A 3-year PhD Scholarship is available to work on brain-like (or neuromorphic) computing using films of nanoparticles (or clusters). We have recently shown that these complex networks of memristor-like elements have both brain-like structures and strongly correlated brain-like patterns of electrical signals [1-3]. The main research goals of the project are to exploit these signals in order to implement on-chip computational processes such as pattern recognition and time series prediction.
This work builds on fifteen years of experience in building cluster-based electronic devices and is part of a project that has recently been funded by New Zealand's Marsden Fund and the work of the MacDiarmid Institute.
1. Matthew D. Pike, Saurabh Kumar Bose, Joshua Brian Mallinson, Susant Kumar Acharya, Shota Shirai, Edoardo Galli, Steven J. Weddell, Philip J. Bones, Matthew D. Arnold, and Simon Anthony Brown, 'Atomic scale dynamics drive brain-like avalanches in percolating nanostructured networks', Nano Letters 20, 3935 (2020).
2. S. Shirai, S. K. Acharya, S. K. Bose, J. Mallinson, E. Galli, M. Pike, M. D. Arnold and S. A. Brown, 'Long-range temporal correlations in scale-free neuromorphic networks', Network Neuroscience 4, 432 (2020).
3. J. B. Mallinson, S. Shirai, S. K. Acharya, S. K. Bose, E. Galli & S. A. Brown, 'Avalanches and criticality in self-organised nanoscale networks', Science Advances 5, eaaw8438 (2019).
Supervisors
Supervisor: Simon Brown
Key qualifications and skills
The successful candidate will have enthusiasm, a good honours or masters degree in physics (or related subject such as electrical engineering), and a
desire to work in a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary, collaborative environment.
Does the project come with funding
Yes - MacDiarmid and Marsden funding
Final date for receiving applications
Ongoing
Keywords
Nanotechnology, Physics, Neuromorphic computing, Brain-like Electronics
