D printing demonstrations, allowing attendees to see and touch models of neurons and brain structures.
  • Interactive brain models, providing a tactile experience of different brain regions and their functions.
  • 3D-printed takeaway cells, giving attendees a unique souvenir while sparking conversations about neuroscience.

The event was a resounding success, fostering curiosity and enthusiasm about brain research among a diverse audience. It also underscored the importance of public engagement in science, making complex topics accessible and inspiring future generations of researchers.

Looking Ahead

Both the ARUK Annual Conference and ‘Our Wonderful Brains’ showcased the dynamic and rapidly evolving landscape of Alzheimer’s research. With increasing collaboration between scientists, engineers, and the public, we are moving closer to transformative discoveries that could reshape the future of dementia treatment.

At NeuChip, we remain committed to supporting research at the intersection of neuromorphic computing and neuroscience, driving innovations that could one day lead to breakthroughs in neurodegenerative disease therapies. Events like these reinforce the importance of bringing science to the forefront of society and ensuring that research remains both impactful and accessible.

For more updates on our work, visit www.neuchip.eu and follow our latest developments in neuromorphic computing for brain research.

NEUChip Project Meeting at Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield, UK

Our final NEUChip project meeting brought together partners from across Europe and beyond, including teams from Barcelona, Israel, Paris, Aston, Loughborough, and 3Brain, to share progress and discuss key results. Hosted in the historic Erasmus Darwin House on Beacon Street, just a stone’s throw from Lichfield Cathedral, the meeting provided an inspiring setting to exchange ideas and refine our collaborative research efforts. The discussions highlighted exciting advances in neuromorphic computing and strengthened our collective vision.

Beyond the formal sessions, the group enjoyed engaging and productive discussions, fostering deeper collaboration and shared enthusiasm for the research. In the evening, we gathered for a delightful meal, continuing conversations in a more relaxed setting. To round off the experience, we embraced the local atmosphere by joining in with traditional shanty songs at a nearby pub—an unexpected but thoroughly enjoyable highlight of the visit!

Maturation and plasticity in biological and artificial neural networks

Cargèse, Corsica

October 21-25, 2024

The Barcelona and CNRS teams recently met in Cargèse within the context of the “Maturation and Plasticity” workshop, and with the aim to advance discussions of ongoing works and progress in WP3 & WP4. The workshop, coorganized by Remi Monasson (CNRS), was also a unique opportunity to advertise the experimental and theoretical results obtained by NEUCHIP to the large community of neuroscientists that attended the workshop and that were interested in plasticity and maturation of neural networks.

Jordi Soriano, Anna Haeb, Mikel Ocio-Moliner (Barcelona) and Francesco Borra (CNRS) gave invited and contributed talks on their research, while Akke Houben, Mireia Olives and Belén Montenegro (Barcelona) presented their results during the poster session, see photos.

More information about the workshop and program can be found in: https://www.phys.ens.psl.eu/~monasson/Cargese2024/workshop_cargese_2024.htm

FENS Blog: On-Device Machine Learning with Memristors in the Neuromorphic Era

Talk given by Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky

Today’s AI applications demand tremendous computing power. However, existing hardware for AI is hitting a bottleneck in terms of speed and power. This is particularly because of the data movement required due to the separation of computing and memory in the von Neumann architecture and the large energy consumption, access time and cost of existing memory technologies. Existing AI uses devices like GPUs and dedicated hardware like TPUs and edge inference devices like ASICs. However, the brain is able to perform its processing at very low power and is particularly good at perception tasks.

In this talk, Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky explained potential ways to improve hardware for AI by brain inspired neuromorphic computing using emerging memory devices called memristors. Memristors can emulate synaptic functions and can be used to accelerate neural networks. One way is to perform Vector Matrix Multiplication (VMM) and Multiply and Accumulate (MAC) operations using crossbars of memristors. He explained training of memristive neuromorphic systems using backpropagation and stochastic gradient descent, methods for low power neuromorphic computing like low precision AI inference and trainable data converters and discussed some of the security issues and mitigation strategies. He also talked about various emerging memory devices that can be used to build these systems like Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) based devices and floating gate flash memory called Yflash, built by Tower Semiconductor. He described quantized deep neural networks with MTJ based devices and simpler neural network models like Deep Belief Networks (DBNs) built with Yflash devices.

Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky’s talk highlighted some of the devices and techniques to accelerate and improve the performance of hardware for AI applications.

Written by Rishona Daniels

International dissemination of Neu-ChiP

Jordi Soriano from University of Barcelona is participating in the school ENREDANDO 2024, a school on complex networks and nonlinear dynamics that is taking place at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in Bogotá. The school covers aspects from epidemics to neuroscience and artificial intelligence. and it is thought to motivate young students to engage themselves in these research topics or related fields. 

HO FAI (JACKY) PO – FENS Blog

field of biological machine learning, promising attempts have been made to use cortical neurons for machine learning tasks. However, these efforts often lack a strong theoretical foundation from a mathematical perspective.

Prof Saad’s talk introduced three mathematical tools to address this gap:

  1. Neuronal Network Inference: Saad presented an algorithm that uses machine learning and statistical physics to infer the structure and connectivity of neuronal networks from spontaneous activities. This is crucial for understanding neuronal architecture and plasticity.
  2. Visual Informatics Approach: He showcased methods to study differences in neuronal activities under various conditions using advanced dimensionality reduction techniques, retaining the global structure of high-dimensional data better than traditional methods like PCA and t-SNE.
  3. Spatial Entropy Measurement: Saad emphasized using a Bayesian approach to measure the spatial entropy of neuronal activities accurately, revealing significant differences between spontaneous and stimulated activities. This provides a reliable metric for studying neuronal behaviour.

Overall, Prof Saad highlighted the potential of mathematical tools to enhance our understanding of neuronal networks and advance biological machine learning.

NEU-ChiP visits Sicily

Presenting the consorta at the 2023 International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications (NOLTA) a number of the group were able to present over the week event, bring in lots of discussion and interest from others, as well as push forward ideas amongst NeU-ChiP partners in various places, even on Mount Etna. Papers and abstracts from the event can be found here.

A special symposia for NEU-ChiP ran over two days as a hybrid meeting, enabling discussion with collaborators around the world.

Around the physical sessions the NEU-ChiP team found time to discuss ideas.

Around the conference we had the chance to see a little of the city of Catania, with some great food, and an excellent conference dinner in the beautiful museum.

The NEU-ChiP team also found some time to enjoy the surrounding sites with some adventures up to Mount Etna.