The University of Texas at San Antonio Receives $4 Million Grant - to Set Up a National Hub for Large Scale Neuromorphic Computing - From the National Science Foundation

Funding provides researchers nationally with open access to large-scale, state-of-the-art neuromorphic computing platforms

SAN ANTONIO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 29, 2024 / Today the MATRIX AI Consortium at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) announced it received a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund "The Neuromorphic Commons (THOR)" project. As part of this multi-university initiative, the THOR project offers researchers access to a large-scale neuromorphic computing system that is the first-of-its-kind.

The core team of researchers driving this interdisciplinary collaborative effort include:

• Dhireesha Kudithipudi, Principal Investigator, University of Texas at San Antonio

• Catherine Schuman, Co-Principal Investigator, University of Tennessee Knoxville

• Gert Cauwenberghs, Co-Principal Investigator, University of California San Diego; and

• Vijay Janapa Reddi, Senior Personnel, Harvard University

THOR is expected to catalyze a transformation in algorithm design, hardware and software co-design, and neuromorphic applications, similar in scale to the impact seen when high-performance computing systems became accessible to the engineering research community. THOR will be accessible to a diverse array of research communities, including computational neuroscience, life sciences, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and physics.

"We plan to design a national hub for open access large scale neuromorphic platforms, through close-knit industry partnerships," said Dhireesha Kudithipudi, Principal Investigator at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "The field is at a pivotal moment and ensuring access to a broader group of researchers is critical at this stage. This initiative reflects a community-driven approach, shaping a framework designed by and for the community."

"Building and teaching common tools is necessary to see further innovation in the field," said Catherine Schuman, Co-Principal Investigator from University of Tennessee Knoxville.

"THOR will give users direct access to a range of powerful neuromorphic hardware modeling and emulating brain function at unprecedented scale," said Gert Cauwenberghs, Co-Principal Investigator from University of California San Diego.

"This award is crucial in advancing NSF's mission to drive innovation and broadening access to research resources," said NSF Program Director Andrey Kanaev. "By making bio-inspired computing resources available to a wider community of researchers in computer science, neuroscience, and computational physics, this project will contribute to democratizing access to advanced tools and fostering breakthroughs in energy-efficient, resilient AI through neuromorphic computing."

Additionally, the THOR team will develop training and educational materials that will cover the fundamentals of neuromorphic learning algorithms and systems, and all resources will be available through open-platforms to researchers, facilitating integration into both undergraduate and graduate curricula.

Researchers interested in accessing the THOR neuromorphic computing platform can register here: THOR Access Request - Google Forms or by visiting our website.

THOR researchers can also be contacted via email: [e-mail]

Learn more about the MATRIX AI Consortium here.

Contact Information

Forrest Carman
[e-mail]
[phone]

SOURCE: The University of Texas at San Antonio

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