Melanie Schranz is a senior researcher at Lakeside Labs. She is involved in the acquisition, leadership (organizational and content-based) as well as applied research in different swarm-related projects incl. among others CPSwarm, BugWright2, and SWILT. Melanie’s major research interests cover engineering of swarm intelligence for cyber-physical systems. She is a reviewer and board member for multiple conferences including the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Conference on Adaptive and Self-Adaptive Systems and Applications, and American Control Conference, but to name a few.

In her presentation she will talk about the concept of using self-organization for swarms of cyber-physical systems (CPSs): Each CPS has strongly intertwined hardware and software components, and is applied in many disciplines such as IoT, smart mobility, smart grids, Industry 4.0 and smart houses. Typically, a CPS does not come alone: using swarms of CPSs increases dynamics, connectivity, and complexity – calling for features like adaptability, scalability, robustness, and self-configuration – features that can be provided with nature-inspired swarm intelligence.

Paul is currently Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. He is the author of the bestselling books ‘Happiness by Design’ and ‘Happy Ever After’.

He is an expert on happiness, behaviour and public policy. He conducts original research into human behaviour and happiness, and increasingly the relationship between what we do and how we feel.

In this talk, he will illustrate how the stories we are told about how to live can make many of us miserable, and will discuss ways in which we can avoid these narrative traps and be a little bit happier.

Kevin Mitchell is an Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He studies the genetic program specifying the wiring of the brain and its relevance to variation in human faculties, psychiatric disease and perceptual conditions like synaesthesia.

He is the author of “INNATE – How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are” (Princeton University Press, 2018), writes the Wiring the Brain blog and is on Twitter @WiringtheBrain. He is currently working on a new book an Agency for Princeton University Press.

Giulio Rognini is a robotic engineer, neuroscientist and entrepreneur. He holds a M.Sc. degree in biomedical robotics from the University of Pisa, Italy, and a PhD in neuroscience robotics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. His work lies at the intersection of human neuroscience, transformative technologies – virtual reality, robotics, neural stimulation – and startups. He has 15 publications in leading neuroscience, medical and robotic journals and proceedings, and his scientific work was covered by the BBC, Le Monde, National Geographic, The Economist, and more.  He holds 3 patent applications and 3 granted patents on new robotic interfaces to engineer experience in health and disease. He has co-founded and leads the business development of Metaphysiks Engineering SA, with the ambition to merge the human body with digital worlds, starting with mental health and wellness. STill by Metaphysiks uses audio-tactile virtual reality to create soothing digital spaces for better sleep, relaxation and meditation (still.metaphysiks.ch). Together with Prof. Olaf Blanke, he has pioneered the field of cognetics: the use of robotics to study, restore and enhance human cognitive functions and consciousness.

Ingrid Nieuwenhuis is Head of Science at Alpha.One. She has a PhD in Neuroscience and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. After that, she applied her neuroscience expertise to measuring the effectiveness of advertising. As Director Neuroscience at Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience, she helped top CPG companies incorporate the use of neuroscience methods into their pipeline. Subsequently, she worked at Facebook’s Marketing Science department in New York where she was responsible for the quality of neuroscience research investigating online advertising products.

At Alpha.One, Ingrid is responsible for the product roadmap and science. She is currently working on developing a platform that quantifies brand value generated by advertising.

Priya Panda is an assistant professor in the electrical engineering department at Yale University, USA. She is the recipient of the 2019 Amazon Research Award. Her research interests include neuromorphic computing, deploying robust and energy efficient machine intelligence.

Title of the Talk: Towards Robust and Energy-Efficient Spike Based Machine Intelligence with Algorithm-Hardware Co-Design

Abstract: Today, deep learning has empowered the digital age enabling ‘intelligence’ in almost all technology that surrounds us. However, the cost associated in terms of computing resources and energy consumption is very high.  In that regard, Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), often referred to as the third generation of neural networks (or Neuromorphic Computing), have the potential of empowering low-power machine intelligence through sparse, event-driven computations. Note, however, today there does not exist good learning and inference techniques that can reap the potential benefits of SNNs.  In this talk, I will present an overview of the recent efforts in SNNs, in both algorithm and hardware (time permitting), addressing the limitations and advantages of spike-driven learning and computations.

Professor Foster is the Head of Oxford’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, the founder and Director of the Sleep and Circadian Research Institute and is a Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford. His research addresses how circadian rhythms and sleep are generated and regulated and what happens when these systems fail as a result of societal pressures, ageing and disease. A key finding has been his discovery and characterisation of an unrecognised light-detecting system within the eye that regulates circadian rhythms and sleep and, most recently, the translation of these findings to the clinic. For his work, Professor Foster was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 2008, the Royal Society of Biology in 2011 and the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2013.  Russell was honoured by being appointed as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015 for services to Science. Professor Foster has published over 270 scientific papers and has received multiple national and international awards, including most recently the “Daylight Prize”. He has co-written four popular science books and is working on his fifth for Penguin to be published in 2022.