Extra Colloquium Computer Science, Prof. Karlheinz Meier

24 October 2013

Date: Thursday, October 24^th 2013

Speaker: Prof. Karlheinz Meier
Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik
Universität Heidelberg

Room: 5161.0267 (Bernoulliborg)

Time: 16.00

Title: Physical Models of the Brain - Technologies, Theories and Synthesis

Abstract:

The brain is a universe of 100 billion cells interacting through a constantly
changing network of 1000 trillion synaptic connections. It runs on a power
budget of 20 Watts and carries a rather complete model of our physical world.
Understanding fundamental principles of the brain is among the key challenges
for science. Traditional simulation approaches are mostly hindered by a huge
energy gap of 14 orders of magnitude between supercomputer simulations and
biological reality. In the lecture we will discuss an approach to build a physical
model of the brain as a tool for experimental tests of theories that attempt to
describe the storage and processing of information in the brain. The lecture will
focus on recent results but also give a short introduction to the planned
work in the recently approved EU Human Brain Project.