We are pleased to inform that this year, in the program of MOCAST 2022, there are four Plenary Session Talks as well as one Invited Talk.
Plenary Session Talks:
Getting into a dialogue with the brain -- Hardware, Software, Firmware, and Wetware
Dr. Udo Ernst, Dr. David Rotermund
Theoretical Neurophysics lab, University of Bremen, Germany
Abstract
There is nothing more drastic in a person’s life than losing the ability to see, or losing control over the own body (e.g., through a neuro-degenerative disease, stroke or paraplegia). Using technology that replaces these lost abilities is a goal that has been pursued by many researchers for decades. Advances in modern technology promise successful treatment of lost sensory functions through implantation of electrical circuits. For example, restoring auditory function in hearing-impaired individuals using cochlear implants would have been described as 'science fiction' a few decades ago. Nowadays, cochlear implants for hearing as well as deep brain stimulation for Parkinson treatment are medical daily routine.
In this field of research the advances in engineering and in understanding the brain are strongly intertwined. Neither can exist alone and both are required for developing new solutions that can -- at least partially -- help to alleviate the restrictions handicapped people are subjected to. Even though technology will not fully replace these lost abilities, it can help to increase the quality of life for the affected person as well as for the person's environment.
Besides requiring a deep understanding of how the human brain processes and represents information in its neuronal activities, the challenges on the side of engineering covers a large range of different topics (e.g. low power electronics, miniaturization, wireless data exchange, wireless power transfer, flexible implants, protection of devices against the body, interfacing the brain tissue/nerve cells, measuring neuronal activity, and purposefully modifying the ongoing neuronal activity). Ideally, communication with the brain is a dialogue: in order to successfully feed useful information, one has to observe the ongoing processing in the targeted circuits.
We will visualize the complexity of this kind of neurotechnology on an example from our research: restoring vision via a visual cortex prosthesis. Prostheses for restoring the sense of sight comprise a camera for recording the environment, computers for digitally processing the captured images, and devices for stimulating the visual system. Visual prosthetic devices can interface the human visual system at different anatomical sites with a focus on the retina and the visual cortex.
If the retina is not suited for an implant, the only alternative is to create the desired visual impression by stimulating neurons in visual cortex. In a perfect world, the brain would not be able to differentiate between direct cortical stimulation and natural input from a healthy retina. Two decades ago, it was indeed shown in visually impaired individuals that cortical stimulation can produce a simple visual percept -- however, it became also clear that we are not even close to a viable solution, as understanding and speaking the language of the brain is overwhelmingly challenging from both a theoretical and technical point of view.
Current research has focused on building prostheses with large numbers of electrodes for interfacing the primary visual cortex in the brain. The idea of these devices is to produce an image composed of blobs of light – the so-called phosphenes. However, this approach has substantial disadvantages which we address in our research. Specifically, our idea is to better understand the language of the brain, and use neurocomputational models to form an electrical activation pattern which would generate a more specific visual percept. In parallel, we will ‘listen’ to the brain’s background activity and bide the moment when stimulation would be most successful, and need a minimum amount of electric current to activate the neurons. With these ideas, we aim at improving the dialogue with the brain, and to increase the functional abilities, safety, and longevity of visual cortex prostheses.
What is new in the world of space electronics?
Dr. Jochen Rust,
DSI Aerospace Technologie GmbH, Germany
Abstract
High-performance space electronics is still one of the key drivers for the cost-efficient development of modern space components, such as satellites or explorer systems. Since the very beginning of the space era in the late 1950s, the most effective exploitation of the given resources, e.g. weight, power consumption, form factor, data rate, reliability, etc., have always been an important factor. Moreover, the search for innovative algorithms, e.g. for novel earth observation systems, state-of-the-art telecommunication systems and standards or upcoming long-term-deep space explorers missions are also to be considered as highly important. In this talk an overview about actual trends of space electronics is given, in particular comprising State-of-the-Art design approaches, methods and techniques of devices and boards for space missions of the near future. Also, several examples for different applications of upcoming missions will be presented.
Novel Complex Phenomena in Locally-Active Circuits and Systems
Prof. Ronald Tetzlaff,
Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Abstract
As established by the Local Activity Principle, emergent phenomena may appear in an open physical system, if and only if some of its constitutive components are blessed with the capability to amplify infinitesimal fluctuations in energy. Being a universal physics law, the Local Activity Principle may be applied to explain the origin for emergent phenomena in open systems from the most disparate fields, including biology, chemistry, physics, and electronics. In this talk rigorous methods from the Local Activity and Edge of Chaos Theory shall be applied to characterize qualitatively and quantitatively new complex phenomena recently observed in bio-inspired circuits and systems.
Edge of Chaos Theory Explains Smale Paradox
Dr.-Ing.habil. Alon Ascoli,
Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Abstract
In a seminal paper from 1974, the American luminary Stephan Smale reported the paradoxical symmetry-breaking phenomenon, observed in an eight-order reaction-diffusion network, as two biological cells, mathematically dead on their own, were found to pulse indefinitely together when let interact through a diffusion process. While the origin for the Smale paradox remained an open question for the past five decades, this presentation shall provide a definite answer to this dilemma through an in-depth system-theoretic analysis of the simplest ever- reported bio-inspired two-cell array, which employs just 9 circuit elements, namely two batteries, three resistors, two capacitors, and two NaMLab memristors, to capture the same dramatic silence-to-regular beating phenomenon, with four degrees of freedom only. The origin for symmetry-breaking effects in homogeneous media is in fact the new physics principle of the Edge of Chaos.
Invited Talk:
System Technologies with Spintronic Circuits: Neuromorphic, Reservoir, Reversible, & Secure Computing
Dr. Joseph S. Friedman,
University of Texas, Dallas, United States
Abstract
The rich physics present in a wide range of spintronic materials and devices provide opportunities for a variety of computing system applications. This presentation will describe four distinct circuit proposals to leverage spintronic phenomena for reversible computing, neuromorphic computing, reservoir computing, and hardware security. The presentation will begin with a solution for reversible computing in which magnetic skyrmions propagate and interact in a scalable system with the potential for energy dissipation below the Landauer limit. An approach for neuromorphic computing based on the stochastic switching of spin-transfer torque magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) will then be discussed, including results from the first experimental demonstration of a neuromorphic network with MTJ synapses. Next, a reservoir computing system will be described that efficiently leverages the dynamics of frustrated nanomagnets. This presentation will conclude with a logic locking paradigm based on nanomagnet logic, the first logic locking system that is secure against both physical and algorithmic attacks.