Professor Steve Furber discusses Manchester's role in the ‘Human Brain Project’

Описание: A flagship European project involving more than 100 universities and research centres has launched a range of prototype computer platforms to support brain research – and Manchester is right at the centre of it.

The ‘Human Brain Project’ has released six new informatics-based platforms across Europe which aim to accelerate scientific understanding of the human brain, make advances in defining and diagnosing brain disorders, and develop new brain-like technologies. The platforms are designed to help researchers advance faster and more efficiently by sharing data and results, and by exploiting advanced ICT capabilities. The platforms should enable closer collaboration between scientists to create more detailed models and simulations of the brain.

Manchester’s contribution to the project is SpiNNaker (short for Spiking Neural Network Architecture), a computing platform made up of 500,000 microprocessors which emulates the way brain neurons fire signals in real time. SpiNNaker can be used to accurately model areas of the brain, and to test new hypotheses about how the brain might work. Because it runs at the same speed as the biological brain, it can be used to control robotic systems, providing ‘embodiment’ for the brain models. This biological approach to robot control is very different from the algorithmic systems more commonly used in robotics.