Krasnow Institute > Monday Seminars > Abstracts

Ennio Mingolla
Professor of Psychology
Director, Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST)
Boston University

In order to combine innovations in neural models, neuromorphic architectures, and robots to produce agents that autonomously learn to perform useful tasks, three key challenges must be met: (1) Biologically-inspired computational models need to be developed to describe not only the architecture of individual brain regions and subsystems responsible for intelligent behavior, but also the way in which the entire brain self-organizes and learns to accomplish complex tasks. (2) The computer architectures that are currently in common use must be replaced by architectures that are less power hungry, bulky, and architecturally incompatible with the demands of neural computations (3) These models and hardware need to be tested in powerful robotic platforms able to express the sensory and motor richness of biological-grade interaction with the environment. Emerging developments to address these challenges at Boston University’s Neuromophics Lab will be described.

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