Speaker: José Figueiredo (FCUL-Physics Department and CENTRA-Ciências).

Abstract: Neuromorphic engineering ( also known as neuromorphic computing) is an interdisciplinary subject involving biologists, physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers, that aims to design artificial hardware/physical models of the of biological nervous systems capable of performing neuro-functions such as perception, motor control, or multisensory integration. The realization of neuromorphic systems on the hardware level has been attempted through different electronic technologies, ranging from memristors, spintronic memories, threshold switches, and transistors. However, these technologies have many fundamental trade-offs in terms of energy efficiency, bandwidth, and latency. Neuromorphic photonics has the potential to integrate processing functions that vastly exceed the capabilities of electronics. Neuromorphic photonic systems supporting nonlinear optoelectronic devices can be a practical way to achieve ultrafast, complex on-chip processing without consuming impractical amounts of energy. In this talk we will give a brief introduction to the neuromorphic engineering and present an optoelectronic implementation of an artificial neuron based on the excitability properties of resonant tunneling diode circuits.

Seminar in the context of the curricular unit “Neurosciences and Neuromodeling”.