The DARPA SyNAPSE project is not the only attempt in the world of neuromorphic engineering to create larg-scale, low-power neuromorphic hardware. The European FACETS (Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States) project, currently in his month 55 of activity, is “to create a theoretical and experimental foundation for the realisation of novel computing paradigms which exploit the concepts experimentally observed in biological nervous systems”.

The EU Future Emerging Technologies (FET) initiative supports research on novel concepts of information processing beyond the classical AI approach. FACETS falls directly in this category, due to its stress on detailed biophysical models of neurons. From the very informative FACETS website, we learn that the projects has two main goals: discover potential medical applications to cure brain and mind related diseases, hopefully helping to build innovative neural prosthetic devices; and, consistently with SyNAPSE, investigating new computing devices radically different from current IT technology. This video gives a good overview of the project.

The team involves a spatially distributed workforce divided between Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Well, I really look forward of having Prof. Karlheinz Meier, the project coordinator, speaking at the workshop NEUROMORPHIC COMPUTING: FROM BRAINS TO NANOCHIPS, during the FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS on May 19 – 22, 2010, at Boston University.

The workshop is going to be heavily attended (and organized…) by Neurdons, so feel free to stop by!