[AllUsers-ISR] Seminar: Emulating Sensory Processing in the Biological Brain, 20/7/2018, 10am, Anfiteatro ISR

[Paulo Menezes]

								SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT

Speaker:  Prof. T. Martin McGinnity
Date: 	Friday 20th July 2018
Time: 	10am
Location: Anfiteatro ISR

Title: Emulating Sensory Processing in the Biological Brain – a fusion of neuroscience, computational intelligence and neuromorphic engineering

Abstract: 
For many decades, it has been the goal of computational neuroscientists to understand biological nervous systems and in particular to develop greater insight into how the brain processes information.  However, the vast complexity of such systems has made it very difficult to fully understand even basic functions. Sensory processing (visual, auditory and tactile) in animals and humans is of particular interest, owing to the amazing sophistication of such modalities. The potential of achieving an improved understanding is huge –  in terms of applications in neuroscience, robotics, health interventions and medical prosthetics.
In this presentation, I will briefly summarise our research into visual, auditory and tactile sensory processing and their integration.  I will initially focus on modelling of retinal ganglion cells, then consider tactile sensing in the context of robotics and finally show how computational modelling can assist in understanding how a common auditory condition (tinnitus) can arise and be sustained. Finally, I will describe our work on hardware implementation of neural models and networks on FPGAs.

Bio:
T. Martin McGinnity (SMIEEE, FIET) received a First Class (Hons.) degree in Physics in 1975, and a Ph.D degree from the University of Durham, UK in 1979. He currently holds a part-time Professorship in both the Department of Computing and Technology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK and the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems at Ulster University, N. Ireland. Before taking semi-retirement, he was formerly Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Science and Technology at NTU, Dean of the School of Science and Technology at NTU, Head of the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems at Ulster University; Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering at Ulster University and Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre in Ulster University. He is the author or coauthor of over 330 research papers, leads the Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics research group at NTU and has attracted over £25million in research funding during his career. His research interests are focused on computational intelligence, computational neuroscience and modelling of biological information processing. His current projects are related to the development of hardware (in FPGA) and software biologically-compatible computational models of human sensory systems, including auditory signal processing; retinal ganglion cells and human visual processing in general; and modelling of tactile devices for human-like sensing. His work finds potential applications in medical / healthcare applications and cognitive robotics.

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Paulo Menezes, PhD
Senior Researcher  • Team Management Director • Professor



ISR - Institute of Systems and Robotics
DEEC - Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Coimbra - Polo II, P 3030-290 COIMBRA, PORTUGAL
Tel: +351 239 796291


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