The Computational Neuroscience PhD specialization of Boston University’s Graduate Program for Neuroscience provides students with a uniquely specialized curriculum that supplements core neuroscience coursework with advanced training in a wide array of computational methods for studying the nervous system and developing neuroscience-related technologies. Topics of study include: neural network modeling, neural dynamics, sensory, motor, and cognitive modeling, statistical modeling, sensory and motor prosthesis, brain-machine interfaces, neuroinformatics, neuromorphic engineering, and robotics. Coursework is chosen from the wide array of computational and neuroscience courses offered by the many departments and programs of the main Boston University campus and the BU School of Medicine. Students pursue their research interests in laboratories across the University and have the opportunity to combine hands on experimental research with highly sophisticated computational analysis.
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Study Computational Neuroscience at Boston University
| September 21, 2011Comments: Leave a comment -
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 world making decisions aimed at increasing rewards while avoiding danger. The animat is designed to be modular: a whole brain system, or artificial nervous system including many cortical and subcortical areas found in mammalian brains, is progressively refined with more complex and adaptive modules, and is tested in increasingly more challenging environment. This post discusses the development of a key component of the visual system. Read the rest of this entry »Comments: Leave a comment -
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, from IBM. This is the truth behind what IBM calls "cognitive computer". Read the rest of this entry » -
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 couple fuzzy inference with dense memristive memory. This combination can provide extensive power and silicon real estate savings while maintaining a high degree of accuracy in the resulting precision of the computations. Read the rest of this entry »Comments: 11 CommentsAlso posted in Computing -
Of Tinkerers and Men of Science
| April 3, 2011
Recently Neurdon reported about the China Brain Project, and a certain Dr Hugo De Garis who was heading it. It was not the first time I had collided with that name, and it instantly sent me down memory lane.I remember when I was young and deeply interested in computers and technology, my first addicting taste of the fields of AI and neuro-computation came from exposure to the work of two men. They are arguably not the leading luminaries today in neuro-computation or neuro-morphic engineering, but they were part of the first sparks of the field, before DARPA was taking it seriously and before the Blue Brain project had been dreamt of. Read the rest of this entry »
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The China Brain Project
| March 25, 2011
The US-sponsored DARPA SyNAPSE project and the EU-sponsored FACETS (now Brainscales) project are examples of major initiatives in neuromorphic computing. As for many other fields, the time has arrived for emerging (and soon to be dominating?) economies to start heavily funding similar projects. The "China brain project" is one of such early example. Read the rest of this entry »Comments: 11 CommentsAlso posted in Robotics -
End of SyNAPSE Phase I presentation – Neuromorphics Lab
| March 19, 2011
This video presents the work performed by the Neuromorphics Lab for Phase I of the DARPA SyNAPSE project. The DARPA sponsored SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics) project, launched in early 2009, is to investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in neuromorphic electronic devices that are scalable to biological levels. DARPA has awarded funds to three prime contractors: HP, HRL, and IBM. Members of the Neuromorphics Lab within the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems at Boston University have worked in the past year with Information and Quantum Systems Lab at HP. This presentation is a summary of this work
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Adaptive, brain-like systems give robots complex behaviors
| February 16, 2011
This article has just been published on the Neuromorphic Engineer, the publication of the Institute of Neuroinformatics. The article discusses converging advances in memory, parallel computers, and neural network models, and how these technologies will soon allow for systems that can support complicated activities in virtual and robotic agents. Read the rest of this entry » -
The Neuromorphics Lab on the cover page of IEEE Computer
| February 10, 2011
For the memristors/neuromorphic computing aficionados, a new article featured on the cover page of the February edition of IEEE Computer describing the joint work done by Hewlett-Packard and the Neuromorphics Lab at Boston University summarizing the challenges and the accomplishments of the past year. And what a year! The abstract says it all: "In a synchronous digital platform for building large cognitive models, memristive nanodevices form dense, resistive memories that can be placed close to conventional processing circuitry. Through adaptive transformations, the devices can interact with the world in real time." Read the rest of this entry »Comments: Leave a comment -
The Neuromorphics Lab on Popular Science
| February 1, 2011
No, we have not invented the flying Humvee, and we are not about to. However, if you buy the February edition of Popular Science, you will find, on page 41, a nice overview of three projects, the Connectome, the Blue Brain, and SyNAPSE. These initiatives do not share the same goals, but can be all assimilated by the way they combine neuroscience and computer science to achieve their objectives. Read the rest of this entry »Comments: Leave a commentAlso posted in Robotics