The Goodman Brain Computation Lab A Collaboration between

The Goodman Brain Computation Lab A Collaboration between The School of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and The Department of Computer Science & Engineering

The People - Faculty • Phil Goodman – Internal Medicine, BME • Brain Modeling, Lab Oversight • Fred Harris, Jr - Comp. Sci. & Engr. • • Parallel Computation, Visualization Monica Nicolescu - Comp. Sci. & Engr. • Robotics • Rene Doursat - Visiting Assistant Prof.

The People – Students • Current • Rich Drewes (Ph. D BME) • • • Parallel Computation Alina Solovyova. Vincent (Ph. D CSE) • • Brain Modeling James Frye (Ph. D CSE) • • Graduated Robotics Miland Zirpe (MSCS) John Kenyon (MSCS) Qunming Peng (MSCS) Lance Hutchinson (BS • • Jim King (MSCS ‘ 05) Rich Drewes (MSCS ‘ 05) James Maciokas (Ph. D Psychology ’ 04) James Frye (MSCS ‘ 03) Juan Carlos Macera (MSCS ‘ 03) Kishor Waikul (MSCS ‘ 02) Courtenay Wilson (MS Cp. E ‘ 01)

What we do • Study how the brain works and build very large scale computer models to simulate it • Build large computer systems to run these models • Visualize this computation in 3 D space to learn more about it • Use Robotics to test the models that we build

Study How the Brain Works and model it • Neurons • • Excitatory Interneurons (inhibitory) • Channels • Potassium Family • Suppressing behavior on parent cell

Build large Computer Systems to run those models • Currently: • • • 212 CPU’s 424 GB of Ram More than 1 TB of Disk

Visualize this in 3 D space to learn more about it

Use Robotics to test the models Engaging & Rewarding: Evocative:

Who Supports this • Office of Naval Research (People Grants) • • • 3 year grant – (2000 -2003) $600, 000 3 year grant – (2003 -2006) $660, 000 3 year grant – (2006 -2009) ? ? • Department of Defense (Hardware Grants) • • • DURIP 2001 - $250, 000 DURIP 2002 - $250, 000 DURIP 2004 - $250, 000 DURIP 2005 - $250, 000 DURIP 2006 - ? ? ?

Our Sister Lab • The Brain Mind Institute, EPFL – Lusanne, Switzerland – headed by Henry Markrham • Neuro Testing – • • Real Brain experiments to compute the correct brain parameters Hardware – • 8, 000 cpu IBM Blue Gene super computer • Currently #12 in the world

What Next • Industry collaborations • Full Hardware implementation • Silicon based neuron simulations (instead of software) • DARPA

Thank you • We would like to acknowledge the Office of Naval Research and the Department of Defense for their funding as well as thank the UNR VP for Research office for their support of this project