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Post-Event Page: Brainspiration 2024

Brainspiration is an international meeting on brain-inspired concepts, systems and materials for information processing.

At the 2024 edition there were inspiring talks, poster sessions and discussions, aimed at the central mission: to rethink computing.

brainspiration

Brainspiration 2024 took place in the Netherlands; the first edition was in Enschede and the second edition was in Groningen. CogniGron was in charge of the local organisation.

The 2024 edition covered recent progress and future perspectives on brain-inspired concepts and materials for information processing and sensing, including:

  • Intelligent matter for information processing and sensing
  • Information processing in natural and complex systems
  • Theoretical concepts of computing in non-digital, physical substrates
  • Analog in-memory computing
  • Neuromorphic and brain-inspired devices, circuits and architectures
  • Bio-inspired algorithms


The meeting was highly interdisciplinary as we aimed at bringing together researchers from physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, machine learning, computer engineering, nonlinear dynamics, mathematics etc.

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Groningen City Centre
Programme

Pre-conference: Tuesday 15 October

All participants are welcome to join the pre-conference reception.

19:30–21:00
Opening reception at Forum Groningen & registration

*Slight changes in the programme may still be made.

Day 1: Wednesday 16 October

08:30–09:15
Walk-in & registration
09:15–10:30
Opening & session 1
  • Chair: Wilfred van der Wiel
  • Opening: Beatriz Noheda
  • Talk 1: André van Schaik on Applications of Neuromorphic Engineering at the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems
10:30–11:00
Break
11:00–12:30
Session 2
  • Chair: Marjolein Dijkstra
  • Talk 2: Vijay Balasubramanian on Physical Networks Become What They Learn
  • Talk 3: Susan Stepney on Designing and Evaluating Physical Unconventional Computers 
12:30-12:35
Conference photo
12:35–14:00
Lunch & poster presentations
14:00–15:30
Session 3
  • Chair: Niels Taatgen
  • Talk 4: Simon Brown on Brain-like Computation with Percolating Networks of Nanoparticles
  • Talk 5: Carlo Ricciardi on Self-organizing Nanowire Networks: Brain Inspiration Versus Computing Performance
15:30–16:00
Break
16:00–16:45
Session 4
  • Chair: Beatriz Noheda
  • Talk 6: Roberta Zambrini on Opportunities and Challenges of Quantum Reservoir Computing
16:45–18:30
Networking time (Organising Committee meet)
18:30-21:00
Conference dinner

Day 2: Thursday 17 October

08:30–09:00
Walk-in day 2
(Note: programme starts 15 min. earlier than yesterday)
09:00–10:30
Welcome & session 5
  • Chair: Farhad Merchant
  • Talk 7: Hans Hilgenkamp on Leveraging the Richness of Materials Physics for Resource-efficient Information Technologies
  • Talk 8: Johan Mentink on Finding a Path to Computational Advantage of Neuromorphic Computing for Science
10:30–11:00
Break
11:00–12:30
Session 6
  • Chair: Tamalika Banerjee
  • Talk 9: Heba Abunahla on Advancing Neuromorphic Computing: Harnessing Memristors for Brain-Inspired AI Applications
  • Talk 10: Bert Jan Offrein on Brain-Inspired Computing – Architectures and Technology
12:30–13:30
Lunch & poster presentations
13:30–16:00
Session 7
  • Chair: Alex Khajetoorians
  • Talk 11: Federico Corradi on Event-Driven Neuromorphic Solutions for Efficient Dynamic Signal Processing
  • Talk 12: Said Rahimzadeh-Kalaleh Rodriguez on Brain-like dynamics of light
  • Talk 13: Herbert Jaeger on Will it take another 2300 years until we really know what ‘computing’ means?
  • Closing words
Registration information
Registration fee

Early bird: €249 (till 30 June)
Full price €299 (from 1 July)

The registration fee includes lunches and breaks on Wednesday and Thursday and dinner on Wednesday evening.

Payment methods

You can pay via iDeal, creditcard or request an invoice.

Venue and transportation

Brainspiration will be held at Forum Groningen (Nieuwe Markt 1, 9712 KN Groningen).

The Forum is just a 20 minute walk from the Groningen Central Station. You can borrow an OV-fiets (public transport bike) if you want to get there faster. Rather take the bus? Bus times are available via 9292.nl.

Forum Groningen
Forum Groningen

Plan your route via Google Maps

Underground bicycle parking

Nieuwe Markt, accessible via Popkenstraat

Underground car parking

Schoolstraat 16
9712 JS Groningen

Accommodation
Book your room at a discount price

For those who need to stay a night (or more) in Groningen, we have made arrangements with the City Hotel and The Social Hub Groningen. You can use the discount codes below when booking a room at either of these hotels.

City Hotel: Please use this booking link to access the discount code (BRAINSP24) and to make your booking, or find more information in this factsheet.

The Social Hub: Please make your booking via the website and use the discount code FGRO24.

(Please note: these discount codes are intended for visitors of the conference; this will be checked after the booking has been confirmed).

City Hotel
City Hotel
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The Social Hub
Organising committee
Beatriz Noheda
Beatriz Noheda
Local chair


Beatriz Noheda is full professor at the University of Groningen, where she chairs the Solid State Materials for Electronics group. Since 2017, she is also the founding director of the Groningen Cognitive Systems and Materials Center (CogniGron). Her team develops materials for future electronics, with focus on ferroelectric, piezoelectric and memristive oxides. This includes new hardware for ultra-efficient, brain-inspired, computer architectures, as well as design of emerging properties in materials at the proximity of phase transitions.

Wilfred van der Wiel
Wilfred van der Wiel
Co-chair (Chair of previous edition)

Wilfred G. van der Wiel is a full professor of Nanoelectronics and the co-director of the BRAINS Center for Brain-Inspired Nano Systems at the University of Twente. He holds a second professorship at the Institute of Physics of the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster, Germany. His research focuses on unconventional electronics for efficient information processing and materials learning at the nanoscale: realising computational functionality and artificial intelligence in designless nanomaterial substrates through principles analogous to machine learning.

Co-organisers
Yoeri van de Burgt
Yoeri van de Burgt

Yoeri van de Burgt is a professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven, where he leads the Neuromorphic Engineering group . He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on developing organic n euromorphic devices that are based on novel organic mixed-ionic electronic materials that allow for implementation in trainable biosensors and smart autonomous robotics, as building blocks for next generation low-energy computing and adaptive biointerfaces.

Alexander Ako Khajetoorians
Alexander Ako Khajetoorians

Alexander Ako Khajetoorians is a full professor and head of the Scanning Probe Microscopy department at the Institute for Molecules and Materials (Radboud University in Nijmegen). His research focuses on characterising and manipulating the electronic and magnetic properties of quantum materials at the scale of a single atom. He has developed a bottom-up platform to create stochastic attractor networks from individual atoms. His recent efforts are dedicated toward understanding and ultimately utilising the novel properties of new materials for energy-efficient information technology and sensing.

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Martin van Hecke

Martin van Hecke is a professor at the University of Leiden and group leader at the Information in Matter department of the AMOLF Institute, in Amsterdam. He has worked on a broad range of topics in soft matter, including pattern formation and chaos, granular media, foams, rheology and jamming, combining experiments, simulations and theory. Recently he has refocused his research towards mechanical metamaterials, from patterned elastic media to origami. His main current fascination is the inverse problem: to design and make simple materials for which desired complex behavior emerges.

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Marjolein Dijkstra

Marjolein Dijkstra is a professor at the Debye Institute for NAnomaterials of the University of Utrecht, where she leads the Computer Simulation group. Her research interests are theory and simulations of soft condensed matter systems, including structure, bulk, interfacial and wetting behaviour of colloidal (nanoparticle) suspensions, crystal structure prediction, nucleation, glasses, and gels, effective interactions. Her group aims to develop design rules for soft materials and machines that can autonomously assemble, sense, respond, and reconfigure.

Sponsors

Brainspiration 2024 is sponsored by CogniGron, NL-ECO and HYBRAIN

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Why you should join:

  • State-of-the art research and internationally renowned experts in one place
  • Get to know the Dutch community in the emergent field of brain-inspired computing
  • Highly interdisciplinary conference, bringing together researchers from various fields (chemistry, physics, engineering etc.)
  • Focus on thought-provoking discussions among peers
  • Plenty of network opportunities in an excellent location: the new Forum building in the centre of Groningen, at a walking distance of the station, hotels, restaurants and monuments.
Last modified:29 October 2024 09.48 a.m.