Brain, copy, and paste

Prof. Donhee Ham, Gordon McKay Professor
Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering

Harvard University

Thursday, March 17th, 2022; 11:00am-noon; Location: ISEB 1200

Abstract
Reverse engineering the brain by mimicking the structure and function of biological neuronal networks on a silicon chip was the original goal of neuromorphic engineering, but remains a distant dream. The focus of neuromorphic engineering has thus been eased from the rigorous brain mimicry to brain-inspired design. In this talk, I would like to share a technology that may return neuromorphic electronics to its original goal of reverse engineering the brain. The essence of this technology is to ‘copy’ the functional synaptic connectivity map of a mammalian neuronal network using our breakthrough CMOS nanoelectrode array that can intracellularly interface with biological neuronal networks. This technology could potentially create what better approximates the unique computing traits of the brain. This talk is a build from our recent work published in:

Nature 601, 211 (2022)
Nature Electronics 4, 635 (2021)
Nature Biomedical Engineering 4, 232 (2020)
Nature Nanotechnology 12, 460 (2017)

Biography
Donhee Ham is Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and EE at Harvard and Fellow
at Samsung Electronics. He received a BS degree in physics from Seoul National University,
and an MS degree in physics and a PhD degree in EE from Caltech. Research web:
https://donheehamlab.org