Massimiliano Versace

Massimiliano Versace is the director of the Boston University Neuromorphics Lab. The lab focuses on the study of biological intelligence with the goal of embedding the derived fundamental principles in bio-inspired computers and robots. His research interests are focused on neural networks – in particular applied to spiking-based neural models of learning and memory in the cerebral cortex. With a few colleagues, he founded Neurala LLC in 2006 to commercialize brain-based software. For more info, visit his website

• Open sourcing AI & Robotics

  May 5, 2012

  A guest post on the IEEE Spectrum Automation blog by author William Hertling discusses how the open source culture can revolutionize the future of robotics and AI. In both academic and industrial community, the idea of a slow, incremental progress in challenging fields such as machine perception and robotics is the standard way of thinking. [...]

• Cognitive computing & Cog Ex Machina

  February 21, 2012

  A very interesting article just came out on on Mercury News with an interview to”HP Labs Director Prith Banerjee mentioning the latest HP Lab strategies and Cog Ex Machina, the software platform developed by HP Labs in collaboration with the Boston University Neuromorphics Lab. Full disclosure… I direct that lab! So yes, I may be [...]

• Silicon synapses

  December 8, 2011

  I was recently interviewed by Scope, a publication established in 2005 to showcase the work undertaken by the students in the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing. The interview was about a research project led by Chi-Sang Poon, whose MIT group has designed a chip emulating in detail the dynamics of brain synapses, the junctions [...]

• Learning to see in a virtual world

  September 18, 2011

  This post is authored by Jasmin Leveille and Gennady Livitz, two Neuromorphics Lab researchers working on the development of the MoNETA brain. The goal of the MOdular Neural Exploring Traveling Agent (MoNETA; Versace and Chanlder, 2010) project is to develop an animat, or virtual agent, that can intelligently interact and learn to navigate a virtual [...]

• IBM Cognizer. Really?

  August 25, 2011

  One of the main goals of Neurdon, since its very beginnings, was to educate readers to tell apart fiction from reality. Nowadays, big companies are diving (or dive-bombing) in the field of neural computing with hyperbolic claims of being able to simulate biological brains, from feline to humans. One of such a claim comes, again, [...]

• Fuzzy logic and memristive hardware

  August 9, 2011

  This brief essay, originated by the work on the Neuromorphics Lab in the DARPA SyNAPSE project, describes our early effort in the study of alternative computing schemes that will make use of massive memristive-based devices coupled with low-power CMOS processes to efficiently compute neural activation and learning in novel computing devices. The answer was to [...]

• Silicon brains

  July 19, 2011

  This article, appeared on 7/19/2011 on AZoRobotics, discusses the main reasons why I believe that we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in the way robots are going to be programmed. AZoRobotics.com is part of AZoNetwork, a leading online science, engineering and medical publisher serving over 2.5 million monthly visitor sessions across its [...]

• “Smart” phones, finally… the Adapteva chip

  June 17, 2011

  In a previous post, we described applications of graphic processing units (GPUs) to neuromorphic computing. GPUs are a good fit for simulating neurons, and recent industry trends will most likely increase the appeal of this computing substrate. However, GPUs may not be the only player in attracting the attention of neural modelers. A Lexington (MA) [...]

• AMD’s gamble

  June 6, 2011

  AMD is gambling its future on its Fusion, AMD series of Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), whose adoption (or lack of) in mainstream computing will most likely determine the fate of the company. GPGPU computing will play a central role in this. Wait… what do neurons have to do with this?

• 3D chips: power or speed?

  May 4, 2011

  An article on the New York Times features a new chip design by Intel, where the company claims that building a key portion of a microprocessor’s transistor above the chip’s surface will eventually lead to faster and lower-power computer chips.