Introductory Course in Neuroscience: Neuromorphic Technology

This material is for the lecture Neuromorphic Technology presented by Tobi Delbruck (formerly Shih-Chii Liu) in the Introductory Neuroscience Course coordinated by The Neuroscience Center, Zurich (ZNZ).

The exam question will be based on the following material:

• 2016 Lecture slides on Neuromorphic Technology

Prepare to answer questions about the material on the slides in the lecture. If you clearly understood the basic material there you will be fine.

Don't worry if you come to the exam and cannot answer all the questions because practically no one will be able to answer all of them. But you will be in very good shape if you can answer questions about the following topics:

• The rationale for neuromorphic engineering and its historical roots
• The list of `organizing principles' of neural computation as presented in the lecture and examples of them in the nervous system
• The architecture of synchronous logic
• Be quite familiar with the architecture and function of the most basic 3-layer retina model

Background reading for the material:

• C. Mead (1990) Neuromorphic Electronic Systems, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol 78, No 10, pp 1629-1636
  Carver Mead's summary paper on the rationale and state of the art in 1990 for neuromorphic electronics.
• S.C. Liu, T. Delbruck (2010) Neuromorphic Sensory Systems, Curr. Opinions in Neurobiology.
  - Our recent review paper on neuromorphic sensors.

Demonstrations

• T. Delbruck, S.C. Liu., A silicon visual system as a model animal, (2004). Vision Research, vol. 44, issue 17, pp. 2083-2089.
  All about the model visual system chip demonstrated in the lecture.
• The Physiologist's Friend Chip - The simple electronic model of the early visual system demonstrated in the lecture.
• Dynamic Vision Sensor - Describes the dynamic vision sensor silicon retina demonstrated in the lecture.