Free Palo Alto Colloquia - MetaElectronics - Self Configuring Neuromorphic Systems

Repost from batrans mailing list.

https://www.workit.com/events/event_pop.cfm?event_id=34819

Event Date: Thursday November 30, 2006
Event Time:4:00PM
Hosted By: Lockheed Palo Alto Colloquia
Lockheed Martin, 3251 Hanover St. - ATC Auditorium in Building 202 Palo
Alto, CA, 94304
Directions: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/7344.pdf
Cost: free

METAELECTRONICS SELF-CONFIGURING NEUROMORPHIC SYSTEMS

Dr. Kwabena Boahen, Stanford University

Nanoelectronic technology promises to cram a trillion transistors onto a 1cm^2 chip. How do we harness all these devices? Abstraction, which has been used until now, is becoming increasingly inadequate as microelectronic chips approach a billion transistors. We can learn from biology, which handles complexity through developmental processes that elaborate a relatively simple starting recipe into a complex mature structure. By borrowing from biology, we have developed two self-configuring microelectronic chips. These chips capture the ability of epigenetic development to generate representations of features in neural layers and to autoroute connections between these layers. This metamorphic approach provides a powerful alternative to handling complexity in nanoelectronic systems.

Dr. Boahen studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University before earning his doctorate in Computation and Neural Systems from the California Institute of Technology in 1997. He then joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was associate professor of Bioengineering until December 2005, when he moved to Stanford. Boahen is a bioengineer who is using silicon integrated circuits to emulate the way neurons compute, linking the seemingly disparate fields of electronics and computer science with neurobiology and medicine. His group’s neuromorphic chips – including a silicon retina that could be used to give the blind sight – were featured on the cover of the May 2005 issue of Scientific American.

Other Information:
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/findPage.do?dsp=fec&ci=15591&sc=400

The Palo Alto Colloquia are a long-standing tradition of public outreach that deliver information about aerospace research and development news to the local community. All presentations are given on Thursdays at 4:15 p.m. in the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center Auditorium and last about an hour. Refreshments are available at 4:00 p.m. Visitors are welcome. Stop by to find out the latest details about some fascinating science!