About the Project
Supervisor: Prof Andrew Brown
Co-supervisor Dr Graeme Bragg, Professor John Chad
Project description
POETS - Partial Ordered Event Triggered Systems - technology is based on the idea of an extremely large number (millions) of small cores, embedded in a fast, bespoke, hardware, parallel communications infrastructure - the core mesh. Inter-core communication is asynchronous, and effected by small, fixed size, hardware data packets (a few bytes) - messages. For an important set of industrial problems, POETS architectures are capable of delivering orders of magnitude speed increases at significantly lower power levels. This project is about accelerating a simulation application using POETS.
Event-based processing is a completely novel kind of computation technique, which bears little or no resemblance to Turing’s original concept of sixty years ago. One of the triumphs of the technique is to be able to simulate the behaviour of massive aggregates of neurons, on a scale and at a speed unattainable with conventional machines. The headline goal is to be able to simulate the behaviour of a billion neurons in real time, using around a million conventional cores. As neural ensembles become ever more complex, amongst the technical challenges facing the human experimenter is that of interpreting the output: a billion time histories is a formidable mass of data to mine. Received neuroscience wisdom says that the best way to study the high-level behaviour of a large neural ensemble is to embed it in a virtual reality environment, where complex emergent behaviour can be (relatively) easily identified and manipulated. To achieve this requires that the simulation is capable of reacting to stimuli in real time, and this is just what event-based processing can do.
Artificial environments provide the de facto technique for neural development studies, supporting a controlled environment for real-time interaction with
● (Models of) primitive organisms hosted by the POETS engine
● (Models of) primitive organisms hosted on conventional machines
● Human operators
This project will focus in the design and interfacing of a virtual environment, to support neurobiological development studies of primitive creatures within the simulation environment.
POETS Website
If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Graeme Bragg or Professor Andrew Brown or Professor John Chad, Sustainable Electronic Technologies (SET)Research Group, Email: [Email Address Removed] / [Email Address Removed] / [Email Address Removed] Tel: +44 (0) 2380 593374
Entry Requirements
A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent).
Closing date: applications should be received no later than 31 August 2020 for standard admissions, but later applications may be considered depending on the funds remaining in place.
Funding: This 3.5 year studentship covers UK tuition fees and provides an annual tax-free stipend at the standard EPSRC rate, which is £15,009 for 2019/20.
How To Apply
Applications should be made online here selecting “PhD Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Full time)” as the programme. Please enter Andrew Brown under the proposed supervisor.
Applications should include:
Research Proposal
Curriculum Vitae
Two reference letters
Degree Transcripts to date
Apply online: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/how-to-apply/postgraduate-applications.page
For further information please contact: [Email Address Removed]
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