Hello everyone! I had another great week learning with the Neuromorphs and even got to enjoy some 4th of July festivities with them. This week, I continued to participate in the morning lectures and on top of that, I observed and helped set up some experiments.
On Monday, I attended lectures about past projects the Neuromorphs and control theory applied to neuroscience. On Wednesday, the presentations were about motor control and how the brain chooses which signals to act on. On Thursday, I learned about experiments that were used to understand image processing in the brain and applying knowledge about areas of the brain to computer systems. During lunch that day I also got to attend a talk on understanding neuroscience and the terminology surrounding it for more context on the lectures. On Friday, we had lectures about the visual cortex and its neurons as well as visualizing data from neurons in the visual cortex. In the afternoon session of the day, groups presented on their projects and what they had accomplished in the past two weeks. I saw demos with pianos and EEGs, as well as simulations of a cartpole (a cart on a rail that is supposed to balance a pole by moving back and forth) run by neuromorphic software. Finally on Saturday, there was a talk about how neuromorphic principles increase efficiency in computing. Pictured below are some of the slides from these presentations.
On top of observing talks and demonstrations, I got to watch the setup for a Wet EEG. With a Wet EEG, a cap is placed on the subject and a measuring tape is used to make sure the placement is right. Then electrodes are attached to the cap and gel is applied near them. Lights on the electrodes show if the connection is good enough for readings. This was the hardest part of the set up because electrodes could be fixed to have a good connection, but with time they could go back to a poor connection. With time, this issue was fixed and the experiment gathered data on people’s expectations for speech as they talked. Pictured below are the Dry EEGs that gather similar data to the Wet EEGs, but don’t need gel.
Outside of the lectures and experiments, I also got to celebrate 4th of July with the Neuromorphs. It’s tradition for the Neuromorphs to walk in the Telluride parade with a theme related to the brain and computing, this year I got to walk with them. We carried a brain made of balloons and followed along in two lines to form an axon. Every now and then we would stop, crouch down, and jump up to make a wave that represented the neuron spiking. This was my first time in the Telluride 4th of July parade and it was so much fun! I was proud to stand in front of my town representing such a smart, creative, and interesting group!
Kiara, incredible that you are learning so much about how our brains function, it is fascinating. And getting to teach our town about the brain in a parade, I cant think of anything better! Can’t wait for next week’s update!