I had an opportunity to help articulate a part of IBM’s ambitious Smarter Planet vision in two TV ads: New Intelligence and Smarter Healthcare.
A Proposal for a Coordinated Effort for the Determination of Brainwide Neuroanatomical Connectivity in Model Organisms at a Mesoscopic Scale
A very interesting proposal was published in PLoS computational Biology.
Abstract:
In this era of complete genomes, our knowledge of neuroanatomical circuitry remains surprisingly sparse. Such knowledge is critical, however, for both basic and clinical research into brain function. Here we advocate for a concerted effort to fill this gap, through systematic, experimental mapping of neural circuits at a mesoscopic scale of resolution suitable for comprehensive, brainwide coverage, using injections of tracers or viral vectors. We detail the scientific and medical rationale and briefly review existing knowledge and experimental techniques. We define a set of desiderata, including brainwide coverage; validated and extensible experimental techniques suitable for standardization and automation; centralized, open-access data repository; compatibility with existing resources; and tractability with current informatics technology. We discuss a hypothetical but tractable plan for mouse, additional efforts for the macaque, and technique development for human. We estimate that the mouse connectivity project could be completed within five years with a comparatively modest budget.
IEEE’s 125th Anniversary
IEEE is a great organization, and I had great honor and privilege to help kick-off IEEE’s 125th Anniversary celebration in New York on March 10, 2009. I had the opportunity to meet with countless IEEE dignitaries including IEEE’s outgoing President & CEO Dr. Lewis M. Terman.
Other speakers included:
Miguel Nicolelis, professor and co-director, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University Medical Center
Roy Want, senior principal engineer, Intel Corporation
Krishna Palem, professor, George Brown School of Engineering, Rice University
Katie Hall, chief technology officer, WiTricity
Rangachar Kasturi, professor, University of South Florida
K.J. Ray Liu, professor, University of Maryland, College Park
The panel was moderated by Steve Lohr of New York Times and by Susan Hassler who is Editor-in-chief of IEEE Spectrum.
Here is IEEE’s newswire and related story in Scientific American.
Videos from Singularity Summit 2008
IBM Team for DARPA SyNAPSE
I am privileged to serve as the Principal Investigator with the following amazing Team.
IBM |
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Dr. Stuart Parkin, Physicist and Materials Scientist |
Ph.D. Physics, Cambridge (1982); World renowned leader in spintronics materials and devices; inventor of spin-valve sensor and magnetic tunnel junction magnetic random access memory; ~70 issued patents and >350 published papers; Member, National Academy of Sciences; IBM Fellow; Fellow Royal Society (London), Fellow American Physical Society, AAAS, IEEE and MRS awardee, many major international prizes; Director IBM-Stanford SpinAps Center. |
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Dr. Paul P. Maglio, Cognitive Scientist: |
PhD, Cognitive Science, UCSD (1995); Senior Manager of Service Systems Research at IBM, responsible for service science world-wide; 13 issued patents and >90 published papers in computer science, cognitive science, and business; serves on many university and society advisory boards, and has chaired numerous international conferences; Associate Adjunct Professor of Cognitive Science, UC Merced. |
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Dr. Chung Lam, Technologist |
Ph. D., Electrical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1988 on the IBM Resident Study Program. Dr. Lam has published more than 50 papers and holds more than 70 US patents. He is a Distinguished Engineer at IBM Research and manages the Phase-Change Memory Project since 2003. |
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Dr. Bülent Kurdi, Technologist |
Ph.D. Optics, The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester (1989); a technical professional who combines broad expertise from variety of complimentary technical disciplines with a proven track record of turning research projects into cost-effective manufacturing technologies while minimizing risk. |
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Dr. J. Campbell Scott, Physicist |
Ph.D. Physics, Univ. of Pennsylvania (1975); World renowned leader in organic electronic materials and devices; inventor in the areas of organic photoconductors, electrophotography, organic photorefractive materials, biochemical sensors, organic light-emitting diodes, and nonvolatile memory; > 17 patents and > 160 scientific and technical publications; Fellow American Physical Society, member Materials Research Society. |
Stanford University |
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Prof. Kwabena Boahen, Neuromorphic Engineer |
Ph.D. Computation and Neural Systems, Caltech (1997). Nationally recognized pioneer in neuromorphic engineering; innovations include chips that emulate the retina, thalamus, hippocampus, visual cortex, and retinotectal map formation; >60 publications, including a Scientific American cover story; several distinguished honors, including Packard Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, and NIH Director’s Pioneer Award; Director, Stanford Brains in Silicon Lab. |
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Prof. Brian Wandell, Stein Family Professor |
Chair of Psychology, and member of Electrical Engineering and Radiology (by courtesy); co-director of Initiative on Human Health; ~10 patents, ~130 published papers; and textbook Foundations of Vision. Troland Award (NAS), Electronic Imaging Scientist of the Year (SPIE), Tillyer Award (OSA), Edridge Green Medal in Ophthalmology, NAS member since 2003. |
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Prof. H.-S. Phillip Wong, |
At Stanford since September, 2004 after 16 years at IBM Research. IEEE Fellow, IEEE EDS AdCom member (2001 – 2006). IEDM committee member (1998 – 2007), Technical Program Chair (2006) and General Chair (2007). ISSCC committee member (1998 – 2004), Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology (2005 – 2006). Member of the Emerging Research Devices Working Group of ITRS. |
University of Wisconsin-Madison |
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Prof. Gulio Tononi, Neuroscientist |
MD 1985, PhD Neurobiology 1989, Psychiatry 1989 (Pisa); Professor of Psychiatry, Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science, U. Wisconsin, Madison. Developed the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness (2004); the Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis of sleep function (2003). Published several times in Nature, Science, etc. Authored 3 books on consciousness. NIH Director Pioneer Award, Honorary Doctor, U. Zurich, International Prizes; Many Patents. |
Columbia University Medical Center |
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Prof. Stefano Fusi, Physicist and Theoretical Neuroscientist
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Ph.D. Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1999); Professor at ETH, Zurich, from 2005. Since 2007, is also Assistant Professor at Columbia University, NY. He discovered and solved the fundamental problem of memory forgetting in electronic synapses. He is the author of 38 journal papers, some of them published on Nature Neuroscience and Neuron. |
Cornell University |
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Prof. Rajit Manohar, Computer Scientist |
Ph.D. Computer Science, Caltech (1998); Leader in asynchronous VLSI design; inventor of GHz-speed FPGA technology and ultra low power processors; ~10 issued patents and >50 published papers; MIT Technology Review TR35 awardee; Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Achronix Semiconductor |
University of California at Merced |
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Prof. Christopher Kello, Cognitive Scientist |
Ph.D. Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz (1996); Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, University of California, Merced; Internationally recognized leader in neural network modeling of high-level cognition (i.e. human language); 2 patents and >35 published papers; NSF Director’s Award recipient; Member, Psychonomics, Sigma Xi, Cognitive Science Societies; Member, NSF committees on Complexity, Neuroscience, and Cyberinfrastructure. |