Brain on a Chip
From: NASA Tech Briefs Insider - 03/28/2006

A researcher at Stanford University's Department of Bioengineering is
developing silicon microchips that mimic the functions of the brain's neural
system. These "neuromorphic" processors could lead to small computers that
would replace damaged neural tissue, or silicon retinas that restore vision. 

Kwabena Boahen, a Stanford associate professor, is building chips with
100,000 neurons on them, and multiple-chip networks of up to 1 million
neurons. "With a network that size," he said, "you can model what the
different cortical areas are doing." Boahen is working to model the brain's
various cortical areas on an artificial network. 

His goal is to create a silicon computer that works as efficiently as the
human brain, which performs 10 quadrillion calculations per second. 

Read more at:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/march22/boahensr-032206.html

Links:
Boahen Lab
http://www.stanford.edu/group/boahen/

Stanford Department of Bioengineering
http://bioengineering.stanford.edu/

Kwabena Boahen - University of Pennsylvania
http://perception.upenn.edu/faculty/pages/boahen.php

Kwabena Boahen - Stanford
http://biox.stanford.edu/clark/boahen.html

Brains in Silicon
http://www.neuroengineering.upenn.edu/boahen/

Neuroengineering Research Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania
http://www.neuroengineering.upenn.edu/

Stanford professor hopes to mimic the brain on a chip
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2006/pr-boahen-032206.html
http://www.physorg.com/news11981.html
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20060321080425725
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/report/news/sci_tech.html

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Brain on a Chip May Be Closer to Reality
From: Photonics.com - 03/29/2006

Stanford University associate professor of bioengineering Kwabena Boahen is
leading a team of researchers trying to imitate the functions of the brain's
neural system with silicon chips. Boahen says that neuromorphic processors
could eventually serve as small computers and replace damaged neural tissue
or restore vision with silicon retinas. Boahen believes a better
understanding of the brain's functions could also lead to more efficient
computers. "When I tried to figure out how computers worked, I was
disgusted," he said. "I thought it was totally brute force. I felt there had
to be a more elegant way to do this." He found it while studying adaptive
computational models at Johns Hopkins University. After an unsuccessful
project where he tried to develop an associative memory chip, Boahen moved on
to study neural circuitry at the California Institute of Technology. While a
professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Boahen developed a silicon
retina with image processing capabilities comparable to a living retina. Now
at Stanford, he is exploring learning and memory in the human brain as he
tries to build a chip with 100,000 neurons, allowing the researchers to model
the activities and interactions of different cortical areas. Ultimately,
Boahen wants to model the different cortical regions, which control functions
such as language, image processing, and hearing, on an artificial network to
study how the brain works. Figuring out how neurons organize themselves will
be critical to making a computer that can match the performance efficiency of
the human brain, and could help those who suffer from conditions relating to
neurology. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.photonics.com/XQ/ASP/artid.344/QX/readart.htm